I doubt they're actually at home, but it's a good first step.

  • LeninWalksTheWorld [any]
    ·
    edit-2
    3 years ago

    so the filibuster is a roman tradition, that's where we got it from, same with half of western civilization. One particularly noteworthy account of this practice is when a young Julius Caesar was attempting to pass a direly needed land reform law. Caesar was consul this year, which sort of the president of Rome. The reform was very popular and even had majority support in the Senate, but the conservative faction didn't want it so a senator named Cato just tried to sabotage the whole thing by filibustering until the Senate was dismissed. (This sound familiar at all?)

    When Caesar realized what Cato was trying to do, he just straight up ordered him to be arrested, right on the Senate floor. The lictor came in and threw Cato in jail for the rest of the day while the rest of the senators freaked the fuck out and started calling Caesar a tyrant. Cato hasn't actually committed a crime so he had to be released tomorrow, but Caesar decided he wasn't going to waste his time with the senate anymore.

    Caesar printed copies of the wildly popular land reform and just started posting them around town saying the public assembly vote would occur soon. (That's how laws got passed in Rome, first the Senate then a public assembly vote). The Senate hadn't actually approved it but until Cato started filibustering everyone seemed supportive. Caesar got some of his rich dude allies to say they approved which made things a little more legitimate. Still it was very sus what he was doing.

    So weeks later people start showing up to Caesar's technically illegal vote, and everyone is hype af. The crowd loves Caesar since he's delivering these badly needed reforms, obviously the vote will pass. But then the conservative politicians, roll up with the intention to stop the vote by using their veto. Caesar doesn't even have to say anything, the crowd erupts into anger and charges at the conservative politicians. Several senators are attacked by the mob and surrounded. The conservative leader, a loser called Bibulus, tries to use his senatoral veto to stop the vote but he can not be heard over the screams of the angry crowd (at least this is what Caesar claimed later lol)

    The crowd seizes Bibulus and starts beating the shit out of him as the other conservatives, including Cato, flee for their lives in absolute terror. Bibulus later wrote that he legitimately thought he would die at this moment. Instead the crowd took turns dumping buckets of human shit all over him until he managed to run away to a nearby temple. The crowd unanimously passed the land reform law after this and started chanting Caesar's name. Bibulus was so humiliated by this he wouldn't show his face in public for the rest of the year, which allowed Caesar to basically do whatever he wanted in the Senate.


    so yeah not saying we need to dump a bucket of shit on a senator's head but this is established western tradition when faced with a filibuster. I think we need to at least give it a try and see if it helps matters.