Florida, Man!

The seemingly last chance America had to save its democracy died last week

The seemingly last chance America had to save its democracy died last week, primarily killed by a Republican party that no longer is interested in democracy, only power. Those 50 Senate Republicans were abetted by two Democrats whose objections were both purely procedural and so absurd they are barely worth dealing with.

Suffice it to say, the Founders always believed in majority rule in the Senate and never considered requiring a super-majority to pass legislation. The filibuster was rarely used for most of its existence, and, when it was, it was primarily to do exactly what was done last week, namely to kill voting rights for Blacks and other minorities. It is only in the last thirty years that the filibuster has basically become the rule for virtually all legislation.

The rules for the filibuster have changed over 150 times over the years, most recently just a couple of weeks ago in order to raise the debt ceiling. It has been nearly two decades since a truly significant piece of legislation was passed with significant bipartisan support. There is a reason that each party tries to throw everything plus the kitchen sink into reconciliation bills and that is specifically to avoid the filibuster.