The Smart Way to Fix the Filibuster
Rather than completely eliminate the procedure, Democrats should reform it so that it continues to exist for truly extraordinary circumstances.
If Democrats get their wish—a landslide victory leading to a Joe Biden presidency, as well as a Democratic Senate and House—they will face an immediate challenge to getting things done. No matter the size of that landslide, the Republican response will be undeterred: a united opposition, akin to a parliamentary minority party, blocking what they can and delegitimizing what they cannot. It will be little different from their approach in the aftermath of the 2008 Democratic landslide. That formula led to huge GOP gains in the 2010 midterm election, and, after Barack Obama’s big reelection victory in 2012, even more gains in the 2014 midterms.
For Democrats facing that obduracy, the biggest challenge will be in the Senate, where the filibuster
