[PAA-Discuss] Action Page: The Filibuster, And How It Started By Mistake

[JULI KRING]

ear Friends and Activists: 
There is a strong movement to really Stop The Filibuster this time. 
e already have more than 12,000 submissions on the action page. Now 
s the time to really jump on and push this one over the top. 
Stop The Filibuster action page: 
ttp://www.peaceteam.net/action/pnum1104.php 
And it is critically important for every one of our participants who 
s active on Facebook to go to the new Facebook page, The People 
obby, and SHARE a post with the action page link to all your 
acebook friends. Only by actively sharing something a high 
ercentage of times you visit the page can we really ignite the 
ocial media effect on this. 
The People Lobby page on Facebook: 
ttp://www.facebook.com/peoplelobby 
Again, for those not on Facebook we are working on building out a 
egular website to deploy parallel functions. 
But what's most interesting about today's alert is we have done some 
ntensive research on how the filibuster came into accidental 
xistence in the history of the Senate, and can report the all 
ccurate facts to you now. 
Many are under the mistaken belief that our founding fathers intended 
or a minority to be able to filibuster anything, some kind of extra 
rotection for the minority. Nothing could be further from the truth. 
he original Senate rules provided for a procedure of "calling the 
uestion" which was a way for a simple majority to call for end of 
ebate. The Continental Congress had this embodied in Rule 10, which 
erived from British parliamentary practice. 
It should also be noted that the rights of the minority, with respect 
o the less populated states, was already protected by the Great 
ompromise of 1787, which provided each state with the same number of 
enators, regardless of population. 
But in those days, our founding fathers were gentlemen, and would 
ever have used a procedural rule for brazenly dilitory purposes or 
ust to obstruct. The rule providing for calling the question was 
sed so few times in the early days that in 1806 Aaron Burr proposed 
ust dropping it, and so it was dropped by simple majority vote. 
It was not until at least 30 years later in 1837 (some say 1841), 
hat some perverse senators got the idea that they could exploit the 
ack of a rule to allow cutting off debate to literally talk forever, 
s a means of holding the Senate hostage to an ultimatum of the 
inority. And even at that there were relatively few filibusters. 
nly 33 in the 77 years from 1840 to 1917. And that is when the 
ituation became critical. 
There was a filibuster of 23 days against a bill to arm American 
erchant ships to be able to protect themselves in the aftermath of 
he sinking of the Lusitania by a German U-Boat. And that crisis led 
o the enactment of the first cloture rule (unfortunately by way of 
upermajority), at best a PARTIAL restoration of what had been lost 
y the careless discontinuation of the original "calling the 
uestion" procedure by simple majority vote. 
So in fact, and again contrary to much misconception, there has never 
een a Senate rule "authorizing" a filibuster. There have only been 
epeated attempts to reign in the obstructionist abuse as it became 
ore and more outrageous and frequent over the years. 
We are once again at such a point, where the Republican party has so 
ittle left of gentlemen in them, that they are determined to 
ilibuster literally everything, a new tyranny of the minority. And 
nce again the majority in the Senate can in fact act to change the 
ules to address this new level of sheer legislative spite, if only 
e empower them with the political will of our action page 
ubmissions. 
Please stay tuned, because in the next alert we will trace subsequent 
ilibuster reform efforts in the 20th century, with more valuable 
nsights into how this all really happened, and exactly what we must 
ow do to fix our modern broken Congress, which would trying bring 
ears to the eyes of our founding fathers. 
And we are shipping the Stop The Filibuster caps again. So there is 
till time for you to get your request in, and you can have one for a 
onation of any amount. 
Stop The Filibuster caps: 
ttp://www.peaceteam.net/stop_filibuster_cap.php 
So let's get cranking, folks. There is policy waiting to be made, but 
t will only happen if we demand it in every way we can every day of 
ur lives. 
Please take action NOW, so we can win all victories that are supposed 
o be ours, and forward this alert as widely as possible. 
ontributions to The People's Email Network are not tax-deductible 
or federal income tax purposes. 
If you would like to get alerts like these, you can do so at 
ttp://www.peaceteam.net/in.htm 
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t http://www.usalone.net/out.htm 
usalone482b:215649 

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