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Politics : Just the Facts, Ma'am: A Compendium of Liberal Fiction -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Bill who wrote (33128)	4/22/2005 2:09:54 PM
From: Oeconomicus	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 90947

"Filibusters serve to block a majority vote, just the opposite of democracy." Not exactly. American democracy is not about majority rules, but majority rules subject to the rights of everyone else. That said, you are right - this has nothing to do with the law, constitutional or otherwise. It's a Senate procedural rule, nothing more. It can be revised the same way it was created - by a majority vote of the Senate. Now, THAT said, it IS intended to protect the minority from the majority in the less democratic of the two houses of Congress. Tinkering with it has its risks in terms of precedent-setting. OTOH, if the privilege is being abused, and I think it is, not tinkering with it also has its dangers. If the Dems had any sense, rather than playing scorched earth politics, they'd negotiate a compromise where some nominees go to a vote and the other side sacrifices a few that the Dems feel most strongly about. But then that would be reasonable. What am I thinking? ;-)