Subscription

Wednesday, March 17, 2021

Whither the Filibuster?

 


Friends, the filibuster, a venerable Senate tradition, has a long and checkered history.  Its most fervent champions were Democrats who used it to obstruct civil rights bills in the 50s and 60s.  Now Democrats are its most impassioned enemies.  The filibuster requires a degree of bipartisanship in order to advance bills and pass legislation.  The Dems have an ambitious progressive agenda that enjoys virtually no Republican support, however, and they'd like to pass it, thank you very much, and bipartisanship be damned!  There are three obstacles to their plan: Senator Joe Manchin (D-West Virginia), Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-Arizona), and the U.S. Supreme Court.  Since SCOTUS is unlikely to be determinative, it's really down to those two lonely, "moderate" Dems.  My advice, therefore: write a letter to those two Senators praising their devotion to the ground rules of democracy and their commitment to working across the aisle.  They need support, now more than ever!


That's one of the topics that Brian and I discuss on this week's Newsmaker Show.  We also cover the Cuomo debacle, the Newsom debacle, the Tucker Carlson-Pentagon kerfuffle, the COVID Relief Bill and our looming fiscal calamity, and Mike Pence rising like a phoenix from the ashes.  So, that's two debacles, one kerfuffle, a calamity, and a mythical bird.  You heard it here first!  In addition, in our "This Day in History" segment, we cover the abdication of Nicholas II in March 1917 and the tragedy of the Bolshevik Revolution, the German occupation of Czechoslovakia in March 1939, and the legacy of President Lyndon Johnson's "War on Poverty".


It's a humdinger, folks!  Tune in ASAP!


https://wlea.net/newsmaker-march-17-2021-dr-nick-waddy/

 

In other news, "President" Biden is politely asking illegal immigrants to...illegally immigrate later, at a more convenient time.  Whew!  This guy is TOUGH, no?

 

https://www.newsmax.com/politics/biden/2021/03/16/id/1014078/ 


Biden is also encouraging changes in the nature of the filibuster, although he doesn't (yet) support its abolition.  My prediction: the filibuster will eventually die, but it will be a death of a thousand cuts.


https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/biden-says-senate-rules-should-change-to-make-filibuster-harder/ar-BB1eEVlz

 

President Trump says he will wait until after the 2022 election to decide whether he's running in 2024.  Why wait, I wonder?  Strategically, I suppose that freezes the rest of the field and keeps Trump in the news.  He's like a modern-day (non-fictional) Hamlet.  It's equally likely that Trump isn't announcing a 2024 run because he hasn't decided yet whether he wants to attempt one.


https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/trump-says-well-see-about-2024-presidential-run

 

A Facebook insider is taking credit for Joe Biden's "victory" in 2020, and with good reason: Facebook buried and censored stories prejudicial to Biden, and it registered millions of new (Biden) voters.  If ever there was an argument for breaking up Big Tech, here it is!

 

https://thenationalpulse.com/breaking/facebok-rep-boasts-election-influence/ 


If you want to know what's wrong with America, and what's wrong with the Left, this story puts it in a nutshell: identity politics.  It's the rocky shoal on which the American experiment may well founder.


https://www.cnsnews.com/blog/craig-bannister/columbia-university-hosting-6-different-identity-graduation-ceremonies-based

 

Finally, everyone should read this article and consider its arguments carefully.  Are public schools doing more harm to America's children than good?  Would we be better off placing responsibility for education in the hands of parents, rather than bureaucrats?  Is our current socialist model the only viable model for the management of elementary and secondary education?  I would love to hear your thoughts.

 

https://amgreatness.com/2021/03/16/cancel-public-school/ 

15 comments:

  1. Dr. Nick

    As you already know, Home Schooling is a viable alternative to the public schools. I am not an expert in this area, so I really don't know how many people have chosen this route across the country. I would also imagine, that as The Left gets an iron grip on the nation, that it will no doubt be outlawed.

    The public school system has been brain washing children since the 1960s. I have talked to people who began their teaching careers during that time, and in order to get certified you had to endure course after course taught by Lefty type professors. That was the beginning of the real takeover of the public school system. I have also talked to people who started teaching in the 1950s, and when they retired in the 1970s and 1980s the difference in student behavior and the curriculum was like night and day. Of course changes were more radical in some areas than others.

    I know that out on the Left Coast that changes were considerably more progressive, with the Contra Costa California schools praised as a model for both elementary and secondary education. I remember one person I talked to attended a teacher's college back in the 1960s and quit after a semester because the courses were so far Left. He went on to attend graduate school, got a PhD and taught in a small conservative college.

    Again, Home Schooling is a solution but it is certainly not perfect. Of course there are Christian Schools at the High School level, but even some of those places have been "infiltrated" by Leftist thinking. There are of course still Catholic Schools, although many have been "tainted" with "Liberal" Catholic thinking under the new Pope.

    It goes without saying that the public school system will be forced to teach politically correct courses as the current administration in DC spreads its' tentacles everywhere.

    ReplyDelete
  2. With regard to immigration, the big question is WHY does the current administration believe in an open border with Mexico? The usual answer from a "right-wing" view is: More immigrants will end up voting a Democrat ticket, or variations on that theme. I don't think that "reason" is even number two on the list of "reasons" the Left gives for allowing this human flood. I'm more inclined to think that it is part of an ingoing and deliberate plan to "integrate" the hemisphere, or unite The Americas somewhere down the road. How about The Amero (like the Euro) as a future "coin of the realm"? I believe NAFTA was certainly a step towards that goal. I also believe that drugs are also a big factor. This is a multi-billion dollar industry (trillion would be a better description) so it make me wonder how many people are being paid big bucks to promote border walls and open borders at the same time. We already have two languages, with Spanish and English prominent in most business areas. Makes me wonder how many people went around those walls that Trump was building during his tenure. I'm just throwing out random thoughts here. But you know, nothing is always the way it seems, don't you think? Certainly a plan to unite the hemisphere is not going to be announced to the people of the United States. What happens when all those babies start coming to swell the Hispanic population north of the border. Well, people have babies don't they. And I think that 11 million figure of dreamers is way more than that. Bet you it is more than 30 million, if not more. Hey, let's have a mestiza/mestizo empire from the tip of Argentina to the polar wastes of Canada. Why not? I'm all for The Tango and The Samba. Aren't you?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Nick, actually, cloture was introduced to curb filibusters by Woodrow Wilson because of GQP opposition, first about arming U.S. merchant ships, and then the Treaty of Versailles.

    And, to be more accurate -- it wasn't Democrats that used the filibuster against Civil Rights. It was the Dixiecrats. Democrats from the old Confederate states were very different from Democrats of other regions.

    I don't want to eliminate the filibuster, but it should be modified to go back to the talking filibuster of the 1960s.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Rod

      That is historically accurate. However, that was "back in the day" before a bunch of radical Leftists "infiltrated" the Democrat Party around 1968, and now more or less control it. Certainly Presidents like JFK are now considered to be conservative by present day standards and reality. By the way it is GOP, and not GQP. Nevertheless, what we have now is really a "DemoPublican" party.

      Delete
  4. Dr.Waddy et al from Jack: Home schooling has much to recommend it but it is closely regulated by leftist government bureaucrats and if you ignore their sanctions you expose yourself to child endangerment charges and the consequent removal of your kids into the politically correct custody of thoroughly vetted foster parents. Besides, leftist overtaxation has made the one earner family rare. Who now can have one spouse home to pay close attention to the curricular requirements and the exhaustive documentation required by 23 year old bureaurats in the block long education fortress in Albany?

    ReplyDelete
  5. Ray, I'm very sympathetic to homeschooling. It's infinitely preferable to the public schools ideologically, but it's also unrealistic for a wide swath of parents. And you're right: the more common it becomes, the more the Left will change the law to penalize it.

    Interesting theory about the Western Hemisphere, Ray. I personally doubt that American politicians think that far ahead. They don't even think six months ahead, as far as I can tell. Plus, the full integration of the Americas wouldn't produce predictable consequences. If it were ever achieved, our concept of the "left" and the "right" would surely change, and I'm not at all sure which would emerge triumphant.

    Rod -- sure, the Dixiecrats weren't typical of national Democrats, but they were Democrats. And I have no fundamental problem with a "talking filibuster", but I think it's more likely that the filibuster will be nullified in stages, which as you know it already has been for judicial nominations.

    Good points about homeschooling, Jack. I suspect the only reason it is tolerated by the education establishment is because it's so darn rare. On the other hand, more enlightened states than New York have various alternatives to traditional schooling, like virtual schools that presumably reduce institutional control over children and give more scope to parents. And then there's the option of vouchers and school choice. That's probably the "golden ticket" that could break the back of public education, if only school choice ever became widely available.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Dr.Waddy from Jack: Military brass talking political correctness:I doubt if many believe in it but they have to protect laboriously earned careers.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Dr. Waddy from Jack: I saw the same dynamic at work in my NY Dep't of Corrections days: when leftists rule the executive branch they delight in going hardass on the military wnd law enforcement! We have to stand up for those who serve us so well because they pay a hard price if they backsass.

    ReplyDelete
  8. Dr. Waddy from Jack: I think historically the American military has built a fine record of principled deference to civilian command. But I doubt the founders foresaw the rise of antiAmerican government. At least the Confederates sought their own country rather than subverting America. No, I think it is presumptuous leftist misuse of its power which motivates it to cynically use our services to advance radical domestic goals undoubtedly opposed by the vast majority of our military people.Of course there is much enjoyment on the left of this thumb in the patriotic eye. In some countries they would be requited with a coup; they know that won't happen in a country the lawfulness of which excites only their totalitarian contempt.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Dr.Waddy from Jack: The American left is EVER true to its goal of complete, unassailable power. This perception is confirmed for the Nth ad nauseum time by their present and immediately proposed purely partisan power plays.( Eg " Covid relief", HR 1 and filibuster nullification. Oh yes, they might disingenuously accept a return to in-person filibuster but only with disarming amendments (I mean who, aside from Schumer, can blat for more than 24 hours and ground rules preventing reinforcement would no doubt be in the offing) These people are totalitarians, with all the consummate bigotry embraced by that proclivity.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Dr. Waddy from Jack: With its tenuous legislative advantage and its unconquerable rightousness and the inevitable copycat mass shooting by a madman, the Biden puppeted left may well venture another assault on the Second Amendment! I see little reason to think it would have any more chance of success than the Clintons or Obamas had. The cat is out of the bag and long gone! Its obvious the left promotes gun control ONLY to discredit gun owners and their ever powerful organizations, who and which are pillars of the real America's conservative conviction which so insolently thwarts the presumptuous radical left. Lefties know and do not care, that their totalitarian proposals can have no preventive influence or denial of guns or knives or motor vehicles,to maniacs. They want CONTROL!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Dr.Waddy from Jack: Your observation that the British guarantee removed from the Poles any incentive to negotiate with Hitler is very plausible. But still, would not any nation in the Hitlerian sights have been convinced by then of Hitler's sociopathic dishonesty? I'm guessing the Poles might have resolved anyway to fight; what had they to lose.? (but then, the (horror of that might not have been fully apparent; the Nazis had not yet revealed tneir inhuman resolve). The British guarantee may well have been a domestic political measure (?).

    ReplyDelete
  12. Dr. Waddy from Jack: I think allied hesitance to crush German resurgence in the 1930s is best explained by withering fear of a repeat of the incalculable, theretofore unimaginable, horror of WWI. Perhwps to this day we do not fully appreciate the terror this wrought. Hitler was able to overcome it in Germany by excoriating perceived post war treatment ofGermany (and very real scourges such as hyperinflation and and very unGermanic public moral turpitude) and of course, well established German antisemitism. Hitler, the thug that he was, read this fear in the allies very accurately. Churchill was, for a time, understandably unappreciated by that monster. Why even so many of Churchill's colleagues doubted him!

    ReplyDelete
  13. True, Jack: the Left relies on the passive obedience of the U.S. military...but it is also transforming those institutions and seeking to purge them of "right-wingers", just to be on the safe side!

    That's a good question of whether the recent shootings will put wind in the sails of the Dems' gun control agenda. If you ask me, the truly amazing thing is that, given what contempt the elite and the establishment have for gun rights, we've nonetheless sustained the integrity of the 2nd Amendment reasonably well. But how many storms can the Constitution weather? Eek!

    Jack, I see it differently: if the Poles had been wise, they would have become allies with Hitler. The evidence was plain that the Western Allies and the Soviets wouldn't lift a finger to aid the Poles. Ergo, what other rational choice did they have? Of course, they didn't see it that way.

    And I agree that the Allies' reluctance to start another major war was completely understandable. Less understandable is why the German military allowed Hitler to risk the nation's survival once more.

    ReplyDelete