Michigan Democrats are a super special bunch. So are Michigan Republicans, come to think of it. Maybe it is something in the water here that makes the majority of the elected officials from the Great Lake State make you wonder what these buffoons would be doing if it weren’t for the low bar to leap into elected office.

Tik Tok influencer is all I can think of.

The latest example of a head-scratching quote or action from an elected Michigan official comes courtesy of a founding member of “The Squad,” Representative Rashida Tlaib, who is a Democrat from the city of Detroit and some of its suburbs. Tlaib had a sit-down with Axios’ Jonathan Swan and covered a number of issues — but this little nugget about the filibuster being a tool of racists is truly unique.

Also quite frankly dumb.

From the Detroit News…

U.S. Rep. Rashida Tlaib, D-Detroit, has suggested that lawmakers who fight to keep the legislative filibuster in the Senate are motivated in part by racist ends, saying its use tends to be triggered for bills “where it is about uplifting Black folks in our country and protecting them.”

“I’d look at history: There was anti-lynching legislation. They use the filibuster to block it. The Civil Rights Act of ’57 — use the filibuster to block it,” she told Axios. “And now the freedom to vote — using the filibuster to block it.”

When asked about Democrats’ deploying the filibuster when they were in the minority to block certain GOP legislation, Tlaib said it “would have been unfortunate, of course,” had they not had the filibuster.

“But I tell you this much. Maybe it would have created the movement that needed to happen outside of Congress to demand accountability, right?” Tlaib said. “But I don’t want something to be used over and over again to stop protecting my Black neighbors. And it seems that’s when it gets triggered the most.”

So it would have been “unfortunate” if the Democrats would not have been able to block GOP legislation in the past without the filibuster but it is a racist tool so abolish it. What a novel approach to American governance.

So if Tlaib were actually interested in looking at history as she instructs, it is pretty clear that the filibuster or even the mere threat of a filibuster being raised has slowed some pretty awful crap from being passed in the upper chamber. When it is employed, it has focused the country on whatever issue is being discussed on the floor of the Senate and that is usually a good thing for the republic.

Now, of course, being she is a member of the House of Representatives and lately, the Pelosi-led chamber has been passing crap out of that chamber faster than a Canadian Goose, I’m sure Tlaib much prefers how it works over there under Democratic Party control. Yet this non-strategic thinker is not looking much past November 2022, which so far the polls indicate will be a really bad year for people with a D after their name.

I’m sure, despite her statement from the article above…

“Even the history behind the filibuster has proven over and over again, it’s just not good for our country,” she said.

she might have a change of heart if she becomes a member of the minority party and the Senate once again is controlled by Mitch McConnell.

I have a feeling that Joe Manchin from West Virginia will not be the most hated white guy for Dems in D.C. anymore. Particularly if Manchin actually uses the filibuster to stop some GOP bill from passing.

Has the filibuster been used to prop up idiotic and racist ideas in the past? Yup. Tlaib’s fellow Democrat and Grand Kleagle of the Ku Klux Klan — and also a close pal of Joe Biden — Robert Byrd, used it to stymie legislation, being he was a racist.

However, the filibuster, if you actually look at history, has been used for so many different issues that have nothing to do with race, saying that it is a racist tool is really silly and nonsensical. Yet, that is once again what one of our Michigan minders says as if she has an enlightened understanding of history.

We really need to drink more bottled water here in Michigan.