Staggering from election to election
posted by Liberal Beagle at 7:20 PM
On Monday, the Republicans decided to filibuster a resolution against the Iraq war. In order to halt a filibuster, the Senate needs to vote to invoke cloture, which requires 60 votes. Only two of the 49 Republicans voted for cloture; the rest basically decided against the "up or down vote" that they thought was so important a couple of years ago when the issue involved approving pernicious judges.
Kos of the Daily Kos site had this to say:
From a tactical point of view, this makes sense. But is our form of legislation turning into one run up to an election after another? At some point, we are going to turn into a horse race country, because until this kind of gridlock can be countered, we'll never get anything done.
I'm aware this is the kind of thinking that made Republicans invent the "nuconstitutionalear" option, which was fully created to usurp what little powers the minority party has. And I'm not for any form of that option now. But I wish that "furthering the debate" actually meant measuring and weighing meritocratic ideals as opposed to bloviating at each other across a wide chasm of an aisle. For now, real progress, progress upon which all of our lives will depend, seems to depend entirely on the cynical ploys of election-year emotion-pulling. Knights, lay down your swords at the shrine of Madison Avenue.
Kos of the Daily Kos site had this to say:
Because of the Senate filibuster and presidential veto, It's near impossible for Democrats to end this war. But what we can and do, and should do, is keep bringing up these resolutions. Bring them all up -- the Kennedy measure, the Dodd measure, the Obama measure, and anything else lying around. Bring them up and keep forcing Republicans to stand with Bush in support of this war.
Because in 2008, we'll elect people who WILL end this war, from the White House, to the Senate, to the House.
From a tactical point of view, this makes sense. But is our form of legislation turning into one run up to an election after another? At some point, we are going to turn into a horse race country, because until this kind of gridlock can be countered, we'll never get anything done.
I'm aware this is the kind of thinking that made Republicans invent the "nuconstitutionalear" option, which was fully created to usurp what little powers the minority party has. And I'm not for any form of that option now. But I wish that "furthering the debate" actually meant measuring and weighing meritocratic ideals as opposed to bloviating at each other across a wide chasm of an aisle. For now, real progress, progress upon which all of our lives will depend, seems to depend entirely on the cynical ploys of election-year emotion-pulling. Knights, lay down your swords at the shrine of Madison Avenue.
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