Opinion: Harris is wrong about eliminating the filibuster for abortion rights

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Posted on 09/25/2024 7:11:17 PM PDT by bitt

Democrats might favor abolishing the filibuster now. But what happens when they lose power?

Senate Democrats made a mistake when they eliminated the filibuster for lower court judges in 2013. They’re making the same mistake again — except this time with a far less certain payoff.

Vice President Kamala Harris said Tuesday that she favors lowering the existing 60-vote threshold to a bare majority to enact legislation to protect abortion rights nationwide. “I think we should eliminate the filibuster for Roe and get us to the point where 51 votes would be what we need to actually put back in law the protections for reproductive freedom,” she told Wisconsin Public Radio.

I would love to see a federal law that gives women nationwide the ability to decide for themselves whether to continue an unwanted or dangerous pregnancy. Harris’s solution is, unfortunately, the wrong way to do it.

Readers, if you disagree and are bristling with indignation at this statement, let me say: This is not an easy call. The filibuster is an infuriating, undemocratic impediment to progress — except, that is, when it is a welcome guardrail against extremism. How partisans feel about the filibuster on any given day tends to have a lot to do with whether their political party holds the Senate majority. Democrats and Republicans who lament the existence of the filibuster are thankful for it when they find themselves in the minority.

But it takes self-restraint, and an ability to see around corners, not to junk the filibuster when your party is in power — especially because partisans are convinced the other side will make that move if given the chance. Yet the ping-pong nature of Senate control means that neither Republicans nor Democrats can be confident that doing away with the filibuster won’t end up

(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...

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1 posted on 09/25/2024 7:11:17 PM PDT by bitt

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