Go ahead, go nuclear
Everyone from MoveOn to People for the American Way is telling us we should call our senators to oppose the nuclear option. But from a progressive point of view, why not go nuclear? Ok it will hurt in the short run, but eventually the political pendulum will swing back and the dems will come to power. If the no filibuster benefits the extreme wings of either party, then the progressive wing of the democrats will be able to push through their more progressive legislation.
posted by Victor Laszlo @ 4/08/2005
1 comments
1 Comments:
I don't think you really want the extremes running anything, let alone everything, and I say that as a progressive/reform-minded "extremist." Not only can the 'bad guys' do a lot of damage before the 'good guys' can get back into power (if they ever do -- e.g., gerrymandering and other institutionalization of one party's power), but the populace is likely to become ever more polarized and ever less trusting of any government action (and that's going to go against progressives in the long run).
Part of the reason that the filibuster has been so powerful in judicial nominations is that it eliminates the nutters with lifetime tenure, which is the biggest fear (again, not just that the 'bad guys' may stack things, but that the next pendulum swing could take 100 years, instead of a decade). A President may want somebody extreme, but at least they need to be sure that they find somebody with credentials so outstanding that they get confirmed despite a partisan leaning -- if there's no requirement of that, then eventually we'll end up with judges who barely have the legal training for thier jobs, being selected first for their ideology, and that benefits nobody.
Just my first thoughts. All this presumes that civility in itself is not a virtue to be sought...
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