Dear Editor,
Now that the Democrats have control of both houses of Congress, citizens have high expectations that Dems must do what is necessary to solve the many crises we have been left with, after too many years of Republican control. To avoid the mistake from Obama’s presidency, the filibuster must be ended.
If the 60 percent supermajority filibuster remains, Trump’s Republicans will assure gridlock. Democrats must not make the mistake of playing defense—worrying about what happens if Republicans regain the Senate in 2022 without the filibuster in place. Now they have a majority; now is the time to play offense.
Majority rule is 50 percent plus one. 60 percent is flat-out undemocratic. Alexander Hamilton wrote in Federalist 22, that a supermajority is poison. Rather than encourage cooperation, the filibuster “substitutes the pleasure, caprice or artifices of a minority for the regular deliberations and decisions of a respectable majority.”
Contact your Senators and especially, Senator Joe Manchin, now!
Bruce Joffe
Piedmont, Calif.
Bruce:
Why…it’s almost as if you had no faith that Mitch McConnell acts in good faith.
The Editor