Why the Filibuster Suits the GOP Just Fine
Because neither party can reliably elect enough senators to overcome a filibuster, modern American politics is trapped. We figured out just how trapped.
In the Senate today, a simple majority isn’t enough to pass a bill: 60 out of 100 votes are necessary to break a so-called filibuster by invoking “cloture” to end debate. Routine use of the filibuster is a modern and accelerating phenomenon. Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, who regards the filibuster as a permanent fixture worthy of protection, has seen the cloture rule 1,050 times since he took office in 2011. Before that, the preceding 1,050 cloture motions took more than 30 years to accumulate. In the filibuster’s first 50 years, starting in 1917, cloture was invoked an average of less than once a year.
