Americans Want Filibuster Rules Respected (57% / Princeton)

[struggle4progress]

(Angus Reid Global Scan) – Many adults in the United States do not want to change existing Senate regulations, according to a poll by Princeton Survey Research Associates published in Newsweek. 57 per cent of respondents disagree with taking away the filibuster. <snip>

Polling Data

U.S. Senate rules allow 41 Senators to mount a filibuster—refusing to end debate and agree to vote—to block judicial nominees. In the past, this tactic has been used by both Democrats and Republicans to prevent certain judicial nominees from being confirmed. Senate Republican leaders, whose party is now in the majority, want to take away this tactic by changing the rules to require only 51 votes, instead of 60, to break a filibuster. Would you approve or disapprove of changing Senate rules to take away the filibuster and allow all of George W. Bush’s judicial nominees to get voted on by the Senate?

Approve 32%
Disapprove 57%

<snip>

Source: Princeton Survey Research Associates / Newsweek
Methodology: Telephone interviews to 1,010 American adults, conducted on Mar. 17 to Mar. 28, 2005. Margin of error is 3 per cent.

http://www.angus-reid.com/polls/index.cfm?fuseaction=viewItem&itemID=6458

[ProgressiveConn]

1. I wonder how much of the 32% is Liberals like me who were looking forward

to the pendulum swinging back this way and us having that power. =)

[alcibiades_mystery]

2. After they fill 400 judicial slots

with fundamentalist wackos and change the political landscape of this country for two generations?

That's a pretty fucking stupid idea.

[ProgressiveConn]

7. It is a strong enough reason for Republicans to vote against going nuclear

[Voltaire99]

3. If you expect the pendulum to restore liberalism...

...then you're in for a long, long wait. Liberalism has been dead for 25 years. Since then the movements of the pendulum have been micro-notches between right wing reaction and its junior auxiliary, Democratic "centrism."

Relinquish the filibuster, and you give up your last tool against fascism.

[sonicx]

4. Well, i'd take Clinton centrism over * rightwing extremism.

[struggle4progress]

5. The current crisis arose in part because Clinton's "centrism" never ...

... pushed back: DLC "triangulation" simply adopted wingnut positions as a power-saving move.

Absent counter-pressure, the center has simply drifted further and further to the right.

Of course, America is, in some sense, a centrist nation. But this country needs a vocal and active left to prevent further losses.

[TaleWgnDg]

6. Indeed . . . "rejected only 10 (of ) the most extreme."

.

Indeed . . . "rejected only 10 (of ) the most extreme."




"The President is at it again with extremist judges," said Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). "Last year, the Senate worked to confirm 204 of the president's judicial nominees and rejected only the 10 most extreme." http://www.independentjudiciary.com/news/clip.cfm?NewsClipID=346

[bettyellen]

8. .

[DeepModem Mom]

9. kick

[salin]

10. Beware - I have read Frist refering to his move as ... wait for it...

"Filibuster reform". Surprised they aren't using the 2002 term "national security filibuster reform".

[renaissanceguy]

11. If only more Americans actually KNEW what a filibuster was

and what it means for our democracy, I'm sure the figure would be higher.


http://www.cafepress.com/liberalissues/466053