Apologizing For The Ugly History Of The Filibuster

This AP story on Yahoo (click here) has the Senate apologizing for its failure to ever pass anti-lynching legislation. As the story explains,

"nearly 200 anti-lynching bills were introduced in Congress and three passed the House. Seven presidents between 1890 and 1952 petitioned Congress to pass a federal law.

But the Senate, with Southern Conservatives wielding their filibuster powers, refused to act."

There's been a lot of sanctimonious rhetoric in recent months praising the filibuster as a tool for the minority to use against an oppressive and extreme majority. This story reminds us all that the true history of the filibuster is a story of a minority using the practice to protect racist violence.

The "Southern Conservatives" term in the article is priceless as well. A more accurate term would have been Southern Democrats. But whatever.

-tdr