To hell with “unity”

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It’s like a broken record. (Those unfamiliar with that cliché can Google it.) Over and over, Schumer has been advised to amend or remove the Senate rule on the filibuster.

Despite its being romanticized in such cinematic fantasy as Frank Capra’s ‘Mr Smith Goes to Washington’, the filibuster is a racist relic which must be relegated to the trash heap. It is, in truth, a despicable stunt, an adolescent’s ploy; grand-standing, foot-stamping and public grousing to whittle down the resolve of the adults in the room from doing what must honorably be done.

President Joe must be brought to recognize that fact and support the emendation of the Senate rule on filibustering. For he is no longer dealing with Eisenhower’s GOP. Today’s GOP are Trumpian/McConnellian obstructionists obstinately oblivious to the will or needs of the People.

As Fintan O’Toole wrote in The New York Review of Books in a piece titled “To Hell With Unity,” it must be dawning on Biden that “the willingness of most congressional Republicans to endorse Donald Trump’s attempts to overturn the November election and their unwillingness to convict Trump for his role in the violent putsch of January 6” proves “there can be no illusions of accord, or even of civilized dispute.”

Such is the sad truth of dealing with the current rendering of the Republican party.

Surely, President Biden cannot be unaware of the past 12 years of Mitch’s obstruction and the toxic influence of ‘The Donald’. Surely, President Joe knows that his honeymoon is coming to an end. His administration will face more internecine insurrection from the likes of Manchin and Sinema for his aggressive and costly infrastructure plans. The scant advantage which the Dems hold in the Senate must be bolstered by the removal or revision of the filibuster rule.