After Nuclear War Comes Nuclear Fallout. Did Harry Reid Push The Wrong Button.

Harry "the Warrior" Reid did it. He invoked the nuclear option to destroy the wall of obstruction that had been established against President Obama. If you are reading this post you probably care enough about politics to at least recognize the word filibuster, but I will give the cliff note breakdown of what is going on here.

In the Senate each member has the freedom to delay a vote and continue discussion on a bill or judicial nominee for as long as they deem necessary (the filibuster). This was created to the give minority party of the congress check and balance power against a majority party who could  easily use their majority to implement laws without even a debate.  The only thing that stops a filibuster is a majority vote (the cloture). The nuclear option involved the changing the cloture demand from three-fifths or 60 (of 100) senators to a simple majority vote of 51 senators when invoking the cloture, or stopping a filibuster.

At stake is a balance of power in the district and federal courts. Absent the filibuster, President Obama will fill 90+ judicial seats. All Presidents have judicial seats to fill.  Naturally, they will nominate judges with whom they align with ideologically (even though this does not always work out in the end). Elections matter in great part because the  judicial branch of government is the ladder that each party uses to overcome the hurdle of gridlock. 

The  word 'gridlock' is offended by current stalemates within the halls of congress. Gridlock is what we experience on the way home from work. This is war. When Bush was in office, Harry Reid was a senator in the minority party and a spoken champion of the filibuster. In fact, he personally escalated the use of it against Bush. Republicans, noted for their willingness to play political hardball, have exploded the use of the filibuster as their front line of defense against President Obama essentially using it to wage war against the results of two elections and the legacy of a man. 

At stake is the future of the filibuster which is designed to protect the minority party in the Senate from being bulldozed by the majority party. Harry Reid not only bulldozed the filibuster, he's changed the landscape of the Senate forever. What works for Dem's today could be their death nail in the future, especially if they experience mass Senate casualties in 2014 as a negative consequence of ObamaCare.

Any party who happens to win both the White House and Congress could wield power with little restraint. The filibuster, which Harry Reid functionally destroyed with a press of a button, was an important democratic check and balance to our flawed representative republic. 

Once again, America is trapped in a war that we can't easily escape or readily determine victory. Clearly invoking anything described as a 'nuclear option' represents an act of war. However, given declarations of war and the front line republicans have established against Obama, it might be easy for Harry Reid to claim that the war was already underway, he just finally joined the battle.

But should he have pushed the button?  Will this only make it harder to pursue compromise in the future?

Republicans, desperate for any concrete victory against this president, threatened to de-fund government once, so it is hard to imagine that they won't try that  again in retaliation to Harry.  How far are they willing to let the casualties extend?   The casualties of the last shutdown are debatable because our growing economy masked the impact.  For all that is good in the housing market and in the stock market, we are still struggling to grow our job market and achieve a living wage.  Cuts in food stamps, an unwillingness to pass the Farm Bill or take care of our soldiers will have far reaching impact on  the American working class. Immigration should be voted on today because it already has the numbers to pass, but it is not.  Why?   

War has consequence.....and casualties...... SquareBiz.