filibuster 
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SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
4/12/2021
The Media will be Key to Overcoming a Senate Filibuster on Voting Rights
by Donald A. Ritchie
"From the Boston Massacre to Watergate, the power of the media became manifest whenever editors and reporters, convinced of the seriousness of their cause, kept a story alive until they forced people to pay attention." TV journalist Roger Mudd kept the story of the Senate's filibuster of the Civil Rights Act in the public eye.
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SOURCE: NPR
3/30/2021
Pushing to End Filibuster, Dems Point to its History in the Civil Rights Era
Kevin Kruse explains that, while the Senate filibuster isn't inherently racist, it's been a popular tool for racist ends, and, rather than promoting compromise, has allowed a minority to kill legislation completely without the prospect of legislative give-and-take.
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SOURCE: MSNBC
3/26/2021
Mitch McConnell is Wrong. The Filibuster is, in Fact, Racist
by Keisha N. Blain
"Try as he might, McConnell cannot erase the historical record. To use his own words, 'There's no dispute among historians about that'."
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SOURCE: Washington Post
3/22/2021
Ed Markey’s Ahistorical Attack on the Filibuster?
According to the Post's Fact Check, Sen. Markey earns "Three Pinocchios" because, even though the filibuster became a prominent legislative tactic through the efforts of pro-slavery John C. Calhoun (and was prominently used by his ideological successors in th Jim Crow South), the South Carolina Senator didn't actually invent it. Three Pinocchios.
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SOURCE: New York Times
3/19/2021
The Senate’s ‘Talking Filibuster’ Might Rise Again
An overview of the history and prospects of the talking filibuster as some Senators signal openness to reforming the rules that currently require a 60-vote supermajority to move legislation.
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3/21/2021
Filibusters Create Legislative Paralysis. Make Them Rare or Eliminate Them
by Robert Brent Toplin
The only conceivable rationale for the filibuster – that it promotes compromise and bipartisan action – clearly no longer holds. It's time to allow a Senate majority to govern.
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SOURCE: Rolling Stone
3/16/2021
The Filibuster’s Ugly History and Why It Must Be Scrapped
by Sean Wilentz
Democrats fear what a Republican Senate might do without the filibuster; they should fear what Republican state legislatures will do unless they take away the tool of obstruction standing in the way of legislation to protect voting rights.
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SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
3/12/2021
History Reveals that Getting Rid of the Filibuster is the Only Option
by Nancy Beck Young
There's no evidence that the founders intended for anything like the filibuster, a way for a minority faction to obstruct legislation.
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SOURCE: Washington Post
3/16/2021
H.R. 1 Can’t Pass the Senate. But here are Some Voting Reforms that Could.
by Richard L. Hasen
An election law expert says that Democrats in Congress face a huge risk by pushing a large, comprehensive bill lumping voting rights protections with campaign finance and candidate disclosure provisions, instead of strategically exercising the powers already guaranteed under the Constituiton.
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SOURCE: Made By History at the Washington Post
3/18/2021
For 100 Years, the Filibuster has been Used to Deny Black Rights
by John Fabian Witt and Magdalene Zier
The filibuster is often associated with Southern conservatives' opposition to civil rights legislation, but it's important to note that the modern use of the tactic emerged to defeat the 1920 Dyer anti-lynching bill – the NAACP called the filibuster a "license to mobs to lynch unmolested."
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SOURCE: New York Times
3/11/2021
For Democracy to Stay, the Filibuster Must Go
The New York Times editorial board has come out in favor of ending the Senate filibuster, calling it "a weapon for strangling functional government."
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SOURCE: New York Times
3/5/2021
One Old Way of Keeping Black People From Voting Still Works
by Jamelle Bouie
The Senate filibuster thwarted a bill for federal supervison and certification of state elections, allowing Mississippi to ratify a white supremacist state constitution by suppressing the black vote.
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SOURCE: The New Republic
3/5/2021
The Manifest Destiny Marauders Who Gave the “Filibuster” Its Name
by John Pat Leary
The original "filibusters" were mercenaries who invaded multiple Latin American nations in the interest of subverting their governments and establishing slaveholding colonies. Today the name is tied to procedural efforts to subvert democracy and impose minority rule.
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SOURCE: Washington Post
3/2/2021
Democrats Can't Kill the Filibuster. But they Can Gut It
by Norman Ornstein
The veteran congressional analyst argues that there are reforms short of blowing up the filibuster that could win the support of two recalcitrant Democrats and allow the party to pass legislation, largely by returning to older Senate rules governing the filibuster.
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SOURCE: New York Times
2/8/2021
The Filibuster That Saved the Electoral College
Powerful Southern conservatives Strom Thurmond, Sam Ervin, and James Eastland led the 1970 filibuster that stopped the Senate from approving a constitutional amendment to elect the president by the popular vote.
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SOURCE: The Nation
2/4/2021
If Senators Won’t Kill the Filibuster, They Should at Least Sweat for It
by Elie Mystal
The Nation's law and politics columnist Elie Mystal examines the changes in Senate rules that have made the filibuster a low-effort, low-cost, and high-frequency event since the 1970s. Democrats can get more freedom to legislate without abolishing the filibuster if they change the rules.
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SOURCE: New York Magazine
1/31/2021
All the Lies They Told Us About the Filibuster
Columnist Jonathan Chait considers the politics of the Senate filibuster and Adam Jentleson's new book "Kill Switch," concluding that much of the mythology of the filibuster as a check on knee-jerk legislation is bogus.
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SOURCE: New York Times
1/27/2021
Make the Filibuster Difficult Again
by Burt Neuborne and Erwin Chemerinsky
Two law professors argue that there's no need to remove the Senate filibuster. Insisting that Senators actually talk through the filibuster and that no other Senate business could be conducted during one would return to Senate rules that made the filibuster rare, rather than a routine procedure.
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SOURCE: Mother Jones
1/26/2021
The Senate Has Used the Filibuster to Block Civil Rights Bills for Decades. That’s Another Reason for Dems to Ditch It
When the Senate filibuster was used sparingly, it was almost always to stop civil rights legislation. Now, it's used as a matter of routine to stop legislation. Democrats can choose to keep the filibuster or pass laws, but not both.
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SOURCE: The New Yorker
9/29/2020
Harry Reid on the Senate, the Supreme Court, and a Time for Major Change
Legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin interviewed former Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid, who suggests the time has come to remove the filibuster from the Senate rules in response to the undemocratic nature of the chamber.
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