Senate

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• SOURCE: Inside Higher Ed
  5/11/2021
  

  Academics Address the Filibuster

  Seth Cotlar notes that history doesn't directly inform present action, but since advocates for retaining the filibuster had used many bad historical claims in their arguments it is only fair for historians to weigh in on the debate. 

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• SOURCE: Scholars For Reform
  5/4/2021
  

  Scholars For Reform Sends Open Letter to U.S. Senate Urging Filibuster Reform

  Historians are among the scholars urging the Senate to reform the filibuster, arguing that a supermajority requirement to pass legislation is unsupported by the historical evidence of the framers' intentions and today distributes power in an undemocratic way. 

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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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• SOURCE: New York Times
  3/19/2021
  

  ‘This Is Jim Crow in New Clothes’: Raphael Warnock's First Senate Speech

  by Jamelle Bouie

  Raphael Warnock's debut speech in the Senate connected the passage of voting rights legislation today and the climate of debate over the Reconstruction era Civil Rights Act of 1875. 

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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: 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: 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: Bill Moyers
  2/16/2021
  

  When a Trial is Not a Trial

  by James D. Zirin

  Attorney James Zirin, author of a book on Trump's history of litigation, critiques the second impeachment trial as a sham. 

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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: MSNBC
  2/8/2021
  

  Vice President Kamala Harris Could Kill the Filibuster Herself

  Columnist Hayes Brown looks at Kamala Harris's tiebreaking role in the context of the changing prestige and power of vice presidents from John Adams to Mike Pence. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  1/23/2021
  

  How Alvin the Beagle Helped Usher in a Democratic Senate

  On the surface, Raphael Warnock's campaign ads featured a cute beagle. But they reflected a calculated – and successful – effort to counter racial dynamics in Georgia politics to bring about a historic victory. 

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• 1/10/2021
  

  Historical Rhetoric Resurfaced in Georgia's Runoff Election

  by Alicia K. Jackson

  Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock didn't just defeat their Republican opponents on January 5, they defeated a number of racist tropes that have characterized Georgia politics since Reconstruction. 

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• SOURCE: New York Times
  1/5/2021
  

  Will the Democrats Win in Georgia?

  by Jason Sokol

  Eugene Talmadge served three terms as Georgia's governor through a combination of racism, attacks on government, and a state electoral system that grossly overrepresented rural whites. The January 5 runoff will test whether at least one of those dynamics has changed in Georgia politics.