Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) appeared on MSNBC’s The ReidOut show, where she repeated her call to fellow Senate Democrats to put an end to the filibuster. Sen Warren told host Joy Reid that one of the key reasons Democrats needed to end the filibuster was because “it was born of racism”, a factor which by itself, should end any and all further debate about preserving it. The full ReidOut segment is available here but the relevant clip is below.
Sen Warren told host Joy Reid;“Our [Democrats] problem is not just a $15 an hour minimum wage. Our problem is the filibuster, because it blocks us on everything that doesn’t fit through reconciliation. So, we really want to make changes to protect the vote…gun safety…immigration…child care, we have got to deal with the filibuster…..We just need to pitch the thing out. It was born of racism, and a way to try to keep the Southern Senators happy by giving them extraordinary power to be able to block any civil rights legislation, or any anti-lynching legislation, and that’s what it was used for right up until the mid 1960s. And now, [Senator]Mitch McConnell and the Republicans have resuscitated it with a vengeance, first to use it against President Obama, and have indicated they are going to use it against President Biden.”
Think about that, folks. The burning topic of debate among Senate Democrats right now, is whether or not to preserve the filibuster, which as Senator Warren correctly points out, was born of racism, and specifically tailored towards blocking minorities from making gains on the civil rights front. Coincidentally, Southern Senators in 2021, want to preserve the same filibuster so as to strip minorities, majority of whom identify as Democrats, of among other things, their sacred right to vote.
Simply put Senate Democrats, there can be no equivocating on this filibuster issue. It has to go. As Senator Warren correctly put it, “We [Democrats] are in Washington to fulfill our promise to the American people, to make this government work for them, not to give Mitch McConnell a veto.” Any Senate Democrat who votes to preserve the filibuster knowing full well such a decision hands Mitch McConnell a veto with which to will rob millions of minorities of their sacred right to vote, does not deserve their seat. Plain and simple!!
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