what exactly is a filibuster?

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - what exactly is a filibuster?

Posted: 12/27/2012 8:20:39 PM EDT

What is a filibuster? Pardon my ignorance, I just don't really know what it is and would really like a Layman's explanation of what exactly it is. .

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Posted: 12/27/2012 8:23:18 PM EDT

[#1]

This

Posted: 12/27/2012 8:24:16 PM EDT

[#2]

Your high school government class should have covered it at some point.

Posted: 12/27/2012 8:24:32 PM EDT

[#3]

Fillibuster

Posted: 12/27/2012 8:25:16 PM EDT

[#4]

The original meaning or what it is now?

The senate down not have time limits on speaking. If you really didn't want a bill to be voted on you stood at the podium and kept talking.

Today you just say that you are going to filibuster and it's accepted as fact.

Posted: 12/27/2012 8:54:02 PM EDT

[#5]

Quoted:
The original meaning or what it is now?

The senate down not have time limits on speaking. If you really didn't want a bill to be voted on you stood at the podium and kept talking.

Today you just say that you are going to filibuster and it's accepted as fact.

Right. The Senate has a tradition of unlimited debate. So, a single Senator (or group) could stop action on a bill for as long as they could stay at the podium.

In modern times they don't actually require the Senator to physically stay at the podium.

It requires a supermajority of 60 votes to cut off debate and stop a fillibuster.

Posted: 12/27/2012 9:03:12 PM EDT

[#6]

It's essentially a last ditch way for the minority in the Senate to block something they don't have a majority to vote down.

But the filibuster is just a figment of the rules the Senate sets for itself. There's nothing in the Constitution about it. They could kill it tomorrow if they wanted. Reid had expanded the definition of the filibuster to include judicial confirmation during Bush's administration while he was in the minority, which was crazy and he had zero authority to do, but the Democrats know most people don't even know or care what that means or why it was so outrageous and absurd and did it anyway knowing the media would take their side. Now he wants to eliminate the filibuster now that he is in the majority. God I hate Harry Reid.

Posted: 12/27/2012 9:16:01 PM EDT

[#7]

Watch Mr Smith Goes to Washington.

ETA: A filibuster is when you talk until you pass out, your mentor tries to kill himself, and you get the girl.

Posted: 12/27/2012 9:18:16 PM EDT

[#8]

You have no ability to use google or Wikipedia and yet somehow was able to type that out using actual words and click "submit"

Impressive.

Posted: 12/27/2012 9:35:07 PM EDT

[#9]

The term originally referred to mercenaries who go to foreign countries to foment revolutions in order to overthrow the native governments. If you go back further the word is derived from a word that meant pirate or freebooter.

Posted: 12/27/2012 9:37:14 PM EDT

[#10]

Quoted:
You have no ability to use google or Wikipedia and yet somehow was able to type that out using actual words and click "submit"

Impressive.

I prefer to discuss it here in case I had further questions... I also wanted to see what most ARFcommers take on it is.

I already sort of knew what a filibuster was....just wasnt entirely sure.

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Posted: 12/27/2012 9:39:03 PM EDT

[#11]

Quoted:

Quoted:
The original meaning or what it is now?

The senate down not have time limits on speaking. If you really didn't want a bill to be voted on you stood at the podium and kept talking.

Today you just say that you are going to filibuster and it's accepted as fact.

Right. The Senate has a tradition of unlimited debate. So, a single Senator (or group) could stop action on a bill for as long as they could stay at the podium.

In modern times they don't actually require the Senator to physically stay at the podium.

It requires a supermajority of 60 votes to cut off debate and stop a fillibuster.

Can the House of Representatives also do filibusters or is it restricted to the Senate?

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