Barrett Rainey's Second Thoughts

The time has come – it’s past time, really – for Senate Democrats to do some congressional “blasting.” Setting off procedural “dynamite,” if you will.

Good, fact-filled legislation, nationally important legislation – some of it already passed by the House – is sitting in Majority Leader Schumer’s inbox awaiting Senate action. Some has been there more than a year.

In the face of Republican stonewalling, major bills are growing moss as they age. Lacking more than 50 votes – with the Vice President there just to break ties – and with the constant threat of a filibuster hanging over all proceedings, the GOP has successfully managed a minority blockade of significant bills. The GOP and erstwhile Democrat, Sen. Manchin.

Among them, the John Lewis Voting Rights Act which is badly in need of being enacted into law. Now!

And, with the threat of losing Roe vs Wade looming, abortion rights legislation – whatever that turns out to be – needs to be quickly written and placed for a vote.

Since the slim Democrat majority was born, many of us hoped Schumer would use his many years of experience to hammer home some long-needed bills on many subjects. It hasn’t happened. And, it doesn’t appear he’s going to change his stripes in the remaining months of 2022.

If predictions of a 2023 GOP Senate majority are borne out, Democrats will find themselves being shoved to the back benches next January. Again. The dead legislation on important issues left over will fill the trailer of an 18-wheeler.

The time has come for Democrats to kill off the filibuster!

But, every time the subject comes up, someone always says “If we do that, and the Repubs retake the majority, they’ll run all over us.”

Road apples! So what?

If Dems stay their current course, everything in Schumer’s inbox will die. Abortion rights, voting rights, child tax credits – everything Democrats have campaigned on – promised for years – will never happen.

So, how do they face the electorate this Fall? And in 2024? More empty promises? More rhetoric?

They’ve got the hammer now! Use it now! Stop worrying about “what ifs” and pound through the big stuff! And, all the smaller stuff the House has already passed.

This nation is fractured. Badly splintered in almost every way. Between those divisions, and the changes wrought by COVID, life will never be the same for any of us. We’re never going to be the same country we were a couple of years ago. We’re facing a future in which we’ll be doing a lot of things differently.

Congressional Democrats – especially in the Senate – are fortunate to be in the majority at the moment. Yes, “…at the moment.” They won’t always have that luxury. Maybe that luxury could be gone yet this year!

So, while they have it, they need to make the most of it. Get done what badly needs to get done.

“Blow up” the filibuster roadblock! Kill the damned thing. Stop playing pussyfoot with GOPer’s who use it to stop Senate proceedings with a single phone call or a single email. Acknowledge that nearly everything around us has morphed into a new reality, put your “foot on the gas” and take care of the people’s business. The business of all of us.

This is not the time for political gamesmanship. Or even, in some cases, “playing by the old rules.” In some things, we need “new rules.”

This country must have the strongest possible leadership in its top political ranks. The conditions under which we live have changed and politicians need to recognize that and make their own changes as needed.

At the moment, Democrats are in charge. In a few months, it may be Republicans. No matter the Party, new conditions that have been forced upon us must be met by change. In nearly all things.

At the top of political changes necessary at the moment – kill the damned filibuster!

BOOM!

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