It is gratifying to see that CNN is giving due credit to David Waldman, who you may know better by his blogging nom de guerre Kagro X, for leading the charge to convince Democratic senators that the filibuster rule had to be amended.
Waldman and his co-conspirators formed a strategy referred to as an inside-outside coalition. The outside consisted of the grassroots, charged with motivating progressives to sign petitions and call their senators.
The inside, Waldman said, needed to sway senators. It would need to consist of people senators knew and trusted.
He had to convince a diverse group of advocates that climate change, immigration, the judiciary, and the economy all had one thing in common: The filibuster blocked their legislative goals.
“Getting them to recognize outside their issue silo there’s this one issue frustrating all of you” was key to success, Waldman said.
That’s when Fix the Senate Coalition formed. The Sierra Club joined on. So did the NAACP and the Communications Workers of America, just to name a few.CWA President Larry Cohen said it was clear something needed to be done.
There is no proof that, in accomplishing this, Waldman ever removed his pajamas or left his parents’ basement.
Thanks, and kudo’s, to Mr. Waldman!!!!!
And which of us who read him back in those nether days of the two thousand oughts, when he was but a wee lad, running around in his Power Ranger pajamas, with Cheeto dust in the corners of his mouth; would have believed that he would some day get top billing at CNN, the veritable Swamp Castle of news networks.
Good job, sir!
very nicely stated, Mike! frankly, I couldn’t believe it, reading this morning; decided I was dreaming and went back to sleep.
If I don’t understand something about how Congress works, I turn to Waldman.
He is awesome on procedure, it’s true. BooMan know a thing or three as well.
I hope Waldman’s Gun Chronicle FAIL campaign also hits paydirt eventually. How can we, as a country, continue to accept so much needless death and real, searing tragedy because FREEDOM?
Same reason we oppose mandatory helmet laws when they save lives and money. People would rather risk it.
I will enjoy the day when your ubiquitous “people” do not number enough of the right kinds of actual people to prevent us from changing our horrible Federal gun laws. I am one of the many “people” who do not want to “risk it”.
I am too, while I think anything produced by Fabrique Nationale is actually a work of art, I would be happy if all guns were simply banned.
Also note that the helmets I was mentioning were motorcycle helmets. There’s some push to make helmetless riders mandatory organ donors.
Nice touch on that last sentence. The chief of staff of the ER doctors at my local hospital wrote an opinion piece for the local paper. The very first sentence of his piece was like this: “If you are a motorcycle rider who insists on exercising your freedom to ride without a helmet, do your family and society a favor and get your will and other affairs in order and list yourself as an organ donor first.”
The rest of his piece had anecdotes from his ER along with statistical and medical facts, but I was happy about how blunt he was with that first sentence.
Well, who supplied the Cheetos?
Love that term “issue silo”. Very apt.
Um, but their legislative goals are still going to be frustrated since that part of the filibuster is still intact, right? So this fellow only gets partial credit, yes?
We see how it will work, though. This week’s move infuriates McConnell and his crew, Mitch has to go scorched-earth because of his pride and his 2014 re-election campaign need to rehabilitate his credibility with the Tea Partiers, the GOP Caucus becomes, incredibly, even more extreme and obstructionist on legislation, and Reid and the Democratic Caucus have the excuse they need to pull down the filibuster on everything else.
I think it was BooMan who pointed out that the Democrats are advantaged by having an opponent so predictable in their future actions.
That sounds about right to me. The only qualification is that the Democrats’ threats to go nuclear will be much more credible now, so the Republicans might conceivably think twice about losing all their influence in the Senate by continuing their abuse of the rules. Or not.
Of course the House would still be frustrating all these legislative goals, but it would be great if the Democrats could give them some more popular bills to reject. Let’s add a climate change bill, a gun control bill, and a tax the fucking 1% already bill to the immigration bill and ENDA. The fallout’s going to hit one party or the other in the 2014 midterms, so the Democrats better stay on the offensive.
That’s only 51 votes from being fixed as well. Maybe Senators Manchin, Levin, and Pryor will see the utility of the next vote.
What the end of the filibuster means also is the end of “Gangs of…” being gatekeepers for the cowardly.
No.
Even if there was no senate filibuster at all, the House would never pass this. Filling the appointments both administrative and judicial will do more to advance the agenda of these groups. Judicial rulings in this country have a long history of advancing environmental, civil and labor rights.
Thank you for the clarification.