Does the progressive community fully understand what is at stake if the "nuclear" option is successful? Yesterday I spoke with a very progressive and politically active friend. This friend said to me that the Senate "had the filibuster only for the last hundred years. We survived without it before and we'll survive without it again." The truth is exactly opposite--the Senate has alwas had unlimited debate. On the Senate web site is a very brief
history of the filibuster. Please use this link to inform yourself and others.
Even this brief history states that the option of unlimited debate has always been available to any senator. It was not always called a "filibuster" but the ability to stop a vote on anything through the use of unlimited debate has been part of the Senate since its inception and is critical to the protection of political viewpoints that do not command a majority of votes.
My friend was quoting another bit of republican revisionist history currently in circulation, but nothing I said could convince him he had his facts wrong. Why panic? What is truly at stake is American democracy and crucial to our form of democracy is the protection of minority rights. I'll stop now, because more eloquent arguments opposing the nuclear option are being made on the floor of the Senate right now.