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Wednesday, May. 22, 2024

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Senate Democrats are finally looking to fix their biggest mistake

By Hayes Brown

If Democrats retain control of the Senate after this fall's elections — and as of today that's still a big "if" — the filibuster as we know it may finally be toast next year. Despite the 60-vote threshold's being antidemocratic, extraconstitutional and antithetical to the founders' vision, it has taken years of hemming and hawing for Democrats to reach this point. With its potential demise, the country can finally start to get back on track — or at the very least force our lawmakers to be honest about their vision for the future.

In the last Congress, two Democratic senators stood in the way of filibuster reform: Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, the latter of whom later switched to be an independent. They argued that the filibuster is a method of forcing bipartisanship on issues and that it encourages more debate between senators, neither of which holds water when you look at the history of the filibuster. Thanks to Sinema and Manchin, Democrats had to leave many wins on the table, including subsidized child care for struggling parents, codifying Roe v. Wade and much-needed protections for voting rights. Those big-ticket items wouldn't have just made millions of Americans' lives better, but they also might have helped Democrats this November.

This is a preview of Hayes Brown's latest article. Read the full column here.

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