Gun Safety is the Best Issue to Bust the Filibuster

[Nevilledog]

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Fred Guttenberg
@fred_guttenberg
This is a brilliant and important article from @danpfeiffer. I have been calling on the Senate to be prepared to break the filibuster to save lives for some time now. Thank you Dan for writing this and drawing attention to this.

Gun Safety is the Best Issue to Bust the Filibuster
If we are going to call the question on the filibuster, let's do it on a wildly popular issue that will save lives
messagebox.substack.com
7:35 AM · May 4, 2021

https://messagebox.substack.com/p/gun-safety-is-the-issue-to-bust-the

For the first 100 days or so of the Biden Administration, everyone in Washington has been talking about but working around the filibuster. The Senate has been focused on confirming Biden’s nominees and passing legislation using budget reconciliation. These two things are absolutely necessary but also conveniently can’t be filibustered, thereby delaying a fight that could forever change the direction of the Senate and the country.

Everyone seems to have an incentive to delay the denouement of the legislative loophole that is blocking progress. Republicans — for all their bold talk — don’t want the fight because the stakes of losing are too high. Many Democrats — including some public supporters of filibuster elimination — are worried about losing the fight. Other Democrats are worried about what will happen if they win and can no longer blame a minority of Republicans for inaction on Democratic agenda items like the $15 minimum wage and immigration reform.

The assumption has been that the confrontation over the filibuster would happen when voting rights legislation comes to the floor. On paper, this makes sense. What better time to debate an anti-democratic legislative loophole than a bill that would help stop a minority party from rigging elections in their favor. However, much to the dismay of people like myself who believe that Republicans are on the cusp of a dangerous and irrevocable power grab, momentum for voting rights legislation is flagging.

President Biden barely mentioned the fight for voting rights legislation in his otherwise excellent Joint Session speech. Senator Joe Machin poured cold water on everyone’s hopes and dreams when he told Vox’s Andrew Prokop:

“How in the world could you, with the tension we have right now, allow a voting bill to restructure the voting of America on a partisan line?”

*snip*

[WarGamer]

1. Manchin won't go for it.

His 70% Trump loving constituency won't go for it.

[Bev54]

2. Exactly, I actually think they can get Manchin to move

on either the voting rights or the infrastructure bill before a gun bill.