This afternoon, the U.S. Senate voted down cloture on the Manchin-Toomey background checks amendment by a vote of 54-46. For those not intimately familiar with arcane Senate parliamentary procedure, cloture is a motion to end a filibuster; if a cloture motion does not accrue the necessary sixty votes for approval, the underlying legislation in question does not even see a vote. The filibuster is a tool that was meant for exceptional circumstances. Contemporarily, it is being grossly overused and abused by the Republican minority, and is having the grievous effect of grinding the United States Senate to a halt. 54 votes is a majority, and should have meant passage of Manchin-Toomey. Expanded background checks on firearms purchases are consistently supported by roughly ninety percent of the American public. Let that marinate for a moment; nine of ten Americans agree on almost nothing. Yet, the Republican minority in the Senate once again abused the filibuster by employing it on this amendment. Ninety percent of public support does not qualify as an aforementioned exceptional circumstance. Instead, background checks constituted the bare minimum we could have done to respond to the gutwrenching December 14 elementary school massacre in Newtown, Connecticut. Senate Republicans can feel free to disagree with ninety percent of the American public, but they have lost sight of the fact that they were voted into the minority in the Senate in the last election cycle, and needed not stand in the way this afternoon of what is so plainly the will of the American people.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid must move to curb filibuster abuse. If the Republican minority wants to filibuster legislation, they should be forced to take the floor, a la Jimmy Stewart in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, and speak for as long as they can speak. They should have had to explain today why they think the mentally ill and those with violent criminal records should be able to purchase firearms, even deadly assault rifles.
Sixty votes need not be the standard bar for passage of Senate legislation. This is not a tool that was meant for commonplace implementation. The Senate Republican minority's abuse of the filibuster is wreaking damage on the country. Shame on the Senate Republican minority for this abuse, and for making us less safe.
