I’ve never bothered to read up on the filibuster until today. Having said that, I *was* aware of it, vaguely recalling the issue from the 1939 movie “Mr Smith Goes to Washington” starring James Stewart where he spoke for 25 hours attempting to defeat an appropriations bill he objected to. The entire notion of the filibuster is alien to most democracies as is the entire voting system in the US, but I digress. What is remarkable about the procedure is the idea that just *one* member of the legislature can totally block legislation *without giving a reason*. This seems insane to my way of thinking but what do *I* know? Anyway, the current crop of Democrat senators in the US are considering abolishing the filibuster entirely and returning to what must be the more sensible approach of passing legislation by a simple majority. No doubt there are dissenters out there who think *this* idea is insane but from my perspective as an outsider I think they will need to be very persuasive to make me change my opinion! Again, this is an interesting topic I’ll follow up and keep an eye on. 🙂
As a side note, the the term filibuster originates from a Dutch word meaning “pirate” or “plunderer” and is related to the English word “freebooter”!! Make of that what you will.
The Eclectic Interweb 