The American Mythos of a democratic political system combined with social liberty and personal freedom has always been qualified by the asterisk of class, race, and gender,
it's really about property, wealth, and European skin ya know.
The founders never intended the huddled masses to hold power;
that's why the Senate represents rural property that was taken from the indigenous masses,
and why slaves were considered to be 2/3's of a person,
and why the electoral college exists at all.
That old line from the Declaration of Independence
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness
was a reality for the few who had the ability to buy it,
or take it,
but the intentional construction of insurmountable class, racial, and gender barriers was
the original sin of the Republic
and continues to haunt our society today.
The Constitution itself did not provide the aristocracy enough of a barrier to those fractional people,
emancipated through war and amendments,
nor to the immigrant working classes that challenged the old aristocracy,
so the most hallowed deliberative body in the world developed the filibuster
to allow financial interests the ability to block the will of the rabble
and prevent the serious discussion and deliberation it was so proud of.
The quaint notion of Jimmy Stewart talking all night
to win one for the people
has been used as cover for the rise of Jim Crow tactics that continue to this day.
The iron-clad, unchangeable rules were changed so that no actual filibustering is needed, an email will do.
The obstruction continues, the pageantry has been eliminated.
The new flood of voter suppression laws and attempts to trash our sacred one-man-one-vote
with legislative intervention
is just a return to the good old days of counting jelly beans in a jar.
But there is an easy solution
The first female, mixed race, wannabe presidential candidate, and head of the Senate can just say NO MORE FILIBUSTER
Kamala Harris can rule it unconstitutional
and tee up the For the People Act
for a simple majority vote
Let the moderates and right wing howl
her action would constitutionally remove this unconstitutional rule
And then let the Senators vote
Ans see how the chips fall. Wouldn’t that be interesting.
Nixon did it 1957 as VP and head of the Senate.
McConnell has done it when it suits him as majority leader.
To pull the levers of change
we need to uncuff our powerful hands.