Going Nucular

The U.S. Senate broke into factions and each side sat down to discuss whether or not the Republican-led group would alter the rules strictly because the GOP is whining about not getting its way. A 217-year old rule of the filibuster (a pretty bizzare but admittedly needed policy) is blocking the Senate from being able to name a handful of federal judges to positions promised by Bush. Any historian worth her or his salt can tell you that the filibuster has often been used for backwards-minded and bigoted means; Strom Thurmond attempting to stall civil rights legislation by reading the Bible comes to mind. However, the filibuster exists for one reason and one very good reason: to prevent a tyranny of the majority. Anyone reading her or his copy of the Federalist (The Federalist Papers, to us civics students) knows that James Madison thought well in advance about one "glitch" in a democracy. When the majority begins carrying out mob rule is when those in the minority have the legal option of "applying the brakes", so to speak. The filibuster can be used to stall or slow up any due process the majority would otherwise attempt to ramrod into law. While this makes for "sausage-making" in the Senate (thankfully, good things can come to those who wait patiently) the process also keeps zealots from burning down the Reichstag, so to speak. Currently, the Senate is dominated by the conservative right-wing of the Republican party which thinks it has the mandate to shovel the Old Testament down the throats of the country whether the majority of its citizens do not. Now I'm not going to argue the democratic merits of the Senate (allow Rick Hertzberg in his brilliant Politics, released last fall, to do so), it is a shame to think of how a few Senators from sparsely-populated states (the radical right-wing makes up for really only about ten percent of the nation's population - look at those Mid-Western and Southern states; seventeen people live in Nebraska) can hijack the nation's judiciary, or laws protecting people's rights, or approve the Patriot Act. Now isn't the time or place to remodel the Senate, though I would be the first to suggest it, but it is the time for the GOP to slow down, take a deep breath, and see that by playing the "nuclear option," they will be the target of a knee-jerk wrath of voters in the 2006 midterms that the conservative agenda being laid out would be totally derailed. Americans like a swinging pendulum; what they don't like is self-righteous demagoguery posed as traditional values burning witches and snooping for communists in the army. Be forewarned, Bill Frist, or you'll be running for re-election to the Senate in 2008 instead of taking the nomination for president.