One of my favorite television shows is the West Wing. I could easily make a full "binge TV day" out of back-to-back episodes. It is great to see the series available for about $15 a season. Watching the West Wing is a great way to learn about American politics. You have to be on the ball when you're watching because it is one of those television series where everyone speaks really quickly (for you moms out there it is a bit like watching the Gilmore Girls only the subject matter is a bit more dense).
The key to learning about politics is to listen for the exchanges between the deputy chief of staff, Josh Lyman, and his administrative assistant Donna Moss. She dares to ask the questions that anyone actually working in a senior staff position at the White House may not be brave enough to ask. Josh's explanations of the workings of American politics usually happen while he and Donna are moving too quickly through the White House hallways on their way to some important meeting. So blink and you are likely to miss the stellar explanations of the way a bill is passed, a Supreme Court Justice is appointed or how million dollar legislative agendas become billion dollar agendas. Nonetheless if you are willing to rewind a few times I guarantee you a first-class education in U.S politics.
I raise this because a few weeks ago an episode of the West Wing came to life in a real Senate debate in Texas. The West Wing episode was about an older senator who had asked for an addition to a bill where billions of dollars were being spent ostensibly for health care for children but where all sort of extras were attached to the bill to ensure the votes of senators on both sides of the House.
Josh tells the elder senator that the bill cannot be reopened again to add $47 million for autism research which is what the senator was asking for. "Perhaps next time..." says Josh. Well, next time is not good enough for the retiring senator and the second half of the episode is about the filibuster that the senator undertakes to ensure that the White House bill won't pass without the additional funding allocation. Now here is the spoiler if you want to skip the next sentence... We find out that the senator's grandson is autistic and that autism research is near and dear to the senator's heart.
For those of you interested in the workings of a filibuster we learn that the senator has the right to stand and talk for as long as he possibly can but he cannot sit, lean on the podium, take a bathroom break or stop for any reason except if he is asked a question and yields the floor to the person who asked the question. In this episode the senator reads the rules of cards aloud for many hours and I'll leave it to you to watch the episode to see its resolution.
Leap forward to Texas on June 26 and there in real life was Wendy Davis, a Texas state senator who stood at her chair and filibustered for eleven hours. No respite, no breaks. Her mission was to talk long enough to block the governor's attempt to restrict abortions in the state of Texas. On that day, she did succeed in delaying the vote to another day because the time limit on the vote expired. However, she faced some points of order that the West Wing episode did not raise including the question as to whether or not her 11 hour speech could include any topic disconnected from the facts of the bill.
In other words, she could not read the rules of cards. Without doubt, her actions raised the ire of some and the admiration of others. And, in fact, the bill did pass just this week. However you feel about the substance of the debate, the process of the filibuster is an interesting one: a lone individual stalling or stopping legislation by talking...and talking ....and talking.
