Defend the Filibuster

The plan to kill the mechanism is a threat to the Senate—and to democracy.

Kamala Harris lost the endorsement of West Virginia senator Joe Manchin last week. The former Democrat-turned-independent announced that he would not vote for the vice president because of her recent remarks urging the U.S. Senate to abolish the filibuster. “The filibuster is the Holy Grail of democracy,” Manchin said. “It’s the only thing that keeps us talking and working together.”

Manchin is right to respect the filibuster. It is an essential feature of American democracy—a mechanism to protect the rights of minorities from the dangers of overbearing majorities. Even if Harris wins in November, the Senate should push back against any pressure that she might exert to end it.

Harris’s most recent statement about filibuster abolition came during an interview on Wisconsin Public Radio about codifying Roe v. Wade in federal law. She has also enthused about using her position as vice president to end the filibuster to accomplish Democratic Party goals: “I cannot wait to cast the deciding vote to break the filibuster on voting rights and reproductive rights,” she said at the 2022 Democratic National Committee summer meeting. For as long as her party has held the White House, she has opposed the filibuster.

The term “filibuster” often becomes a kind of devil-word in progressive discourse. Progressives spread slanders about its relationship to white supremacy or argue that it is a means of establishing “minority rule.” Nothing could be further from the truth; the filibuster is a salutary process that arises from the nature of the Senate itself. By allowing a minority of senators, or even a single one, to hold debate open and thereby block legislation, the filibuster gives additional representation to the several states.

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