LETTER: Perhaps it’s time for the filibuster to go
In response to your Monday editorial on Democrats “killing the filibuster”:
Labeling any Democratic proposal as “radical” is misleading and divisive and sets up readers to dismiss it out of hand. There are reasonable arguments for maintaining or dismissing the filibuster. The issue I have is that the editorial makes no mention of the tactic’s use to obstruct civil rights legislation, a practice that continued until 1965 when LBJ garnered enough votes to break the filibuster.
In recent years, Mitch McConnell has employed it to obstruct every Democratic proposal in order to argue the Democrats couldn’t get anything done. His insistence on keeping the filibuster for two years, until the mid-term elections, is so he can again say the Democrats couldn’t accomplish anything and GOP control of the Senate is needed to move the country forward.
Maybe the filibuster needs to be retired.