The senate has a few *really stupid* rules meant to streamline things that allow one man to fuck up the process. This one is unanimous consent - one guy objecting means they gotta go thru the full process. The other one that happens often is the "no-talk" filibuster, where someone can say they're doing a filibuster without actually doing it, and they all pretend it's happening. No really. It means everyone doesn't have to waste their day while one guy talks nonstop - but it makes it really easy to throw a wrench in the works.
@Biggles @samlitzinger there are a disturbing number of things in our democracy that have in recent years been revealed to *assume good actors* and boy howdy, do we need to stop assuming good intent (or even rationality).
That or get rid of the bad actors. Maybe both. It would be nice to see some of the traditional behavioral norms institutionalized, but money and power get in the way.
I am. We're seeing it happen right now. The first step is legal accountability. The second is voter emancipation. Then it's just some hard work. Will we get to prefection? No. But can we get *significantly better*? Yes.
I keep thinking about consumer safety laws. They get made because the system breaks, somehow, and people do dumb or shitty or unsafe things - and it gets better. We never thought behavioral norms would get this bad - the voters would reject liars and scam artists and crooks. Whoops. Ok - time to get decent folks back in power and fix things. Laws ensuring your right to vote. Laws ensuring equal protection under the law. And some significant reform in government, fixing the recent exploits.
@Biggles @samlitzinger at this point, so much of our system is designed specifically to enable bad actors and grift and a two-tiered system for the wealthy that I’m not sure it could be unwound.