Will the filibuster be abolished (or be changed as we know it)?
Will the filibuster be abolished (or be changed as we know it)?
Adam Jentleson, veteran Senate aide and author of "Kill Switch," believes the answer is yes.
Appears in this episode
If’ you’ve been a long-time reader of The Signorile Report, or signed up recently, consider subscribing for just $5.00 per month and supporting independent, ad-free opinion journalism. Thanks!
I spoke with Adam Jentleson on my SiriusXM show again last week. He’s a former deputy chief of staff to former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and author of Kill Switch: The Rise of the Modern Senate and the Crippling of American Democracy,” an excellent and important book about the dark history of the Senate filibuster.
The pressure has been on to end or change the filibuster, as even President Joe Biden has agreed it is a Jim Crow relic and that something has to be done. And Jentleson, who I’d first had on the program a few months ago, described that history again in this interview.
The main reason I invited him back, however, was to hear his take on what he, as a former staffer to a Senate majority leader, thinks will really happen, particularly as he hears Democratic senators putting out statements or giving interviews about their positions on the filibuster.
Every Democrat will have to vote for any change to the filibuster, since there are only 51 votes with Vice President Kamala Harris breaking a tie. And the only way we’ll see voting rights legislation, immigration reform, the Equality Act and a slew of other laws passed is if the filibuster is curtailed.
It’s often felt like whiplash in recent weeks, however, in which we hear moderate Senator Amy Klobuchar come out for reforming the filibuster and Senator Joe Manchin proposing change, only to then hear Manchin backtrack or hear Senator Kyrsten Sinema once again throw cold water on the idea. This has spun a lot of people — yes, myself included — into social media outrage many a time. And I do think that’s not a bad thing, as we’ve got to keep the pressure up.
Jentleson suggests, however, that we watch the Senate Democrats collectively, and not get hung up on the comments of any one senator. And he believes we’re seeing the Democrats moving toward reforming or ending the filibuster. It’s notable, he says, that just three months into the Biden presidency, various senators have been talking about it no matter the details of their statements, when they could be shutting it down and just uselessly searching for Republican votes.
“I think there’s a reality sort of setting in among the Democrats, where they’re saying, ‘Well, man, we’re not just going to give up on our agenda three months in and sit around and twiddle our thumbs for next two years,’” Jentleson observes. “I’m very pleased with what I see in the caucus. They sort of reach a point where they start to move as a unit, and I think that’s what we’re seeing…I wouldn’t be concerned about the backtracking [by individual senators].”
Listen in to what he has to say — and keep the pressure up, nonetheless. And let me know your thoughts.
Will the filibuster be abolished (or be changed as we know it)?
Ciao Commendatore!
What can I say? Talk about fifty shades of gray with regards to this latest incarnation of the body politic as it applies to democracy. My first question is, “are we a democracy?” If so, why all the gray area concerning how to administer a “tool” formerly used to insure segregation and deny black Americans the right to life, in my humble opinion! The answer of course is steeped in white supremacy and the bourgeoisie’s eternal quest for power and dominance in controlling the very masses for their own aggrandizement; today and yesteryear.
Joe Biden sounded off just the other day and referenced the filibuster as not just a leftover Jim Crow relic, but added the cognomen, “Jim Eagle” as its avian successor. He was only off by a taxonomic category as “eagle” would denote the symbol of patriotism of our great nation when instead, the proper substitution would be “Jim Vulture,” correctly defining the filibuster as a bird of prey in its most negative of interpretations as used by Moscow Mitch McTurdall and his merry band of insurrectionist covidiots!
I vote to eliminate, not transmogrify this unholy slave patrol leftover; if not just to set the record straight but more importantly to use this moment to truly solidify the “Build Back Better” mantra and movement President Biden stands behind to reinforce our democratic ideals and truly make America greater than the sum of its parts!
Lastly, fuck the CONS! They’re whole purpose is sinister, megalomaniacal and downright diabolical. They are truly Satan’s spawn and have no place in the heart and soul of America going forward. The rest is unjust window dressing to con their followers into submission and forced economic slavery; the chains of which Houdini couldn’t free himself from, if given the chance!
Thank you, Michelangelo Signorile for allowing me to vent!!! I feel relieved of this bolus of consternation that just got figuratively flushed down tRump’s 24K “Kommode”---his personal boca raton [mouth of the rat]. Swipe right and “scene”!
Bye the by, here is a great article on the subject published by The Atlantic, one of my fave go-to’s for enlightenment, besides, of course, you and the "SXM Slay-ride”....."Party on Garth!"
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/06/senate-filibuster-monument-white-supremacy/613579/
Grazie tante!
Boom Boom
Make the filibuster more difficult for now (talk on the senate floor for hours on end) since Manchin and Sinema want to keep doing their bi-partisan kumbaya nonsense. But once we get a larger majority in the Senate after the 2022 election, let's get rid of it.