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.
