Stop whining Democrats. Do
something. Republicans have now continued their unprecedented use of the
filibuster to block President Obama’s nominees for Judgeships and most anything
else. There is nothing wrong with the nominees, they are all well qualified,
facts that are admitted even by the Republicans that are blocking them. They
simply do not want Obama to appoint anyone at all to anything at all, partly
because they hate Obama and want him to fail and partly because they want to
preserve the conservative majority on the courts. Obama has a constitutional
duty to fill these vacancies. Congress has a constitutional obligation to advise
and consent. But instead of doing their duty Republicans use the filibuster to
block any and all appointments. This is, putting it in the simplest terms
possible, unconscionable, to say nothing of absurd, indecent, harmful, and
disgusting.
During Obama’s tenure Republicans have used the filibuster some 432 times (I think that is the right figure). Everyone knows this is more filibusters than all other filibusters in history, and they also know this was not what the filibuster was intended to do. Indeed, they don’t really even bother to filibuster, they merely indicate they want to do it, and Democrats meekly surrender. And so it is the minority has managed to essentially overcome the majority, making a mockery of democracy, and harming our country immeasurably.
But what is especially
galling about this ongoing travesty is that throughout the entire history of it
the Democrats have had the power to stop it. Harry Reid could have invoked the
so-called “nuclear option” at any time that would have changed the rules to
allow a simply 51% majority to rule (which is what it is supposed to be in the
first place) instead of the arbitrary and unnecessary 60 vote rule the Senate
now requires. But rather than doing so he and his colleagues have preferred to
simply whine consistently, helplessly, piteously, even cowardly, about what the
Republicans have been doing.
I do not know exactly why democrats have been so resistant to changing the rules to what they ought to be. The only argument I can remember hearing is to the effect that they do not want to give up this strategy themselves when Republicans return again to power. So, in order to preserve what is blatantly unconscionable now they want to preserve it to be blatantly unconscionable in the hypothetical future. First of all, the way things seem to be going, it is unlikely the Republicans will ever return to power for a very long time (at least they certainly should not), and second, if the Senate can change the rules now they can also change them again in the future. As far as I can see there is no cogent reason the rules should not be changed to prevent Republicans to continue their assault on our democracy, timidity and cowardice seem to be the order of the day. So Democrats, either use your power to end this ridiculous situation or stop whining about it. God hates cowards, losers, and gutless whiners.
On a somewhat different but even more absurd development I think our so-called “news” networks may have finally reached an even more “low” than I would have thought possible. Even MSNBC did a segment tonight on Sarah Palin versus the Pope. Why should this absolute babbling idiot be featured as somehow worthy of equality with the Pope? In fact, why should she be appearing on television at all? She holds no office, almost certainly never will, is about as intelligent as a cedar post, is now totally irrelevant in any meaningful way, and most certainly is not a worthy opponent of the Pope. If she continues to have any followers at all they are few and must be even moronic than she is, so why does she command any time at all in the media? The answer, I fear, is that the media is not really interested in news, merely infotainment, and this seems to be just as true of MSNBC as all the rest. They might as well interview Mickey Rooney’s opinion of the Pope, in fact it would probably more interesting.
“The more wonderful the means of communication, the more trivial, tawdry, or depressing its contents seemed to be.”
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