Is fillibuster the American "liberum veto"?

[dps]

Pretty sure he meant post-WWII.

And I tend to agree with him that broadly speaking, the years 1950-1980 were just about the least partisan in our history, at least since Washington's first term.

[Sheilbh]

Also, which "postwar" period are you talking about?  Post-Civil War?  Post-World War I?  II?  We've gotten quite a few under our belt in the last 250 years, so I'm confused as to which one you're talking about.

Sorry I meant post-Second World War.  I thought that was a standard short-hand, post-World War I was inter-war, I think post-Civil War was the Reconstruction era.  But also I don't think I'd use the inter-war years or the reconstruction years as a wonderful example of bipartisanship

[DGuller]

Originally, a tool of encouraging consensus, eventually preventing the legislative from taking any decision due to partisanship of people involved.

Discuss.

I actually thought of that on the night Brown got elected.  Given how the political landscape changes by one person changing, it's actually even closer to the original liberum veto, which required just one obstinate fool to gum up the works, not 41.

[derspiess]

What are the statistics of Republicans vs. Democrats when it comes to using/invoking filibuster? My understanding is that Democrats are (for some reason) much more reluctant to do so, but this is purely anecdotal.

Anecdotal, or just based upon your prejudice in favor of the Demoncrats? 

[MadImmortalMan]

I was under the impression that the filibuster of judicial nominees was a relatively rare thing until Bush's presidency. It's happened, what a couple thousand times since then?

[Fate]

I was under the impression that the filibuster of judicial nominees was a relatively rare thing until Bush's presidency. It's happened, what a couple thousand times since then?

Republicans popularized it during the Clinton administration. Why do you think Bush had so many nominations? Clinton couldn't get many of his out of committee.

[Neil]

Clearly not.  The US, unlike Enlightenment Poland, can function.

[Martinus]

It is, but this will change if things ever calm down enough in Washington.

Isn't this like the equivalent of "hell freezing over"?

[Martinus]

What are the statistics of Republicans vs. Democrats when it comes to using/invoking filibuster? My understanding is that Democrats are (for some reason) much more reluctant to do so, but this is purely anecdotal.

Anecdotal, or just based upon your prejudice in favor of the Demoncrats? 

I got it from my usual sources* on American politics but just wanted to double check.

*Advocate, HuffPo, Daily Show and Colbert Report

[Martinus]

Clearly not.  The US, unlike Enlightenment Poland, can function.

Liberum veto dates back to mid-15th century. It started to be used as a purely political tool in mid-17th century. That's still a long time before the Enlightenment-era disfunctionality.

[jimmy olsen]

What are the statistics of Republicans vs. Democrats when it comes to using/invoking filibuster? My understanding is that Democrats are (for some reason) much more reluctant to do so, but this is purely anecdotal.

Anecdotal, or just based upon your prejudice in favor of the Demoncrats? 

I got it from my usual sources* on American politics but just wanted to double check.

*Advocate, HuffPo, Daily Show and Colbert Report

The leadership does it whenever they can, the Dems just can't do it as much because their caucus is more disunited.

[Neil]

Clearly not.  The US, unlike Enlightenment Poland, can function.

Liberum veto dates back to mid-15th century. It started to be used as a purely political tool in mid-17th century. That's still a long time before the Enlightenment-era disfunctionality.

The filibuster dates back to ages ago.  And it was used as a purely political tool from day 1.

[Razgovory]

I was under the impression that the filibuster of judicial nominees was a relatively rare thing until Bush's presidency. It's happened, what a couple thousand times since then?

Holding up nominees became a problem in the 1990's.  I think it was also a problem during reconstruction as well but not with filibuster as much.  They had other methods in those days.

[Razgovory]

Pretty sure he meant post-WWII.

And I tend to agree with him that broadly speaking, the years 1950-1980 were just about the least partisan in our history, at least since Washington's first term.

Don't forget the Era of Good Feelings.

[The Minsky Moment]

Judicial nominees I can understand, but some ass in Congress is currently holding up a couple Treasury department appointments (relating to international commerce) over slow implementation of some online gambling regulations.  This is really starting to get out of control to the point I am tempted to agree with Martinus' troll - our political class is no longer mature enough to be trusted to use certain weapons only sparingly.