Filibustering History

No, I do not mean the history of filibustering.  As absurd as it may sound, I mean filibustering history.  Yes, I know filibustering means trying to prevent something from happening by talking it to death.  I also know you cannot prevent what has already happened by talking it to death.  What you can do is make it difficult for people to remember what happened by burying it in bullshit without a marker to let anyone know where the truth lies.  That is what is happening now; there is this great wailing and clatter and roar that is way out of proportion to what the historical evidence indicates is likely to occur.  The Republicans are screaming that the sky is falling on the Senate and that the Democrats will suffer dire consequences for changing the Senate filibuster rules.  The lame stream media has jumped to the bait with something akin to a primal scream.  Drama!  It is all about the drama.  Drama increases the ratings, don’t you know?  The media can barely contain its glee as it echoes the worst of the Republican accusations and threats: “This greatly increases contentiousness in the Senate,” they yell.  “And the Democrats will pay a high price for this if and when they are in the minority again.”

As far as contentiousness is concerned, I do not think it is possible to increase it.  Too many Republicans were already accusing the Democrats of acting like communists and/or fascists, and how do you get more contentious than shutting down the government and threatening the full faith and credit of this country by refusing to authorize the payment of its debts?  Obviously, the contentiousness between the parties goes way beyond the obstructionist tactics that have made the Senate dysfunctional and are now forcing the Democrats to consider even more changes to the rules.

As far as consequences are concerned, I cannot find any.  The Democrats already caved when the Republicans threatened to do exactly what the Democrats just did, and anyone who thinks the Republicans would not carry through with such a threat is downright delusional.  In other words, the Democrats had nothing to lose and everything to gain.  As usual, the Republicans over-played their hand.

While I am on the subject of the lame stream media cranking up the drama to sell soap, let me say that all the shrill screams over the problems with the Affordable Care Act exchange and the alleged lie told by President Obama are absurd.  History indicates that there are always glitches when you roll out something this large, and those glitches rarely amount to more than a minor annoyance in the long run.  Furthermore, the alleged lie will amount to even less than a minor annoyance when people see what is available to replace the crappy policies they have.

If Reince Priebus thinks the Affordable Care Act is going to be a winning issue for the GOP in 2014, he must be listening to his own voice echoing off the walls of his colon.  The more the Republicans yell about Obama Care, the more the Democrats will remind the voters of the Government shutdown and debt ceiling debacle the Republicans caused in an effort to extort a repeal of the ACA.  Furthermore, the Democrats will remind the voters of all the efforts to sabotage the act even though the act puts an end to the most egregious practices of the health insurance industry.