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lesuoractoday at 3:05 AM1 replyview on HN

The 60 seats business needs to stop.

Fillibuster is a senate procedure rule. That's about the weakest a thing could be. At any point Democrats could have gotten rid of the filibuster with a 51 majority.

Democrats would much rather let congress do nothing than do something. It's hurt their reputation so much.


Replies

johnnyanmactoday at 3:25 AM

It's an oddly convenient tool. Especially if you value passing good laws less than allowing bad laws to pass. And it seems like our government is indeed run like a business; highly risk adverse to the point where it's better to spend more time in meetings than doing actual work. These people won't be chastised as much as they deserve for doing nothing, so that won't push them either.

I like the idea of the filibuster, but like most things it degraded from a way to force the stand to consider your ideas at all costs, to a blatant stalling tactic, to a lazy button to push against anything you disagree with. I'd rather throw it out these days than keep it, but ideally we'd completely revamp it to close such obvious loopholes and bring back some skin in the game.