Filibuster Actually Lessens Senate’s Power

The best argument against eliminating the filibuster is also proof positive that the filibuster is an extra-constitutional invention that weakens the experiment in self-government that our nation’s Founders intended.

I’ll admit I was pushed off-kilter for a minute when one reader warned about D.C. statehood and the prospect of  “two Marxist senators” as a counter to my last column on ending the filibuster.

Sure enough, the admission of new states by a simple majority in Congress could result in a partisan advantage for Democrats should they opt to offer statehood to the District of Columbia, but there are three things to remember:

1) That’s the system the Constitution deliberately established, and for more than two centuries it has not destroyed the republic.

2) The Constitution already requires bicameral approval and presidential assent. That is a substantial political hurdle in its own right.

3) And if Democrats truly viewed D.C. statehood as existential, they could eliminate the filibuster for that purpose with a simple majority – exactly as both parties have already done for judges and reconciliation.