Nuclear Option: The Right's War on Dissent

In 1832, the famous observer of American democracy, Alexis de Tocqueville, warned our young nation that, “If ever the free institutions of America are destroyed, that event will arise from the unlimited tyranny of the majority.” If his words hold true today, then the political importance of the filibuster, a tool used to preserve minority political power within the Senate, runs to very threads of our freedom as people. Radical republican majority leader Bill Frist, however, doesn’t hide the fact that he holds no regard for this fundamental tool for preserving dissent, claiming that he plans to “go nuclear” the Democrats’ right to filibuster judicial nominees sometime next week. All this, it seems, just so that even the most radical of George Bush’s court nominees can be empowered with a mere 51 member vote, easily obtained in the 55-45 Republican dominated Senate. The aptly titled “Nuclear Option” for destroying the filibuster on the Judicial Nominee, if passed, would effectively leave 200 years of Senate precedent and 225 years of American tradition of checks and balances, freedom of dissent, and freedom of speech, in nuclear rubble.

PS- expect a complete article on the subject soon.