Filibuster foolishness

(Guestpost from Drew)

I noticed this story earlier today, and I just rolled my eyes. We haven’t heard much about it in the news lately, but apparently a proposal was circulating through Congress that would have allowed anyone with a handgun permit to carry their weapon in any other state issuing similar permits — forty-seven states in all.

In terms of constitutionality, this proposal would’ve fallen under Article IV Section 1.

But unfortunately, the proposal got killed today. The amendment ultimately wound up with a healthy 58 supporters and 42 detractors, impressive considering the Democratic majority in Congress. It was pretty close – but without enough votes to override a potential filibuster.

But here’s what I want to know:  Why did the supporters drop the amendment just because of a filibuster?

First of all, neither the word “filibuster” nor the idea of a filibuster can be found within the Constitution. The whole idea is rather undemocratic. In my personal opinion, we should abolish filibusters.

But Drew! Then the Democrats would be able to do whatever they want now that they have a majority!

Well, I hate to break it to you, but the Democrats are pretty much doing whatever they want, anyway. Hopefully that trend will change in upcoming weeks, but even if we managed to make good use of the filibuster to block cap-and-trade, for example, that one benefit would fail to redeem the filibuster in my mind. Without filibusters, we would never be in this dire political situation in the first place. How many times have you heard ignorant people ask, “Well the Republicans had a majority for years in Congress while Bush was President, and what all did they accomplish?”

Well the answer is Not very much, but I’ll give you a hint about why:  It starts with an F.

Filibusters ruin accountability. Even if we ever regain a majority-Republican Congress, what can we accomplish? For years, we had a Republican president and a Republican Congress. But because Democrats still had 41+ votes in the Senate, half the conservative judicial appointments didn’t get confirmed, and Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac still continued to ruin the country’s economy despite Republican efforts to fix them.

So maybe you can see why I think filibusters should be abolished. But anyway, we’ve gotten to the point where it doesn’t even take an actual filibuster to block popular legislation. All the Democrats have to do nowadays is threaten a filibuster. In case you’re wondering about the difference, consider that threatening a filibuster requires absolutely zero effort.

So I’m just scratching my head when I read this story, wondering, Why didn’t we make the Democrats stand up in front of everyone and actually filibuster? I wanted to see them get up and waste the chamber’s time over this amendment. Seriously, I wanted to watch these jackals reading from the phone-book in an effort to block people’s right to bear arms! If nothing else, it would slow down their efforts to nationalize the medical industry, ruin the energy industry via global warming taxes, and confirm another leftist to the Supreme Court! WHY DIDN’T WE SLOW THEM DOWN?

*Sigh.* If only some clever people like me were in charge…