Martha Coakley's defeat may finally force spineless democrats in the Senate to change the cloture rule that allows debate until 60 votes are found to stop it....ergo the requirement of 60 votes to pass a bill in the face of a determined oppostion.
If they wanted to be a bit polite, they could vote (51-49) to change the Senate rules to allow cloture with 55 votes. If it was up to me, I'd make it 51.
Recall that the composition of the Senate is an anti-democratic structure in the first place with 2 votes per state, regardless of population. That's a far cry from each person's vote having equal weight. As Lani Gunier points out in the Tyranny of the Majority, it is the winner take all voting in large districts that is most detrimental to democracy. If we want to protect minorities (of all types) let's change the voting rules. (I'll report on this later when I finish her book.)
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A look at the Chilean voting system had me thinking about the same thing recently.
ReplyDeleteSo, what how do they vote in Chile? Do you like it, or is another model not to follow?
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