Jennifer Rubin’s piece Republicans’ real beef with the Jan 6th commission set me off. It seems both Mitch McConnell and Ron Johnson have a problem with the whole concept of this commission.
Neither of them wishes to address the real problems. Trump’s** insurrection. The uptick of White supremacy and the associated violence which accompanies it.
Instead of wanting to deal with the cause, these fools want to do their usual thing and politic it to death. Complaining it would be partisan. The only thing partisan about it is these two nitwits continuing to kick the can down the road, refusing to address the real problem. White Supremacy Is On The Rise!
McConnell refuses to acknowledge it because he believes doing so will give him back the Senate leadership if he does. As for Ron Johnson, well, he’s just an idiot.
The commission is needed. This malignant cancer we call white supremacy must be exercised if we want to grow as a country. This evil has cost millions of lives, trillions of dollars, and the only ones who will benefit from it are the wealthy and those who want to see the country burn. In other words, Trump** supporters.
Commissions seldom fix the problem, but they do provide valuable insight into the cause. For example, the commission talked about the economic impact 9/11 had on the economy:
These losses proved transitory; nonetheless, the changing geopolitical developments that have followed 9/11 have injected a significant amount of uncertainty into any predictions about world markets and their effects on the U.S. farm sector’s longer-term financial health, which is highly dependent upon trade.
Other nations are envious of our ability to integrate multiple disparate views, where people coexist in a level of harmony and prosperity, albeit tenuous at times.
Our governmental construct has worked to the dismay of those who have less tolerant governing styles. Losing their talented people, hampering their economic growth because of how they rule. So, when they witnessed our insurrection, they were only too happy to point out the hypocrisy. The hypocrisy I am referring to is the white supremacy component of this uprising.
Rubin correctly points out what both McConnell and Johnson are attempting with their push to “take the spotlight away from the real problem — the rise of white-supremacist extremism.” If they are allowed to alter the commission’s agenda, we will lose the focus on the real problem, as Rubin stated. We cannot afford to let this happen.
No amount of denial by his supporters will change what took place on Jan 6th. For what? Donald J. Trump?**
This man doesn’t give a damn about them. The people who did his bidding on Jan 6th were just pawns to be sacrificed in his failed coup attempt. Trump** has done absolutely nothing to help them, nor will he do anything.
It will be regrettable if McConnell and Johnson are allowed to disrupt this commission’s creation.
For the country to move forward, this commission is a must. If McConnell and Johnson get their way and hamstring it, they will be responsible for what will inevitably follow, a new form of Jim Crow, and that cannot be allowed.
I completely agree, a 1/6 commission needs to be created and empowered to do three things, uncover the full truth behind the incitement and the insurrection (including the participation and planning of Trump and his circle, the dark money and who’s behind it), to prosecute everyone responsible for participating and put the fear of God into those who might try it again.
However, here’s the fly in the ointment. It can be filibustered by the Repubs and will be. They strongly dislike the intentions of Speaker Pelosi and Dems to have a majority of Dems on the commission AND they’re very upset at the scope including the lead-up and incitement over the previous month. Because, of course, it will be confirmed that a number in the GOP helped incite it.
Some Dems have also expressed their dissatisfaction with having any Repubs on this commission because aside from a few exceptions, they promoted The Big Lie or stayed quiet to let it propagate and promote the insurrection.
Dems believe it is necessary to have a bipartisan commission to have it appear as legitimate as it will likely be anyway. But the only two ways to do that with the filibuster in the hands of McConnell is to either corrupt the commission to his satisfaction so it will be worthless or…get rid of the filibuster.
How could Sinema or Manchin make the case that it’s furthering bipartisanship to let Repubs keep the filibuster to prevent a bipartisan commission from being created and insurrection being confronted head-on instead of allowing it to fester, grow and reoccur? What bipartisanship is there in an autocracy that sweeping 1/6 under the carpet would very possibly bring about in 2024?
I would also suggest that no current politicians be on the commission, at least to make the statement that it’s not political even though Repubs will cry that complaint no matter what is done. Constitutional lawyers, ex-federal prosecutors and judges, retired politicians who are respected by both parties, leaders or ex-leaders of social organizations devoted to the people, etc. could be among those who make up this commission. I don’t think current members of Congress should be on it.
Get rid of the filibuster or at the very least, restrict its use from anything related to protecting our democracy (including voting rights bills) and this can happen as it needs to.
AdLib, the filibuster, is the ugly piece of furniture or knickknack that has been in your side of your wife’s side of the family for years and passed down to families for generations. The only value it has is its ability to conjure up family folklore which may or may not be accurate.
Every year you get together someone, spots it, and start lobbying to discontinue the tradition of ending up with it because they are about to engage in the event, which will trigger the process of them receiving this hideous thing. They come up with all sorts of ideas and, a lot of them have merit and gain favor and support.
But suddenly, all discussion is stopped. Why? Because the Patriarch or Matriarch proclaims, this thing has been in the family for generations. They will not allow any change in the family custom. So what does everyone in the family do? Nothing. Why? Especially since they know, it’s something no one wants. They keep passing it on because of tradition, which is suspect?
Well, we have a situation where Mitch has threaten a scorched earth policy if Democrats dare to make any changes to his beloved filibuster. Well, Al Franken and Norm Ornstein have a plan that would solve the problem. They should implement it and then tell Mortimer Mitch to go F himself and the turtle he rode in on, along with opening up an ethics investigation into him and his wife. There is dirt there to be found, I’m sure of it.
Thank you for posting and commenting on my piece.
I like your analogy and it inspired another one that came to mind. The filibuster is like that ugly piece of furniture you never got rid of but a vindictive family member has moved it to block the front door. It doesn’t serve the purpose for which it was originally created and it is just used in a belligerent way to prevent everyone else from going anywhere.
The filibuster was an invention that did not come from The Founders or the Constitution, rarely used and when it was, it was for providing a Senator the opportunity to delay passage of a bill and using that delay to argue their opposition, possibly rallying votes against it.
Then of course, like all tools, it was corrupted prior to the Civil War, used simply to block the majority from passing civil rights measures that would undermine slavery.
Fast forward to today and it is purely a cudgel for the minority in The Senate to comfortably deny action that a majority of The Senate and the people want. They don’t even have to stand on the floor and speak to use the filibuster, they can just claim it then go home and relax as they bask in having such enormous power to effortlessly stop the U.S. government from functioning. That is a perversion of a tool that was undemocratic in the first place.
Dems should just call it out for what it is. A perversion. A corrupt and abused tactic that is no longer legitimate (if it ever was), anti-democratic and worthless in promoting bipartisanship, as the cowardly Manchin and Sinema hollowly claim.
I would ask these cowardly Dems, how much bipartisanship did the filibuster bring about in the Trump term? In the Obama terms? In Biden’s term so far? It became wildly abused during Obama’s presidency and has been completely broken ever since.
I would challenge Sinema and Manchin to prove their disingenuous, self-serving claim that the filibuster helps the cause of bipartisanship. Let them name a single instance since 2009 after it became a tool of a minority party’s denial of the majority’s power.
They would lose that challenge. And where we are now is on the edge of a choice between retaining a corrupt procedure with racist heritage or retaining a representative democracy, in the face of Republicans rigging elections in state after state.
Without the filibuster killed, we will never have a commission investigate and inform the country about who was responsible for the attempt to overthrow our democracy on 1/6. We will never pass voting rights protections, immigration bills, Climate Change laws, gun control bills, police reforms, etc.
McConnell and Repubs rely on the filibuster to keep Americans oppressed and divided, it is the only path they have to win elections. They simply do not want Americans to live comfortable, satisfying lives because their campaign themes of fear, resentment, racism and anger only work with an unhappy and upset public.
This is nihilism. This is their only philosophy for their sole goal of holding power. All Dems may not be altruistic but I think most are dedicated to making the lives of Americans better. The dynamics here are stark. The conscientious party of helping people vs. the cynical party of taking power by making people suffer.
This is it, this is the only moment Dems will have to prevent the autocratic takeover of the country because without passing the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Bill, all the corrupting of state election laws by Republicans will build a wall that keeps Dems, majority rule and American democracy from having a say in America’s embedded autocracy.
This is existential for our democracy. This must happen and whatever it takes to cajole or pressure Manchin and Sinema to trash or profoundly reform the filibuster must be done. There may likely never be another Dem majority in The Senate in Manchin’s and Sinema’s careers and potentially, in The House and the WH for at least a generation if not permanently entrenching a one-party, minority rule autocracy.
This is not optional, this is our country’s future and our democracy hanging by a thread even with Dems having unified power in DC. They will never have another opportunity if they don’t jump on this one.
It must be done.
Well, AdLib, I don’t think I can add to what you said, other than I agree. The filibuster must go.