Filibuster

I'm a little bit concerned about this proposed change to the filibuster rules.

Understand, this is the same "nuclear option" proposed by the Republicans when they were in the majority in the Senate, the only difference being that they were suggesting making the change as part of an effort to override the minority on a specific bill, while the Democrats are suggesting it as a generic rule change without a specific bill in mind.

But I am, and have always been, of the opinion that the center is really where we want to be, and while it can be maddeningly slow to see anything change in Washington, that same inertia helps keep us on a generally centrist path.

To use an analogy, a cruise ship (which takes quite a long distance to change direction) makes a much more consistant path overall than a unicycle, which can veer back and forth like a drunken sailor in the red light district. I really don't think the solution to any of our current problems is to start bouncing back and forth between the left and right extremes, policy-wise, like a ping pong ball in a paint mixer.

As much as it can seem like a good idea to the majority to remove the impediment provided by the minority, it will come back to bite them when they next are the minority and find they have removed one of the few remaining bits of power left to them to prevent a full on partisan swing.

I didn't like it when the Republicans suggested it, I don't like it now. The filibuster might one day become obsolete, if we can break the two party system. But as long as we have essentially only two parties running the entire show, someone is going to be the majority, and there is a significant safety buffer in knowing that the minority still has the power to at least slow down the more extreme bits of legislation.

And while that power CAN be misused (have you checked the statistics on how many pieces of legislation the minority Republicans have blocked since Mr. Obama took office?), that doesn't make it any less necessary. Otherwise, we could easily see this country swing back and forth from socialist paradise to corporate paradise, from property rights to civil rights, back and forth in perpetuity.

As frustrating as it is, I LIKE that our government moves slowly.