Democrats Should Have Let Republicans Kill the Filibuster

There were only ever two ways the government shutdown was going to end. Option one was for Democrats to cave in and give Trump and the Republicans everything they wanted. Option two was for the Republicans to kill the filibuster and get everything they wanted. Anybody who thought Republicans would compromise some of their positions for the good of the country was foolish. Republicans do not compromise; they do not care about the good of the country. Republicans break things and blame others for the mess they leave behind. That’s all they know how to do. 

Somewhat predictably, eight Democrats in the U.S. Senate chose the former option and folded like cheap chairs. The statements drooling out of the mouths from these treacherous Democrats are beyond pathetic. Maine Senator Angus King said, “Standing up to Trump didn’t work.” New Hampshire Senator Jeanne Shaheen said, “Hopefully the Republicans may hear us.” I’m reminded of The Onion headline from Trump’s first term: “GOP Lawmakers Watch Silently As Trump Strangles Each Of Their Loved Ones In Turn.” The current crop of Senate Democrats makes the Kardashians look like freedom fighters.  

On the surface, this latest Democratic capitulation feels like the normal level of political malpractice from a party that seems genetically incapable of fighting facism. “Democrats Cave in to Republican Demands” is the “dog bites man” story of our broken politics. It’s not even news anymore. 

But at a more fundamental level, this catastrophe is born out of the Senate’s simple refusal to allow democracy to take place. It has been brought to us, at least in part, by the Democrats’ allegiance to the anti-democratic Senate filibuster. 

The filibuster allows any senator to extend debate on a bill, indefinitely, preventing the bill from coming up for a vote. To end a filibuster the Senate must “invoke cloture” on a debate, and for that there needs to be 60 votes. The vote threshold to invoke cloture is not mandated by Article One of the Constitution. It is just some crap the Senate made up to enhance gridlock, avoid democracy, and make senators in the minority party feel like they are super special snowflakes. 

I’ve written before about how the filibuster is antiquated and pointless. People say it’s there to protect the rights of the minority party, but the entire anti-democratic structure of the Senate already does that. The chamber is literally designed to give outsized power to low population states. The filibuster just takes an antidemocratic body and makes it worse. 

I’ve also written about how the filibuster as currently practiced is the very worst form of the privilege. Back in the day, you could only filibuster by talking on the Senate floor until you were too exhausted to go on. Moreover, a filibuster used to shut down all other business in the Senate: each filibuster stopped all 100 members of the Senate from debating or voting on any other bill until cloture could be invoked. Today, we have what’s called the “procedural filibuster.” The minority party doesn’t have to hold the floor, and the Senate can continue with other business while a filibuster is ongoing. It makes the filibuster cheap. The minority party can always do it, and since its members pay no price for doing it, they almost always do it. It makes 60 votes the de facto requirement to pass a bill, instead of 51 votes as democracy intended. 

It is this archaic, anti-democratic, poorly instituted Senate tradition that the Democrats didn’t want to give up during the shutdown. The Republicans have 53 votes in the Senate, plus the Senator from Copaganda, John Fetterman, who will vote however the fascists tell him. That is more than enough votes for them to pass whatever legislation and budget they want to without help from the Democrats. The only reason the Republicans needed Democrats to end the shutdown is because of the filibuster, and the Republicans could have gotten rid of the filibuster (via a simple majority vote) at any time they felt like it. 

Republicans have done it before. The filibuster can no longer be invoked for Supreme Court appointments to the filibuster. Mitch McConnell killed it (after Harry Reid killed the filibuster for lower court appointments) to get Neil Gorsuch on the court in the seat McConnell stole from Barack Obama. If Republicans could see their way clear to ending the filibuster in order to give literal lifetime power to Republican operatives on the Supreme Court, they could surely do it to lift the shutdown. 

Indeed, Donald Trump ordered Republicans to kill the filibuster just last week. Republican Senators said “no,” because the filibuster is incredibly useful to them when their massively unpopular ideas land them in the minority, but how long would Republican senators have held the line against Donald Trump? Eventually, I believe, the Republicans would have broken. Republicans talk tough when Democrats are involved, but they’ve never stood up to Trump for more than a couple of weeks. 

Now, we’ll never know. Now, instead of having the Republicans own every awful thing in their budget, Democrats have given them cover. Now, instead of Republicans having to show their belly to Trump, Democrats have once again shown their belly to him. 

I know some Democrats are worried about what Trump will do with a Republican Senate unrestrained by the filibuster. Those are legitimate concerns. One maxim I’ve internalized during the Trump Era is: “It can always get worse.” Whatever I think the Republican Senate would do is not as bad as what they’d actually do. 

But the sad reality of our times is that Democrats would be better off, politically, if Republicans were free to do their absolute worst, instead of Democrats meekly running behind them trying to mitigate harm. That is because Democrats are fighting an asymmetric war. Again, all Republicans know how to do is smash things. They don’t need things to “work.” They don’t need to compromise. Republicans are not trying to build a house, they’re trying to burn one down. 

The Republican project is a lot easier to accomplish than the Democratic one, and the filibuster only serves to help them do it. When the Republicans have a majority, they can pass what they want with Democratic help—because there are always enough pathetic Democrats willing to play handmaiden to whatever awfulness the GOP can dream up—or they can do nothing and watch the world burn. When they’re in the minority, the Republicans can do nothing and watch the world burn, or they water down whatever Democrats try to pass and prevent them from actually fixing any of the problems the Democrats should be fixing.

The filibuster is just a “win now” button for Republicans. It doesn’t force them to compromise, it instead rewards them for obstinance. 

Democrats would be better off without it—even when they are in the minority. Democrats are hanging onto an anti-democratic Senate tradition, and all they have to show for it is continually getting punked by Republicans every time it matters. 

Think of it this way: the shutdown ended, and eight useless Senate Democrats had to run on TV and explain themselves in the most pathetic and ruinous ways possible. You know who didn’t have to run to the talk-box? Republicans. The 53 people who actually want to pass Trump’s budget didn’t have to go on TV and explain why and didn’t have to apologize to America for putting us all through their governing tomfoolery. They burnt the house, and didn’t even have to own the ashes, because Angus King showed up to be a cowardly loser crying about how Donald Trump was just too strong for him. 

The filibuster needs to die. I was hoping Republicans would kill it, because I know that Democrats lack the willpower and vision to do what is necessary. But it turns out that Democrats don’t even have the strength to shut the hell up and let Republicans blow themselves up. Democrats are falling on a grenade for the Republicans, and telling themselves they had no choice. 

As Voltaire might say: If Democrats didn’t exist, it would be necessary for Republicans to invent them.