I appreciated the Jim Fossel’s insightful June 27 commentary on the benefits of the Senate filibuster but must strongly pushback on his solution for Democrats to deal with the rule (“Senators, not Senate rules, make laws“).
Fossel writes “… electing the right people is how you pass the right policies, rather than altering any kind of legislative procedure.” True enough — if the election “playing field” is level in all states.
But thanks to the “Big Lie” Trump and his sycophants have promoted that the election was stolen, complicit state-level Republicans in red states, anxious for his support, passed voter suppression laws. Like the Jim Crow laws of the post-Reconstruction era in the South, these laws, based on the false claim of election fraud, will undoubtedly be an obstacle for many Black Americans and other minorities to overcome in 2022 and beyond.
Moreover, it appears the conservative block on the U.S. Supreme Court has demonstrated support for such laws. In 2013, the Supreme Court lifted the sanctions put in place on those southern states by the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and its recent decision continues this downward spiral in voting suppression.
This concerted effort in voter suppression shows Fossel’s solution in overcoming the filibuster — for the Democrats to simply elect more people to Congress — is a false narrative and a canard. Maybe altering the legislative procedure is the only alternative left for Democrats.
George Martin
Mount Vernon
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