Who makes the best case against Joe Biden’s and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer’s push to end the filibuster? That would be young Senator Barack Obama, who gave an eloquent and accurate argument against Republicans lifting the filibuster in 2005.
That doesn’t seem to jibe with what Biden said during his “press conference” yesterday when he likened the filibuster rule in the Senate to a “Jim Crow relic.” It is not. It’s a rule that makes sense based on what Obama said 15 years ago:
If Obama thinks that the filibuster is a relic of Jim Crow why is he seen in this video arguing to keep it? pic.twitter.com/lWZ03LGYKY
— Carmine Sabia (@CarmineSabia) March 26, 2021
Remember this video when you hear Obama, Biden, and the Democrats try to say the filibuster is racist. If you’re having a hard time wrapping your head around that notion, it’s because you’re not an idiot. Many on the left, however, are idiots and they’re going to buy the “Jim Crow” line like guppies.
“And if all this takes eliminating the filibuster, another Jim Crow relic, in order to secure the God-given rights of every American, then that’s what we should do,” Obama said last year.
The filibuster rule was designed to prevent majority party absolute rule. It forced Senators to come together with minority parties to better represent the will of all the people, not just a slight majority. Eliminating it now (or ever) removes an important part of our republic. But it’s not codified. It’s not part of the Constitution. It can be eliminated quite easily by a majority party. Past majority leader Mitch McConnell was called on to eliminate it several times, but refused.
The only thing stopping it from happening now is one Senator, West Virginia’s Joe Manchin. Biden is doing everything he can to bring Manchin over to the dark side, going so far as to hire Manchin’s wife to a cushy post.
Bloomberg reports that Biden is planning to nominate the wife of West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a conservative “Blue Dog” Democrat and a critical senatorial swing vote, to a “regional economic development position.”
President Joe Biden plans to nominate Gayle Conelly Manchin — an educator and the wife of Democratic Senator Joe Manchin, a key swing vote — to a regional economic development position after the lawmaker has emerged as a key swing vote in the chamber.
The White House said Friday that Gayle Manchin is Biden’s pick for federal co-chair of the Appalachian Regional Commission, an economic development partnership between the federal government and 13 states, including West Virginia, where the senator and his wife reside.
Nothing has changed in culture, policy, or situation that would require a change of heart by Barack Obama over the filibuster. His argument in 2005 against its elimination stands today. The only difference is Democratic desperation.