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More important, the GOP can keep Congress from stopping Republicans’ aggressive efforts in state legislatures across the country to make it harder to vote. The barely disguised purpose of these legislative efforts is to disenfranchise African Americans and other Democratic constituencies. It risks enthroning minority rule and a Trumpist agenda in Congress, beginning with the 2022 midterms and for years to come.
Think that’s alarmist? Consider that the previous president, with broad support from his party, openly tried to overturn an election and still claims without evidence that Biden won only through fraud.
Given such stakes, it’s gratifying that there’s a growing movement within the Senate to weaken the filibuster and eliminate it in some cases — such as to protect voting rights and perhaps make the District a state.
There aren’t enough votes in the Senate yet to kill the filibuster altogether and move to simple majority rule. That’s because at least two Democratic senators, Joe Manchin III (W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.), oppose such a far-reaching change. (If they both came around, the Democrats could make the switch with just 50 Senate seats because Vice President Harris would cast the tiebreaker.)
But many Democrats support some kind of change, and more are sure to do so if Senate Republicans use the filibuster to paralyze the chamber, as they did when Barack Obama was president.
The four senators from our region, all Democrats, support the reform efforts, albeit to varying degrees and with an emphasis on moving cautiously. Their views offer a snapshot of the range of Senate Democrats’ positions on this pivotal issue.
Under existing rules, the GOP can effectively block most bills by threatening to mount a filibuster, a mechanism designed to protect minority rights. It used to require opponents to speak endlessly on the floor, but now it’s enough merely to announce one’s intention to do so. A 60-vote majority is then required to move forward.
In our area, Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland is the strongest voice for change. He wants to scrap the filibuster altogether, saying it “just compounds the anti-democratic nature of the U.S. Senate.”
That’s anti-democratic with a small “d.” He referred to the fact that the Senate effectively represents the biggest gerrymander in U.S. politics, in which Wyoming has just as many senators as California even though the latter’s population is 70 times larger.
“I’m very worried that…
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