Filibuster (3/7/21)
Despite GOP opposition, the House passed a sweeping voter rights bill this week. If House Resolution 1, the For the People Act, were to be passed in the Senate, it would be the largest voting rights and ethics overhaul in a generation. It has been described as “the most sweeping pro-democracy bill in decades”.
Republican led state legislatures around the country have recently released an onslaught of bills to suppress the vote and severely limit voter participation. They have embarked on a campaign to take back the House and Senate in 2022 not by earning the support of voters, but by partisan gerrymandering and suppression. This assault on voting leaves our democracy hanging in the balance and leaves Democrats to bear the standard of democracy.
The For the People Act, however, is expected to die unless all 50 Senate Democrats unite to end the filibuster. A filibuster is a parliamentary procedure used in the United States Senate to prevent a measure from being brought to a vote. The Senate rules require just a simple majority to actually pass a bill, but procedurally there is the Senate cloture rule which requires 60 votes to end the debate on a bill before it can be brought to a vote. At this juncture, the 50 Democratic Senators are not united on this front. Although there are risks involved in abolishing the filibuster, many commentators believe that the Democrats likely will have to choose between voting rights and the filibuster: (NY Times, Washington Post). The filibuster's past is mired in racism and white supremacy. Robert Hubbell says that “the greatest stain on democracy in the Senate is the filibuster. Because this Senate will not eliminate the filibuster, there will be no voting rights reform, no police reform, and no judicial reform—at least not for two years, and perhaps longer.” The Washington Post states that “it gums up the functioning of government and incentivizes raw partisan power politics.” We are at a pivotal moment where the conversation about abolishing the filibuster is likely to remain center stage. The question we all need to answer is whether or not the filibuster is a small sacrifice for HR1 and the future of democracy.