I have grown increasingly angry and frustrated as I read almost daily news reports about the bill, amendment, or resolutions that received majority support in the Senate but failed to pass because it did not have 60 votes. I want my democracy back.
The filibuster is an abuse of a rule that was originally intended to prevent the silencing of minority views. Instead the rule has become a minority veto over every action in the Senate. The Senate needs rules that allow minorities to be heard, while also respecting the fundamental principle that the side with the most votes wins. It is a disgrace for the world’s leading democracy to function in such a fundamentally undemocratic way.
The minority veto grinds government to a halt and prevents any party from implementing a coherent program on any issue. Far better that one party should win control, even if it’s the other one, and implement policies and programs that represent their philosophy. The other party can then run against the results and give us voters a meaningful choice. We ran against the Republican record and won. Now we should be implementing the program we campaigned on. It's one thing to be stymied by holding a razor thin majority and having to struggle over every single vote. It's quite different to be doing the same thing when you have 60%.
The health care reform bill, that no longer contains any reform, is the most dramatic recent example, but it is far from unique. Fifty one votes is what it should take to pass a bill and the health care debacle should serve as the impetus bring back majority rule to the Senate.