In this hyperpartisan era, where gridlock is the norm and legitimate compromise happens only within the dominant ruling coalition rather than between the two parties, the filibuster is the single worst aspect of our rotting corpse of a government. That archaic and ridiculous rule allows a tiny group of power-hungry, egomaniacal senators to hijack the political process. It significantly weakens the House of Representatives by allowing the minority party to grind the government to a screeching halt virtually at will. Recently, Sens. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H., proposed a compromise to reform the filibuster and increase tractability in the Senate. Their proposal is a nice start, but ultimately, Democratic leadership should do what the Republicans threatened to do several times this decade and eliminate the filibuster entirely, so that Congress might finally get back to governing rather than bickering over who's to blame for the staggering lack of productivity from our legislature.
The U.S. Senate is by and large comprised of the slimiest, sleaziest men and women our nation has to offer those willing to debase themselves with the sort of shameless politicking necessary to get to and succeed in Washington. Under the current system, the few of them standing between the majority and their 60th vote become the most powerful members of government and are handed a virtual blank check to influence policy. This means that unpopular, amoral vindictive weasels like Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., often have the largest say in determining the outcomes of the issues most important to Americans a frightening thought to say the least.
Furthermore, the filibuster neuters the House of Representatives the body most sensitive to the people's will in conference negotiations between the two chambers. The House is usually forced to move towards the Senate's version of a given bill because both sides understand that Senate coalitions are more fragile due to the need to maintain 60 votes. This means that not only do a few senators get to determine policies that affect millions of Americans, but their votes also trump the will of an entire legislative chamber.
Worst of all, in recent decades, the filibuster has allowed determined minority parties to stall indefinitely, killing significant pieces of both parties' legislative agendas and forcing key administrative positions to go unfilled for absurd lengths of time. Both parties are equally guilty of these shameful maneuvers, as the Democrats held up dozens of judicial appointments for months during the Bush Administration , straining our overworked legal system, and the Republicans more recently blocked more than 60 Obama appointees for the first year of his term.
Because of the filibuster, Americans never get to see who is "right" in the important debates of the day. Winning elections does not mean that either party actually gets to implement their policies, and as a result, we end up with watered-down bills and a pitifully indecisive Congress. This system undermines our Republic, and makes our government extremely unresponsive to our concerns. With the filibuster, everyone loses.
There may have been a time before ultra-efficient partisan sorting when the threat of a filibuster forced bipartisan cooperation and actually strengthened the Senate, but with today's radicalized primary electorates neither side has any incentive to compromise lest they face the wrath of well-funded extremists in their own parties. That is why simply reforming the filibuster is useless delaying the process doesn't make either side any more likely to cross the aisle. We see this problem in the current Congress, where President Barack Obama, despite infuriating liberals with his fiscally conservative approach, can't even get Republican applause for tax cuts during the State of Union, much less Republican votes.
The resulting gridlock essentially makes Congress a status quo power, which is great for lobbyists and corporate interests, but bad for the rest of us. Our nation has far too many massive economic and social challenges for the government to simply stand still. It's high time for Democratic leadership to do the right thing and commit to abolishing this abomination at the start of the next legislative session. Even with the beating they're about to take at the polls in November for having done nothing this last year and a half, they should still have a majority and could easily get this done. Heck, even if the Republicans do win back control of the Senate, they should kill the filibuster as well. It's what's best for everyone.
