Flamm commends Senate for reining in filibuster abuse

Matt Flamm, Candidate for Palatine Township Democratic Committeeman, wrote this letter to the Daily Herald:

Cokie and Steve Roberts are half right (“Fallout from the ‘nuclear option’ in the Senate,” 12/3/13). They correctly say that “Republicans were totally unjustified in using the filibuster to block three of President Obama’s eminently qualified nominees to the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals” and “were trying in effect to overturn the results of the last election.” But they are wrong when they blame Democrats for modifying the filibuster to stop that abuse.

One of the “core values of democracy” is preserving minority rights, as the authors say. But another core value is protecting the majority against having their choice nullified by an extremist minority. The authors suggest no other way that Democrats could have stopped what they agree was a misuse of the filibuster.

Calling this a “nuclear option” is a wild exaggeration. Even total abolition of the filibuster would not be “nuclear” in its effect, and this moderate modification of it is hardly worthy of such a bombastic characterization.

The filibuster is grossly undemocratic. It allows Senators from the 21 least-populated states to block the will of the vast majority of Americans. The Constitution already gives small states protection by giving each state two senators, regardless of population; giving them more power is wrong and probably unconstitutional. It was the filibuster that kept civil rights laws from passing until 1964, long after most Americans supported them. But whether or not you agree that it should be abolished, reforming it is long past due.

Matt Flamm
Candidate for Palatine Township Democratic Committeeman
Palatine