The Senate

The Senate has done its job. It has shown to be the restrictive body it was intended to be. It has angered the base of both parties the entire health care debate. Not progressive enough, way too progressive. Let the crumbs fall where they may.

As some reporters have pointed out, amidst all the decrying of the fillibuster and needing to get to 60 votes and this should be a simple majority rules, etc, etc, etc...we've all heard the malarky. As some have pointed out, it used to take 67 votes to over come a fillibuster. Under these rules countless landmark -for good and bad- legislation passed through Congress. Everything from Alexander Hamilton's legislation for a centralized bank to FDR's various attempts at recovery acts, civil rights legislation, and so on. The reason it was required to take 2/3 to over come a fillibuster was simply that, due to the understanding of history and the perils majority politics can sometimes take a country down, 2/3 of the more senior body would ensure that the majoirty couldn't over reach on major issues. The Senate needs to go back to the 2/3 rule and we'd start seeing more bi-partisan politics out of the Senate at the very least.

If we were talking about a bill in Congress that had 51% approval nationally, even say 48% nationally, then demanding every avenue be taken and demanding that the simple majority should be enough would at least make sense and understood. However, when you're demanding the removal the fillibuster rule, when you're decrying the need for 60 rather than 51 being enough, when you're doing all of this under the umbrella of a consistent sub-40/35% approval, you're nothing better than an ideologue stuck on your own moral belief of what is acceptable and what isn't.

When you allow a simple majority to rule, when you take away the voice of the minority, you are stripping the very fabric of democracy -of a represnetitive republic. Now I would already argue that America has become too much of a true democracy as it is, I don't believe one need look any further than todays politics. The only thing good that has changed in terms of voting is that it isn't solely white men anymore.

As an aside, ironic that the one part of Washington that always rushes everything and rams overflowing agenda filled bills is the body that failed to pass the Democrats golden child.