The Senate is the Key to Progressive Victories

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Sunday October 09, 2011 · 2:32 PM PDT

2011/10/09 · 14:32

One thing I love about being a progressive is that in the longer term, we always win. Conservatives can only delay their imminent defeats. Take the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2009 for example. Conservatives in the Senate delayed Civil Rights and Health Care Reform for about thirty years, despite the House and the White House generally supporting it. Eventually though, the Senate’s filibuster couldn’t delay the bill any longer.

If we fix the Senate, progress will speed up dramatically. When us Democrats had the trifecta in 2009-2011, the Senate was the only obstacle to progressive bills. The repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell, Health Care Reform, Wall Street Reform, the Stimulus, and a Food Safety bill were all significantly delayed or water-downed in the Senate during 2009-2011. Meanwhile the Public Option, Cap and Trade, the DREAM act, the Disclose Act, and the expiration of the Bush Tax Cuts for the wealthy were all killed in the Senate. All of these bills had support from the White House, the House of Representatives, and the needed 50 US senators. Also numerous well-qualified federal nominees like Goodwin Liu, Elizabeth Warren and treaties like Copenhagen and START were either stopped from confirmation or delayed for way too long. Some might argue that we need the filibuster as a safeguard against a possible Republican trifecta. But the truth is liberal Senators can’t use the filibuster, at least that is successfully. Conservative Senators have “successfully” filibustered (in other words: stopped the bill from reaching the floor) for about a century now. Liberals almost never successfully filibuster. For instance, look at all the controversial bills passed during the Bush Administration, none of them got to 60 votes. One of the most controversial laws, the 2003 Bush Tax Cuts, was passed through Cheney’s tie-breaking vote! The liberals' attempt to filibuster some of the extreme Bush judicial nominees largely failed because of the “Gang of 14”. If you compare that to some of the most “controversial” bills during the Obama administration, you see that almost all of the laws (e.g. Health Care Reform and the Stimulus) passed with sixty or more votes.
The Senate used to be very respected and prestigious body. After the Civil War, it has turned into a corrupt block of progress. Conservatives (in particular southern conservatives) abused "unlimited debate" terribly. They were masters at using parliamentary tricks to bring the whole Senate to a stop. Their power declined substantially after the requirement to sustain a filibuster was increased to 41 (originally was 34) in 1976. But in response they just use the filibuster to hold non-controversial bills hostage in exchange for not voting on somewhat controversial bills (see: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...). Republicans recently broke the record of filibusters used. Thus progressives alike, should applaud Majority Leader Reid for taking a great step forward by changing the Senate rules through a majority vote. If we can eliminate the filibuster and achieve the trifecta again, a tidal wave of progressive legislation will break through.

Poll

28 votes Show Results

What should be done about the filibuster?

28 votes Vote Now!

What should be done about the filibuster?

Nothing

1 vote

Lower the # of Senators needed to break a filibuster to 55

8 votes

Bring the # back to 67 to break filibuster

3 votes

Completely eliminate it

15 votes

Eliminate the Senate itself

1 vote

I'm PSYCHED for 2012!

Marcos9287

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Saturday October 01, 2011 · 5:43 PM PDT

2011/10/01 · 17:43

I do not know about you guys, but I’m psyched for 2012! I am psyched about voting for the man who not only got two-dozen major al Qaeda commanders, but the devil himself, Osama bin Laden. I am psyched about voting for the man who put two GREAT historic, solid, liberal justices. I am psyched about voting for the man who saved Libya from the bloodthirsty and evil dictator Gaddafi. I am psyched about voting for the President that “has accomplished more in the last two years on behalf of LGBT Americans than was accomplished in the last 40 years" –vice president of Human Rights Campaign. I am psyched about voting for the leader who steered us out Iraq and who is steering us out of Afghanistan. I am psyched about voting for the man who saved us from the Second Great Depression. I am psyched about voting for the man who constructed the first ever consumer watchdog agency. I am psyched about voting for the man who invested tens and tens of billions of dollars in clean energy. I am psyched about voting for the man who made great new national parks, who fought the tobacco companies and won, who prohibited companies from denying children because of “preexisting conditions”, who overhauled the health care system, who is beginning the strictest ever environmental regulations. I am psyched about voting for the great diplomat in foreign policy, instead of a cowboy. And most of all, I am psyched to vote for the President who even after tough defeats, is still fighting hard for every-day Americans.

I am also psyched for what’s to come… Ginsburg (78 years) and likely Scalia (who is 75 and on the heavy side) are likely to retire before 2016, so progressives could flip the court back to liberals! Stricter environmental regulations are set to start after 2012. The DREAM act is still a possibility, considering the growing political power of the Latinos. The repeal of DOMA will happen, the only question is when. With Obama in the White House and rapidly increasing support for gay rights, I can realistically see the repeal happening around 2015 or 2016. I can't wait for the public to see the difference between our President and the GOP nominee. So...R U PSYCHED for 2012?!?!?!?!?!!!

Poll

61 votes Show Results

On a 1-10 scale, with 10 being extremely enthusiastic, 5 being indifferent and 1 being dreading the thought

61 votes Vote Now!

On a 1-10 scale, with 10 being extremely enthusiastic, 5 being indifferent and 1 being dreading the thought

28 votes

6 votes

11 votes

4 votes

2 votes

0 votes

1 vote

4 votes

Senate Rankings

Marcos9287

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday September 27, 2011 · 7:55 PM PDT

2011/09/27 · 19:55

Hey everyone! Below are my rankings of US Senators and their placement on the political spectrum. First off though, I should tell you my analysis is based purely on the senators’ actions NOT on their words. For example, some call Warner a conservative democrat because he joined the Evan Bayh “moderate” group in 2009. However, Warner has yet to have ever done anything conservative or even centrist in Congress. So I rate him a “solid liberal”. I try to justify some of my rankings of the senators in parenthesis. Keeping this in mind, here are my ratings on all 100 of them.

Socialist Senators:
1. Sanders

Solid Liberal Senators
34 (all of them take liberal positions almost 95-100% of time)

2. Akaka
3. Inouye
4. Cardin
5. Milkulski
6. Stabbenow
7. Klobuchar
8. Menendez
9. Gillibrand (outspoken liberal hero)
10. Schumer
11. Durbin
12. Shaheen
13. Leahy
14. Franken (outspoken liberal hero)
15. Levin
16. Bennet
17. Uduall (CO)
18. Uduall (NM)
19. Bingaman
20. Blumenthal
21. Boxer
22. Brown
23. Cantwell
24. Coons
25. Harkin
26. Lautenberg
27. Merkley
28. Murray
29. Reed
30. Whitehouse
31. Wyden
32. Warner (hesitant liberal because of their constituencies)
33. McCaskill (hesitant liberal because of her constituencies)
34. Kerry

Moderate Liberals:
Key: * = More of a political positioning then view difference
10 (all of them take liberal positions 83% to 93%)

35. Carper (favored lowering estate tax)
36. Webb (voted against Goodwin Liu)
37. Bill Nelson (favored lowering estate tax)
38. Kohl (voted for 1st bush tax-cuts)
39. Begich (pro-gun, and pro drilling in Alaska Reserve)
40. Feinstein (voted for 1st bush tax-cuts)
41. Casey (liberal on absolutely everything -- except he is pro-life and anti-stem cell research)
42. Rockefeller (friend of big coal)
43. Reid (centrist on gun control, hesitant on gay marriage, centrist on abortion)
44. Tester (conservative on gun control, voted against DREAM Act, against gay marriage)

Centrists with Liberal Tendencies:
4 (all of them take liberal positions at least 45% and take about 30% centrist, 25% conservative)

45. Johnson (favors broadening death penalty, voted for 2001 Bush tax-cuts, voted to confirm Alito, voted to relax gun regulations) (SD)
46. Baucus (MT) (pro-gun, not very supportive of public option, pro-death penalty, anti-gay marriage, pro drilling in ANWR, voted to repeal estate tax, voted for 2001 Bush tax-cuts, supportive of low income tax on wealthy)
47.Conrad (ND) (pro-drilling in sensitive areas, anti-public option, pro-life, voted for Alito, opposed to gay marriage)
48. Hagan (against DREAM ACT, against act weakening tobacco industry, anti-gun-control)*

Centrist (one of a kind):
49. Lieberman (Iraq, endorsed McCain, anti-public option, and numerous other issues)

Moderate Conservatives *:
8

50. Pryor (60% conservative, 30 centrist, 10% liberal)
51. Landrieu (60% conservative, 30% centrist, 10% liberal)
52. Manchin (70% conservative, 25% centrist, 5% liberal)
53. Ben Nelson (85% conservative, 10% centrist, 5% liberal)
54. Brown (85% conservative, 15% liberal)
55. Collins (90% conservative, 10% liberal)
56. Snowe (85% conservative, 15% liberal)
57. Murkowski (85% conservative, 15% liberal)

*I feel it is unnecessary to justify that Nelson and the other democrats are moderate conservative considering their high profile in watering down Obama legislation. Manchin literally shot a rifle at cap-and-trade in one his campaign ads!

Bipartisan Conservatives:
4 (show wiliness to compromise, but are at least 93% conservative)

58. Alexander
59. Graham
60. Lugar
61. Hatch

Libertarian:
62. Paul

Solid Conservatives:
29 (95% to 100% conservative)

63. Ayotte
64. Barrasso
65. Blunt
66. Boozman
67. Burr
68. Chambliss
69. Coats (moderate on gun control)
70. Cochran (pro-stem cell research)
71. Corker
72. Crapo
73. Enzi
74. Grassley (a little bipartisan)
75. Heller
76. Hoeven
77. Hutchinson
78. Isakson
79. Kirk
80. Johanns
81. McConnell
82. Portman
83. Risch
84. Sessions
85. Shelby
86. Roberts
87. Wicker
88. Moran
89. McCain
90. Thune
91. Toomey

Radical or Corrupt Conservatives:
8 (often go to extreme conservativeness and/or are corrupt, half supported by Tea Party)

92. DeMint (informal leader of Senate Tea Party Caucus)
93. Johnson (endorsed by Tea Party and an extreme conservative, called scientists who believe in climate change “crazy”)
94. Lee (Tea Party endorsed)
95. Rubio (Tea Party endorsed)
96. Cornyn (has fought even the most basic and bipartisan regulations on his main campaign supporters: Big Oil and Natural Gas, has outright lied numerous times)
97. Kyl (“not intended to be a factual statement”, need I say more?!)
98. Vitter (is often in a lonely minority of one or three in opposing bipartisan bills or nominees)
99. Coburn (numerous times has single-handedly pulled the entire Senate to a stop so to prevent nonpartisan bills)
100. Inhofe (called global warming the “greatest hoax”, largest contributors are oil and gas, one of only 9 senators to vote against prohibiting “cruel, inhuman or degrading” treatment of prisoners, won’t even hire any one gay, once said he “was proud” that his family had never had any gay relationships)

Any thoughts on these rankings?

Poll

76 votes Show Results

My favorite senator is.....

76 votes Vote Now!

My favorite senator is.....

Franken

7 votes

Sanders

34 votes

Gillibrand

9 votes

Reid

3 votes

Klobuchar

4 votes

Durbin

4 votes

Schumer

2 votes

Other

13 votes

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