Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia published anop-ed in The Washington Post on April 7 defending the Senate’s filibuster, a parliamentary tool that allows 41 senators to block legislation.For centuries, filibusters have been used by slave owners, segregationists and white supremacists toblock civil rights legislation. Sen. Manchin wants to make sure the tool is not weakened.
In his opinion piece, Manchin argues that the U.S. Senate is a dysfunctional body inclined toward political posturing instead of substantive deal-making.Manchin claims that the filibuster is a tool meant to encourage consensus and bipartisanship, and that to weaken or eliminate it would be to further divide the American people.
His argument boils down to an acknowledgement that the system we have is dysfunctional and we must change our individual behavior, but he will do nothing to change the current system.
In 2013, then-Majority Leader Harry Reid eliminated the filibuster for Cabinet appointees and federal judges, but left it in place for Supreme Court nominees. This was after four years of the Republican Senate minority obstructing the most basic functions of the Senate.And of course, when Mitch McConnell wanted to confirm Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, he swiftly did away with the filibuster for high court nominees.
Reid and McConnell were both correct. In Reid’s case, President Obama and Senate Democrats could no longer wait for a supermajority of 60 senators to consent to presidential appointments. In McConnell’s case, he knew he could never get 60 votes for President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee, so he killed the filibuster.
In order for the Senate to function, the majority party must have the right to pass its agenda. (I say “majority party” and not “majority” because Senate Republicans have not representeda majority of American voters since 1996.)
As of today, the Senate Democratic majority represents at least 40 million more Americans than the Senate Republicans do, even though the chamber is evenly divided. The Senate has always been and will always be a body that wildly overrepresents the interests of white, rural voters who skewmore conservative.
Despite this fact, Sen. Manchin believes Republican senators have a right to unilaterally obstruct Senate business. Democrats won control of the White House, the U.S. House and the Senate in just four years — for the first time since 1932 — and Manchin still will not relieve McConnell of his veto power.
I only have 500 words to write about this, and I am obviously no subject expert. If you want to read a damning indictment of the filibuster, its centuries-long use by white supremacists and its anti-democratic nature, I recommend Adam Jentleson’s book “Kill Switch” (2021). As a former aide to Harry Reid, Jentleson knows firsthand how the filibuster is used.
In just 250 pages, Jentleson expertly dismantles Manchin’s asinine argument in defense of the filibuster. It’s worth the read.
