President Obama Is Right: To Save Our Democracy, End the Senate Filibuster
By U.S. Senator Jeff Merkley
On July 30, a nation mourned as we put to rest one of America’s greatest heroes: Congressman John Lewis. As a young man during the 1960s civil rights movement, he repeatedly put his own freedom, even his own life, on the line to fight for the democratic principles our country was founded on.
Authorities arrested John Lewis dozens of times for demanding equality. And on Bloody Sunday, Alabama state troopers nearly killed him—beating him senseless and fracturing his skull—because he had the audacity to peacefully march for voting rights. Yet no matter what obstacles and threats were put in his way, he never wavered in his determination to fight so that our democracy would live up to its promise for all Americans.
Likewise, we must not waver in our own determination to fulfill that promise. And if that means changing or abolishing the current Senate requirement for a supermajority to close debate and pass policy legislation—often referred to as a “filibuster”—then that is what we must do.
The history of America is one of struggle between those who want our democracy to represent the many, and those who would prefer it only to represent the privileged and powerful few. Emancipation, the 14th and 15th amendments, the right of women and Native Americans to vote, the 1964 Civil Rights Act, the 1965 Voting Rights Act—all of these were major victories for the many. But for the last several decades, the powerful few have been working diligently and successfully to reverse this progress.
They have wiped voters from the rolls by the tens of thousands. They have passed discriminatory voter ID laws and closed polling stations. They have drowned our elections in dark money and expanded gerrymandering. They have stolen a Supreme Court seat and packed the Court, successfully gutting the Voting Rights Act that John Lewis bled for.
And they have clung to the vestiges of disenfranchisement that still exist in our system—the undemocratic Electoral College and the lack of representation for American citizens who live in D.C. and the territories.
All of these actions have undermined government of, by, and for the people, silencing the voices of the many to accentuate the power of the few. And, in the worst tradition of America’s exclusionary and racist history, they disproportionately disenfranchised Americans who were young, low-income, disabled, and people of color—especially Black Americans.
If we want to reclaim our We the People democracy, then taking on these destructive actions and policies must be our very first priority if and when a new administration takes office next January.
We must pass the For the People Act—which I have been proud to co-lead with Sen. Tom Udall—to tackle the gerrymandering, voter suppression and dark money that have profoundly corrupted our democratic republic. We must strengthen voter participation with automatic voter registration and the option of vote by mail. And we must give full representation to our fellow Americans in Puerto Rico and D.C.
And we must be determined to do all of this—to save our democracy—regardless of whether Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell agrees to it or not. Senators swear an oath to defend our Constitution. And there is nothing more fundamental to government by the people than integrity in our election system. We must not let McConnell lock in the current corruption by using a supermajority requirement to veto reforms.
Anyone who examines our history quickly learns that our founders saw Congress flounder under the supermajority required for legislation under our first constitution, the Articles of Confederation. Thus, they were adamant that legislation should be decided by simple majority so that the will of the majority would not be subservient to the will of the minority. Alexander Hamilton wrote that a supermajority would mire our new government in “tedious delays; continual negotiation and intrigue; contemptible compromises of the public good” and, at worst, “border upon anarchy.”
This concept—a simple majority for passing legislation—has held strong for most of our history. There were, over the 130 years between 1787 and 1917, only about seven times a member used the courtesy of being heard to kill a bill.
But in the last four decades, the use of the supermajority has become the default threshold for any significant vote on policy, which Republicans have used to kill good legislation on health care, housing, education, labor, the environment, and equal opportunity for LGBTQ Americans. At the same time, Republicans have changed the rules to make their priorities – cutting taxes for the wealthy and packing the court – subject only to a simple majority. In short, the rules of the Senate are rigged for the powerful over the people. It is our responsibility to change this!
And the rigged rules add to demographic imbalance. 41 Republican senators representing states that comprise less than a quarter of America’s population can veto Democrats’ legislation for the people.
Some senators still cling to the idea that a supermajority produces compromise. But the reality is that Mitch McConnell, when in the minority, has wielded it as a powerful partisan weapon. He used it not to improve legislation, or produce compromise, but to blockade good works from passing under the leadership of a Democratic Senate majority or a Democratic president. In 2009 and 2010, even when the economy teetered on the brink of a second Great Depression, McConnell blocked newly elected President Obama’s agenda at every turn, bragging that “the single most important thing” he wanted to achieve was “for President Obama to be a one-term president.”
We must be clear-eyed as we look ahead: If Joe Biden becomes president and Democrats retake the Senate, there is no chance that McConnell as Minority Leader would assist a President Biden in meeting the urgency of the coronavirus pandemic, the economic implosion, or the quest to end systemic racism, let alone in passing any legislation on America’s very long list of needs. Our economy, our democracy, our environment, and, for many, our very lives are in danger if the Senate is unable to address our challenges and prepare for the future.
If Republicans are willing to use simple majorities to take unprecedented measures to benefit the powerful few, we must be willing at the very least to use a simple majority to unrig elections and restore our democracy for the millions of ordinary families across the United States.
As President Obama put it in his powerful eulogy for Congressman Lewis: “If all this”—referring to restoring democracy for the people—“takes eliminating the filibuster, another Jim Crow relic, in order to secure the God-given rights of every American, then that’s what we should do.”
Amen.
Jeff Merkley (@SenJeffMerkley) is a U.S. Senator from the state of Oregon