Hypocrisy as Ideology

Remember the terrifying days when the Republican Party was working on their “permenant majority?” The Democrats were outnumbered in every branch of the Federal Government, and the Republicans flaunted rules wherever they could get away with it. One thing that stood in their way of completely rolling right over the Democratic opposition in the Senate was the filibuster, a long-established guardian of minority opinions. Well, you know how Republicans feel about minorities (ooooh, low blow), and they weren’t having it. There would be one voice, and no dissent, you know, like a real Republic...like Caesar’s Rome.

That’s when they started floating the idea of their “Nuclear Option,” once again showcasing how Republicans care more about labeling things than about actual substance. With this, they were going to eliminate the filibuster, which they thought was undemocratic and being used by Democrats as sore losers to stop Republicans from doing the people’s business. How dare those Democrats… the Republicans would never act so shamefully.

Well, they didn’t proceed, and the filibuster remained, luckily for them. See, now that the Democrats have a majority, the Republicans have decided that, in fact, they kinda dig the filibuster. Before, the filibuster was the plain girl at the party, but now the Democrats have cornered all the hot chicks, and the Republicans are sad and lonely in the corner, and willing to lower their standards a bit to avoid going home alone.

How much do Republicans love filibusters? Well, during the last session, the filibuster was used 100 times. By comparison, when the Republicans were last in charge and the Democrats needed to use the filibuster, it was used only 34 times. What made the Republicans change their mind about filibusters? It certainly wasn’t some change in ideology, simply a change in strategy, which really IS the core Republican ideology. The Republican Party claims to have a platform that is pro-life, small government, state’s rights, but really all of that is lip service. Their real platform is whatever puts and keeps them in power. Right now, the only thing stopping them from being irrelevant in the Senate, as they mostly are in the House, is their ability to extend debate through use of a filibuster.

But let’s not let the Democrats off the hook. See, they’re not so great with the strategy. Democrats didn’t win majorities and the White House with some grand strategy, they stumbled into it almost be accident because the Republicans screwed things up so thoroughly that everyone in America started to realize that Democrats were the ones with all the good ideas. Except some Democrats are now contemplating the idea of abolishing the filibuster so that they can roll right over the Republicans in the Senate. Hopefully, they’ll use their nerdy, policy-wonk skills to, unlike those arrogant Republicans, realize that the American people can be fickle and that their power is not permenant. To abolish the filibuster may help them today, but then they’ll be kicking themselves when the Republicans are back in power and trying to push through the Drilling-Oil-In-National-Parks-For-Use-In-Fire-Bombs-for-Abortion-Clinics ACT (or DOINPFUIFBAC ACT...catchy, right?)