Former Senator Barbara Boxer made me feel a ittle better today about the dysfunctional U.S. Senate and Democrats’ plan to deal with the latest Republican power grab. Boxer stated simply that Senate Republicans have BETRAYED Senate Democrats and the American people about replacing RBG’s SCOTUS seat ASAP. That was the word she used. Boxer also stated that Senate Democrats must deal with the world as it is now, and this means doing away with the filibuster and expanding the SCOTUS.
This was said on Chris Hayes’s Show on MSNBC. I don’t have the link for now, but I thought it was important to relay this information to you all. Boxer may be a former senator, but she has to stay in touch with her fellow Democrats in the Senate. And Boxer has been a good soldier for her senate colleagues. A good example of this was her campaigning for Joe Lieberman after he lost his primary in 2006.
Yes, I hated that she and her fellow Senate Democrats gave the middle finger to progressive voters in CT, and we all came to regret that move. But my point is that Boxer is not some boat rocker. She has more freedom to let her true colors fly now, but I can’t think that she would really get ahead of her former Senate Democrats.
And her main point is something that has bothered the shit out of me since 2008. Senate Republicans have openly been destroying the U.S. Senate since Obama won that election. It’s no secret what Moscow Mitch and his ilk have been up to. But Senate Democrats have been playing by some set of old rules that is just plain stupid.
And Boxer’s use of the word “betrayed” tells us what one of those old rules or norms was: the word of their fellow senators.
And this is where I bang my head on a wall. The cynical view on how the U.S. Senate used to function was that a Senator’s word was his bond. A senator could lie to his/her constituents all they wanted, but you didn’t lie to your fellow senators or go back on your word. They were all members of a club, and you just didn’t shit on your fellow club members.
I read about this before, and it is a common group think or “norm” for the select few.
But I kept thinking to myself over the years since 2008 about Senate Democrats, “McConnell is back stabbing you all! Why the hell don’t you fight back! WTF?”
I’m one of McConnell’s constituents, and I have watched that fucking prick for years. He routinely pisses and shits all over his fellow Kentuckians. If I and countless others across the country could see what an evil bastard McConnell is, what the hell took the Democrats so long to notice??? It was PREDICTABLE what McConnell would do when a SCOTUS seat came open.
However, it appears that Senate Democrats have finally come to their senses. I just heard Senator Schumer say that McConell has “defiled” and “destroyed” the U.S. Senate. Thank God Schumer used those words. Past Senate norms has the usual BS about not attacking individual senators or saying “my friends from across the aisle...”
We live in a different world now.
I hope that Senate Democrats — God willing they regain political power next year - will take the steps to undo the damage done to our democracy by Moscow Mitch. Kill the filibuster. Reform the judiciary.