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Originally Posted by Danzig
makes you wonder how we've ever managed to get anything accomplished. on the other hand, it allows all the senators to have a say, rather than just one party. it also encourages compromise and agreement between both parties.
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They had more self-discipline about using the filabuster. Now, that they've lost that self-discipline, virtually nothing will get through. That's what you'll see. They wanted to make him look bad, but the truth is that virtually no President would be able to get tough stuff through if they had to get 60 out of 100 votes. What % (of Americans that voted) voted for Obama in 2008? It wasn't 60%. The senate is biased towards lowly populated states. In reality, this means you're really asking him to get a minimum of about 65%(it would be 60% if the senate was proportional to the population of the states.) Well he didn't even get 55% of the raw vote (in a one person- one vote nation-wide election.) What I'm saying is that you're forcing him to get at least a 10% higher margin of senators than he got from the voting Americans. How can that system ever get anything done? It can't. It would be easier for a Republican to pass this hurdle(because it's rigged in favor of the little Conservative voting states.) It's still a tough task. That's why the opposing party usually doesn't invoke filabuster (they know it will result in a Government standstill.) Now that they've crossed this dangerous line, what should result is a splintering of the 2 party system. See, many Dems avoid voting for Independents because they want the power that 50% would give them. That's gone now. I guarantee you that. This requirement of 60% isn't going away. Not after you stopped something that a President had in his platform when elected. Oh no. You can't go back. It's like burnt skin. You can't really fix it. If only 40% can stop anything, then there is no reason to vote for a particular party. This is why you read where people say the 2 parties are the same. Their views are nowhere close to being the same, but this filibuster crap results in their results being ABOUT THE SAME. This is the reason this GOV'T doesn't work. There will virtually always be 40% of senators against something being done. We aren't allowing candidates to do what they promise. As long as it only takes 40%, the majority of what some candidate promises to do (on the campaign trail) simply can't be done. How could it? It's a dog sht system, and you're getting the just results(puke.)