We Must End Both the Filibuster and “Filibuster Culture” in America

The Senate filibuster, with its long and often shameful history of anti-democracy, has spilled out into the country at large.

Photo by Jamie Street on Unsplash

Whether or not, and by what means, the filibuster is done away with, or at least minimized, in the Senate, the “filibuster culture” must be done away with in our society, or else the poison of Trumpism and the insurrection it spawned will only strengthen and grow, until the forces of anti-democracy, for whom the Senate filibuster is the best friend, ultimately win.

And before anyone raises the objection of “well what about the Democrats?” yes, of course, both sides have overused, abused and perverted the filibuster, plenty of blame to go all around for those of you who like to keep blame-game score cards at home, and while I argue that Trumpism is the Republican societal offshoot of “filibuster culture,” the worst and most extreme excesses of cancel culture are the Democrat contribution to societal “filibuster culture.” But I am getting ahead of myself.

Let me take one step back from punditry to go over a little bit of history. Trust me, this is not boring history, like you suffered through in history class where they made you memorize dates and made you yawn your way through the heartwarming story of George Washington and the cherry tree and the “I cannot…