When will the filibuster go

A good article at Real Clear Politics on the hypocrisy around the Senate filibuster. Almost everyone calling for it to go was very happy to use it in the past.

As someone who comes from a parliamentary democracy, I’m not a fan of the filibuster. I believe if you have a majority, you should be able to pass laws (except in areas such as electoral reform where interests are so vested) with a simple majority. But I also understand the traditional role it used to play in the Senate in encouraging consensus.

What is apparent to me is that the Democrats are screwing up massively the politics on the filibuster. You either succeed in getting rid of it, or you don’t try or even talk about trying.

This is like when they got rid of the filibuster on judicial nominations to get more of Obama’s picks through, and this allowed Trump to totally remake the federal courts. A big backfire.

In the past McConnell has resisted attempts to get rid of the filibuster, despite having a President who deeply pressured him to do so. That is because he knew he would be in the minority one day. But next time they are in the majority and hold the House and Presidency (2024 arguably) the filibuster will go within minutes. Why this time, when he didn’t last time?

Because the Democrats have made clear that if they had just two more votes, the filibuster would be gone. Knowing that the filibuster will die the next time the Democrats have a larger majority in the Senate, McConnell will not wait.

So this is the political stupidity of the Democrats so loudly trying to pressure Senators to get rid of it. They should have kept quiet about it unless they could get the numbers to do it. The only thing they will achieve is that McConnell will get rid of it when he is majority leader again, because not to do so would be politically moronic and that definitely isn’t McConnell.