(Crossposted from Huffington Post)
When is a filibuster not a filibuster?
Bernie Sanders’ widely lauded/mocked/viewed-online “filibuster,” of course, didn’t “bust” anything. The eight-hour marathon speech did not prevent Obama’s tax cut compromise (or capitulation, depending on your viewpoint) from passing the Senate. Indeed, from the overwhelming final vote (81-19), it seems that there was never any force on Earth that could have.
The regressive Bush tax structure is now well on the way to becoming the Obama regressive tax structure, and don’t doubt for a moment that the House — not equipped with the rules enabling determined obstructionism by a minority — will pass it as well, despite the anger coming from its progressive wing.
So what was the point of Sanders’ exercise? It did not effect the passage of the cloture motion — that threshold for the parliamentary filibuster so often used by the GOP. And although it looked and sounded like an old school, stand-up-and-talk-it-to-death filibuster, Bernie spoke even before the cloture motion — days before the actual roll call vote on the bill itself. Given that timing, it was clearly never intended to act as a real filibuster. Nor, as some inferred, was it apparently a shot across the bow, demonstrating that Sanders was ready, willing and able to mount the real thing the day of the final vote.
Given the above, there will be plenty of folks who look at it as a cynical exercise designed by the junior Senator of my home state of Vermont to do nothing more than generate a few hurrahs his way from his significant national following. Hardcore grousers who see Washington as one big faux democratic front hiding a “corporatocracy” may even see it as a grand show to distract and divert the opposition.
As the highest profile grouchy liberal blogger in my state, I’m generally among the first to go with the former interpretation (although I’m not so jaded as to go with the latter). The truth is, though, that there are other, at least as valid ways to answer the question of what the “point” of the speech was, if one expands the context a bit beyond the confines of the Senate floor.
As a now middle-aged veteran of campaigns across the country over my entire adult life, I’m hard pressed to imagine the last time I saw progressive morale at such a low point. And it’s hard to get excited about the occasional defiant press release from one relatively liberal Congressperson or another. After all, it’s just too easy to throw a turn-of-phrase bone to a hungry left and keep them on yur good side (even if President Obama can’t even figure that much out).
But a nine hour speech is not easy — not even if one is a lot younger than Senator Sanders. It’s an effort. And one can look at the fact that the Senate vote was a done deal and choose to be cynical about the speech, sure — but one can look at that same inevitability and ask oneself why Sanders would undertake such a marathon at all? Why not just an especially good soundbite for the YouTube crowd that would have avoided the hoarseness and sleep deprivation?
The fact is that Bernie’s filiwhatever-it-was did energize the base. It did give us all a little boost when we needed it. Could that not be enough of a point, given the timing?
I suppose If I chose to, I could look at it as a crass move to get me applauding, or even as an exercise in futility and impotence, but not today. Not this time. This time, I’m looking at the Bernie Rorschach Speech as a Christmas present from Senator Sanders to this exhausted, frustrated, cynical activist.
Happy holidays back atcha, Bernie.
I love the FiliBernie! I am so glad he did that. Topped Twitter as #1 trend that day. A huge swath of the Silent Liberal Majority that didn’t vote in November watched part of Bernie, or at least knew that someone was taking even a symbolic stand and telling the truth in Congress for once.
I called his office while he was ‘on stage’ and enthusiastically urged him on. They asked, ‘Do you want to hear back from the Senator?’ and I said, “What he’s saying right now is all I need to hear!”
Bernie did a Patriotic thing to help save America from the far-far-right extremists that control the Democratic Leadership.
Was this gleaned from another one of those Seven Days reader polls?
… to keep in mind is that there hasn’t been huge public support nation-wide to accomplish such important tasks as the health care public option or sensible taxation reform.
Why not?
Because, in my opinion, the right has been far more successful at getting their message out than the left. So, Rush Limbaugh is the most listened to person on the radio and the Heritage Foundation and other such groups polish their message for delivery.
It’s a tough process to educate the public with an alternative message. During the Vietnam War the “teach-ins” were created to allow for an in-depth exploration of the facts and the issues. This had an important impact on the anti-war effort.
This was Senator Sanders version of the “teach-in” and I expect it reached many people. It was therefore worthwhile and an important effort on his part.
My personal opinion is that this was probably the only way to get past the media blockade against progressive ideas.
There was no way to completely shut this event out of the media – though they made a valiant effort. In addition, using social media to get the full speech out there means that the content of this social media phenomenon is now available to educate a lot of folks who know something is wrong, but don’t quite know what. Bernie spelled it all out, clearly, concisely (a scary thought, considering the duration), and passionately.
It may not turn out to be “the” game-changer for progressive politics, but it surely places a lever on the fulcrum and makes room for us to start lifting the great boulder of conservative ideology from atop the body politic.
from an organizing standpoint, just brilliant. when you don’t have power, you use what levers you do have to get some notice. and the trick is to do it without marginalizing yourself. bernie reached back into u.s. history and found a way to get across a message that–when you listened to it–wasn’t radical in the least. it’s just that it never even gets talked about in the standard political conversation.
this is a guy who has spent a lifetime figuring out how to get heard. thank heaven for him, and may we all take a lesson or two!
This tax bill has been trying for us with a progressive bent; we didn’t need to be told what was wrong with it. But the stark venality of it provided a textbook example of what is wrong with this country, and Bernie, like a good professor, ran with that and used it as a basis for a lecture on a range of topics. Through an incredible physical and intellectual effort he attempted to break through the mealy mouthed mainstream media miasma by creating an event that would recruit young should-be voters to his cause.
I am guessing it was a deliberate attempt to go viral. There is one clip on YouTube that has had about 750,000 views, another poster said it was the top twitter trend (whatever that means) by the time it ended. The speech is now a reference, a compendium of ideas, that one may point to when explaining what happened to this country and what to do about it. This country is slipping to a tipping point, and this action was an SOS, a call for hands to starting pulling it back.
… regardless of motive or result.
He brought passionate focus to America’s deep problem of wealth inequality, which so many — on the left and right — seem to like to pretend doesn’t exist.