Mitch McConnell met with reporters and called the Senate Democrats’ planned filibuster reform genuine radicalism.
McConnell told reporters:
McConnell objects to Democrats’ plans to change filibuster rules to pass democracy/election legislation. “Make no mistake about it, this is genuine radicalism,†he says. “They want to turn the Senate into the House. They want to make it easy to fundamentally change the country.†pic.twitter.com/p9EHFdt2Re
— Sahil Kapur (@sahilkapur) January 4, 2022
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Sen. McConnell is wrong. Genuine radicalism is allowing one senator to deny the majority of the Senate the ability to carry out the will of the people. The 60 vote rule is radically undemocratic. The ability of one senator to block legislation from being discussed on the Senate floor by doing nothing more than saying no is genuine radicalism.
Mitch McConnell knows that the filibuster does not exist in the Constitution. The right of the minority to control the agenda in the Senate is a fundamental tyranny of the minority.
Minority Leader McConnell’s comments suggest that he knows that real reform is a serious possibility. Senate Republicans don’t want filibuster reform because if they had to start keeping the floor and mount talking filibusters, the filibuster would virtually die.
Democrats like Joe Manchin are not opposed to filibuster reform. They are opposed to ending the filibuster itself.
Sen. McConnell, and his strategy of abusing the Senate rules to obstruct Democratic presidents, is the reason why filibuster reform could happen within the next two weeks.
Mitch McConnell broke the Senate, and Democrats are closer than ever to fixing it.
Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.
Awards and Professional Memberships
Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
