{"id":324,"date":"2004-05-02T14:17:52","date_gmt":"2004-05-02T21:17:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/wp2\/uncategorized\/when-did-conservative-come-to-mean-changing-everything\/"},"modified":"2004-05-02T14:17:52","modified_gmt":"2004-05-02T21:17:52","slug":"when-did-conservative-come-to-mean-changing-everything","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/letters-to-the-editor\/when-did-conservative-come-to-mean-changing-everything\/","title":{"rendered":"When Did Conservative Come to Mean ‘Changing Everything’?"},"content":{"rendered":"

ABQjournal Opinion<\/a><\/p>\n

[A] simple majority of the Senate doesn’t cut it <\/p>\n

anymore<\/b> on the more partisan issues. <\/p>\n

The standard these days<\/b> is the supermajority of 60 votes require to stave off a <\/p>\n

filibuster. …<\/p>\n

Democrats have escalated<\/b> the use of a parliamentary<\/i> tactic previously used only rarely<\/b>: the <\/p>\n

filibuster. …<\/p>\n

No one is surprised by the harsh and ugly tones coming from the right or the left these days. However, we <\/p>\n

all have an obligation to recognize fact and to avoid blatant distortion. The Journals fails in that obligation in the editorial on the <\/p>\n

”super-majority” guidelines (also known as Rule XXII or the Cloture rule).<\/p>\n

Trusting that readers will simply accept its <\/p>\n

pronouncement, the Journal makes no effort to inform, and, in fact, clouds the issue with words like ”anymore,” ”rarely” and <\/p>\n

”these days.” These days extend back nearly 100 years. These rules have evolved over a very long time and have seen the influence <\/p>\n

of people of diverse views. Indeed, the rules of order are ratified every session by a simple majority. <\/p>\n

There was a time when <\/p>\n

”conservative” meant favoring tradition and opposing unnecessary change. Now, it means little. It takes 5 minutes on the Web to <\/p>\n

learn some history; does the Right assume we are all too lazy or ignorant to care? mjh<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Senate Floor Procedures — Establishment of the <\/p>\n

Cloture Rule<\/a><\/p>\n

These practices led to the marathon filibusters by debate that remained characteristic of the Senate into the 1960s.<\/p>\n

Virtual Reference Desk > Cloture” href=”http:\/\/www.senate.gov\/reference\/reference_index_subjects\/Cloture_vrd.htm”>U.S. <\/p>\n

Senate: Reference Home > Virtual Reference Desk > Cloture<\/a><\/p>\n

The cloture rule — Rule 22 — is the only formal procedure that <\/p>\n

Senate rules provide for breaking a filibuster. A filibuster is an attempt to block or delay Senate action on a bill or other matter. <\/p>\n

Under cloture, the Senate may limit consideration of a pending matter to 30 additional hours of debate.<\/p>\n

U.S. Senate: Filibuster <\/p>\n

and Cloture<\/a><\/p>\n

Standing Rules of The Senate: RULE <\/p>\n

XXII<\/a><\/p>\n

http:\/\/www.senate.gov\/reference\/resources\/pdf\/98-<\/p>\n

425.pdf<\/a><\/p>\n

U.S. Senate: Historical Minutes > 1921-<\/p>\n

1940 > “The American Senate” Published<\/a><\/p>\n

[I]n 1925…, Vice President Charles Dawes, a conservative Republican<\/b>, unleashed <\/p>\n

a blistering attack on a small group of progressive<\/i> Republican senators<\/b> who had filibustered legislation at the end of the <\/p>\n

previous session. <\/p>\n

Eight years earlier, the Senate had adopted its first cloture rule, which allowed two-thirds of the senators <\/p>\n

present and voting to take steps to end debate on a particular measure. Dawes thought the Senate should revise that rule, making it <\/p>\n

easier to apply by allowing a simple majority to close debate. The existing two-thirds rule, he thundered, ”at times enables Senators <\/p>\n

to consume in oratory those last precious minutes of a session needed for momentous decisions,” thereby placing great power in the <\/p>\n

hands of a few senators. Unless Rule 22 were liberalized<\/i>, it would ”lessen the effectiveness, prestige, and dignity of the <\/p>\n

United States Senate.” Dawes’ unexpected diatribe infuriated senators of all philosophical leanings, who believed that the chamber’s <\/p>\n

rules were none of the vice president’s business. <\/p>\n

On June 1, 1926, Columbia University professor Lindsay Rogers published a book <\/p>\n

entitled The American Senate<\/i>. His purpose was to defend the Senate tradition of virtually unlimited debate, except in times of <\/p>\n

dire national emergency. Professor Rogers fundamentally disagreed with Vice President Dawes. In his memorably stated view, the <\/p>\n

”undemocratic, usurping Senate is the indispensable check and balance in the American system, and only complete freedom of debate <\/p>\n

allows it to play this role<\/b>.” ”Adopt [majority] cloture in the Senate,” he argued, ”and the character of the <\/p>\n

American Government will be profoundly changed<\/u>.”<\/b><\/p>\n

Written in a breezy journalistic style, Rogers’ American Senate <\/p>\n

encompassed issues beyond debate limitation. Rogers, Lindsay. The American Senate. New York: A.A. Knopf, 1926<\/p>\n

Notice, <\/p>\n

that 80 years ago a conservative republican was making the same arguments — against the last of the ”progressive” republicans (now <\/p>\n

an oxymoron). mjh<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Filibusted – Pirating the Senate. By Brandt Goldstein<\/a><\/p>\n

Filibustering was rare until the <\/p>\n

late 1800s. It then became steadily more common, leading to reform in 1917 when the Senate passed Rule XXII, the procedure for invoking <\/p>\n

”cloture,” or closure. According to the original Rule XXII, a vote by two-thirds of the Senate could kill a filibuster, a process <\/p>\n

first successfully used in 1919 to ensure a vote on the Treaty of Versailles. An amendment in 1975 reduced to 60 the number of senators <\/p>\n

necessary to halt a filibuster. In practical terms, therefore, a filibuster today is possible only if at least 41 senators support it. <\/p>\n

Historical Minutes > 1964-Present > Filibuster Derails Supreme Court Appointment” <\/p>\n

href=”http:\/\/www.senate.gov\/artandhistory\/history\/minute\/Filibuster_Derails_Supreme_Court_Appointment.htm”>U.S. Senate: Art & <\/p>\n

History Home > Historical Minutes > 1964-Present > Filibuster Derails Supreme Court Appointment<\/a><\/p>\n

[Republican<\/b> <\/p>\n

Minority Leader Everett] Dirksen and others withdrew their support. Although the committee recommended confirmation, floor consideration <\/p>\n

sparked the first filibuster in Senate history on a Supreme Court nomination<\/b>. <\/p>\n

On October 1, 1968, the Senate failed to invoke <\/p>\n

cloture. Johnson then withdrew the nomination….<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ABQjournal Opinion [A] simple majority of the Senate doesn’t cut it anymore on the more partisan issues. The standard these days is the supermajority of 60 votes require to stave off a filibuster. … Democrats have escalated the use of a parliamentary tactic previously used only rarely: the filibuster. … No one is surprised by … Continue reading When Did Conservative Come to Mean ‘Changing Everything’?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-letters-to-the-editor"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.edgewiseblog.com\/mjh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}