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It's not just Tuberville - 39+ other Senate Republicans make this possible [1]

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Date: 2023-08-20

There is too much "bothsiderism" pushed by today's major media outlets. Sadly, occasionally it even happens here. The vast majority of Senate Democrats oppose the filibuster now. Nevertheless, we don't have 50+ votes to end the filibuster. There are a small number (1-5) of Senate Democrats who enable the filibuster to remain. At this point, since we can't get good, important, and large legislation passed even if such legislation could pass the Senate, it's not currently during this Congress of practical importance. In any event, 90+% of Senate Democrats support eliminating the filibuster. On the other hand, currently 100% of Senate Republicans support keeping the filibuster. Thus, this is NOT a both sides issue.



Many people here, likely, are unaware why / how Senator Tommy Tuberville is able to stop all military promotions, seemingly by himself. It is related to the filibuster. I devote a substantial percentage of my life to supporting the Democratic Party and our issues and defending our democracy. Yet, until as recently as a week ago, I had no idea how Tuberville was able to stop all military promotions seemingly by himself. I strongly suspect that less than five percent of all Daily Kos members and less than one percent of all registered voters know why/how this is possible.

As I wrote in a reply to a comment by a great Kossack, Vet Wife:

.

"From what I read, it related back to a denial of universal consent which meant it faced the filibuster and then it would degenerate into 3 hours debate per promotion which would take forever. Tuberville doesn't need any help from democrats in Congress to accomplish this. He just needs 39 over Senate Republicans to be able to do this. The other Senate Republicans make this possible. I am thinking about doing more research to clarify/crystallize my thinking/understanding on this and write about it because right now we are letting the Senate Republicans get away with making this possible while only allowing Tuberville to take the blame because he's in such a red state that he can get reelected despite this despite how unpopular this one action is with Alabama voters. While an opponent who is a member of the Democratic Party would hammer Tuberville for this, they (the D opponent ) would be labeled as communists by everybody who isn't a democrat and a majority of the voters there only watch conservative programming and right wing MAGA propaganda sources. What they would likely hear is that yes it's terrible that our military readiness is being harmed by this, he is "defending the unborn"=pro forced birthers bullshit and in every other way the opponent is a terrible communist and worst of all this would keep the control of the Senate in the hands of current Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. Therefore, they would falsely argue, the opponent is far worse and the D opponent would lose. Look at how close the Roy Moore / former US Senator Doug Jones election was. Doug Jones only won by a small single digit margin despite the well-supported accusations against Roy Moore who is an absolute theonomist as most here know. If Moore barely lost, then that should make it crystal clear that as unpopular a policy as this is with Alabama voters, it won't be enough to defeat him. So, he can get away with this. Other Senate Republicans aren't in the same position. If the fact that they are enabling this behavior by Tuberville was well known by their voters, many of them would be politically imperiled, facing an existential political threat. We can help make this known. I only learned about this within the last week and a significant portion of my daily life revolves around Democratic Party politics and if somebody as politically active as you are isn't aware of this, then (1) I would assert without fear of contradiction that only a small percentage (5%?) of Daily Kos members know this (2) less than one percent of registered voters know this. Making this widely known has real political value in my view."



Quora



What authority gives Sen. Tuberville, alone, the capacity as a single U.S. Senator the power to halt a routine functional military procedure? Can someone please elaborate? . The US Senate runs on unanimous consent for nearly all Senate business, and Tuberville is refusing to give consent to advance the military promotions to the floor. The nominations are submitted in batches for consideration and approval, but the batching procedure itself also requires unanimous consent, which Tuberville won’t grant, and if Schumer chose to bring each separate nomination to the floor, each one would take two or three days. There are over 270 military promotions currently being blocked by Tuberville, and without unanimous consent, it would take years to do each separately while simultaneously preventing the Senate from doing anything else. ---— Normally, these things are handled by unanimous consent. If one person objects, the promotions and nominations have to go through debate and floor votes. Tuberville has put a hold on some 250 advancements, so it would take a really long time for all of them to be debated. .



It's time for all registered voters to know that it's the Senate Republicans who make what Senator Tommy Tuberville is doing possible.

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/8/20/2188524/-It-s-not-just-Tuberville-39-other-Senate-Republicans-make-this-possible

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