I see no lies here
Elizabeth Warren speaks the unassailable truth about the filibuster:
Signaling a coming case by progressives, Sen. Elizabeth Warren told Axios the Senate’s legislative filibuster, which requires 60 votes for most legislation, wasn’t a creation of the founding fathers.
What she’s saying: “The filibuster has deep roots in racism, and it should not be permitted to serve that function, or to create a veto for the minority. In a democracy, it’s majority rules.”
The big picture: A leading theme among progressive Democrats is to ramp up moral pressure on more skeptical members of their caucus who are skeptical of reforming the filibuster.Rep. Hank Johnson (D-Ga.) also played on this theme in a conversation with Axios’ Kadia Goba.
“It’s important that we not continue to allow the filibuster to be a tool used to suppress the right to vote, that black people have fought and died for,” Johnson said, adding that he thinks moderate Democrats should consider changes to the Senate rule that would exclude it from applying to voting rights legislation.
–Playing on these members’ legacy is also an emerging theme in their persuasion tactics, senior Democratic aides tell Axios. Do they really want to be remembered as standing in the way of the administration’s ability to enact significant policy when Democrats not only control the White House but both chambers of Congress?
Context: Warren explained to Axios that, during the Constitutional Convention, “the founders debated whether to require a supermajority in either House of Congress, and decided that government would function more effectively if both the Senate and the House worked by simple majority.”
Filibustering the John Lewis Voting Rights Act would be consistent with the origins of the filibuster, which was developed to protect Jim Crow. And, in addition, the filibuster has most commonly been used to defend minority interests that are already massively overrepresented. And indeed the malapportionment of the Senate is the only reason it has a chance of surviving for now.