The Rules of the Game

Sometimes you benefit from the rules of the game, sometimes you don’t. But, unless the rules are blatantly unfair, you don’t try to change the rules when it appears you won’t benefit, especially if the rules have been in effect for almost ninety years. Yet it seems as though this is what the Republicans in the Senate wish to do with regard to the practice of filibuster. They want to invoke cloture with a simple majority vote.

It’s not as though the Senate is exactly fast when it comes to doing anything. So, a couple of weeks tied up in a filibuster will not be the end of the world. It was not the end of the world in 1964 when Southern Senators filibustered against the Civil Rights Act. And the current Senate has an easier job in invoking closure as they need only 60 votes, whereas in 1964 67 votes were needed to stop the debate.