Filibuster as Reality TV:How Alito Can Drive Corruption of Congress Home
Sat Jan 21, 2006 at 09:22:18 AM PDT
We've been having a crisis in our family. My mother-in-law has been in the hospital. I was visiting her there when the Alito hearings took place, catching snippets of testimony and questions while in the car or while watching TV in her room as she slept. Many emotions riled me as I listened, but what stunned me the most was the doctor that glanced up at the TV while performing a procedure on her and said, "What? They haven't confirmed that guy yet?" When I explained that these were just the hearings, he replied, "You mean there's actually a chance he won't get the votes?"
With the dire state of traditional media these days, this interchange is perhaps not surprising, but it shows our problem. Democratic leaders have decided that the culture of corruption is our winning theme for 2006. But with a media either asleep at the wheel or actively propagandizing for the right, we need some gripping moment -- some reality TV -- to engage average Americans and demonstrate that political change in 2006 is both possible and necessary.
A filibuster fight against Alito would provide just that sort of reality TV. A filibuster fight against Alito on national TV would do three things:
- It would prove that Democrats are willing to fight instead of just roll over, even if they can't win. A lot of disatisfied voters in this country still don't believe this. They've given up hope that things can change or that fighting the corrupt Republicans in power is even possible. Seeing a principled fight against Alito play out on TV would be a great way to get the message across to them. It would be like seeing their favorite underdog team fight their way into the playoffs.
- It would make good TV, so it would ensure that Democrats could get their message about Alito's extremism out directly to the people and circumvent the media's desire to play it only one way. It would also expose the issues to a much broader and less political audience who would be caught up in the drama of the fight.
- If the Republicans responded to the filibuster fight with the nuclear option, It would make the Republican corruption of Congress clear and obvious to average Americans. The recent editorial by Norm Ornstein and Thomas Mann did an excellent job detailing how the Republicans have subverted the rules and traditions of Congress and that it is this change in the way Congress works that has allowed so much corruption to run rampant. However, describing this subversion is a hell of a lot easier than demonstrating it to the average American who is too busy dealing with the many crises of everyday life in Bush's America to pay much attention to politics. A nice juicy reality TV filibuster fight might change that. A nice juicy reality TV filibuster fight that ends with Republicans cheating by changing the rules in the middle of the game would illustrate that abuse of power better than any TV ad or speech on a Sunday morning talking heads show could. It would provide Republicans another Terri Schiavo moment.
In other words, filibustering Alito is a win/win situation for Democrats. It will show voters that Democrats will fight for principle and not just on those rare occasions when they are assured of a win, it will show voters why Alito is too extreme to deserve to be on the Supreme Court, and it will provide a clear TV moment to demonstrate just how blatant Republicans have become in their abuse of Congressional power.
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