The filibuster should be eliminated completely for all legislation. Harry Reid provided the predicate and now the GOP must finish the sentence.
The path to abandoning the filibuster was started on by Reid. In my view, it will be fully abandoned in time.
The filibuster was never a constitutional requirement. But it is a major plank in preserving the government in the form of a Republic rather than a mob-ruled democracy.
The original constitutional provision for preserving a republican form of government was set aside by the 17th Amendment. The long venerated Senate filibuster was to serve in preserving the unique role of the Senate in the era of the 17th Amendment.
Just to be clear, the phrase ‘republican form of government’ does not mean a government of republicans. Many republicans are actually democrats posing as republicans.
Republic means ‘Rez Publica’ or ‘Rule of Law’. A ‘republican form of government’ means a government governed by ‘Rule of Law’, not a mob.
Democracies from the time of ancient Greece are known to devolve into mobs. That’s why they fail.
The Founders designed a hybrid Democratic-Republic. The elections were to be democratic. The House was to be the symbol of the nation’s democracy. The Senate was to preserve the Republic.
The 17th Amendment took away the Senate’s role in preserving the Republic leaving only the filibuster to preserve it. Unfortunately, Harry Reid started the Senate down the path of destroying the filibuster. The long-term consequences of his precedent making action is a loss of the Republic in favor of a mob-ruled democracy.
See #129 for the antidote:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3537360/posts?page=129#129