As 2022 got underway, most Senate Democrats were determined to take steps to protect voting rights. The party settled on legislation called the Freedom to Vote Act, which was crafted as a compromise measure designed to garner at least some Republican support.
Those efforts, of course, didn’t work, and literally zero GOP members backed the bill. But on this issue, Democratic leaders were not content to simply lick their wounds and move on. Instead, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and his leadership tried to execute the so-called “nuclear option,” which would’ve allowed the majority to pass the legislation by majority rule.
In other words, Senate Democratic leaders were prepared to blow a giant hole in the chamber’s filibuster rule.
The effort ultimately fell short, though it came surprisingly close to succeeding: The party needed every member of the Senate Democratic conference to support the initiative, but they fell two votes short: West Virginia’s Joe Manchin and Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema voted with the GOP minority to leave the existing filibuster intact.
All of this came to mind anew yesterday. Politico reported:
Sen. Kyrsten Sinema’s decision to retire at the end of the year makes at least one thing very clear: The filibuster is in big trouble. Two of its staunchest defenders in the Democratic Caucus, Sinema and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), are now leaving. And Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell stepping down as GOP leader won’t do anything to shore up the Senate’s 60-vote requirement on most legislation.
The report quoted Sen. Elizabeth Warren saying, “It’s time to get rid of the filibuster. The filibuster has been anti-Democratic and has done a whole lot more harm than good. If [Republicans] have legislation they wanted to pass. And the filibuster stood in the way? The filibuster would be toast. It’s total politics.”
For the record, I have a hunch the Massachusetts Democrat said the filibuster “has been anti-democratic”…
Read the full article here
