Ah, the filibuster: hated by the left, loved by the right, hated by the right, loved by the left—it just depends on who’s in power.

“But wait,” you say. “I’m confused. What exactly is the filibuster?”

“Gosh darnit, all this here talk about guvern-mint sure is makin’ me confused!”

Don’t worry, Charlie (I decided that guy’s name is Charlie). Here’s a quick primer:
There are 100 Senators. To pass a bill, a majority of them must vote for it. This usually means 51+ votes, although sometimes Senators abstain from voting, and sometimes—although very, very infrequently—there’s a tie, in which case the Vice President can cast the deciding vote (this is basically the Vice President’s only official power).

But it’s not that simple. While only a majority vote is required to pass (or defeat) a bill, 60 votes is required to end debate on a bill and actually go to a vote. This in effect means that 60 votes are required to pass any major legislation, because if fewer than 60 Senators support a bill, the others can allow debate to continue forever (see sidenote). Eventually, the other Senators will get frustrated and table the bill. This rarely actually happens, though, as the Majority Leader—they guy who decides what legislation is voted on when, among other things—usually tries to make sure enough Senators will vote for a bill before he actually brings it up for a vote. (It’s embarrassing when a bill outright fails.) Thus, it’s usually the threat of a filibuster that kills or changes legislation, not an actual filibuster itself. Filibustering has been in the news recently because of good ol’ Joe “Everyone Pay Attention to Me!” Lieberman who, through the threat of a filibuster, single-handedly eliminated the Medicare buy-in proposal from health care reform.

(Sidenote: And when I say forever, I mean forever. Strom Thurmond, a former Senator and flaming racist once filibustered for 24 hours and 18 minutes. He rambled on about random shit including his grandmother’s biscuit recipe, and went on for so long that cots were brought in for the other Senators to sleep on. What horrible piece of legislation could cause such vehement opposition? The Civil Rights Act of 1957, which tried to give more African-Americans the right to vote. Good job, Strom.)

Pretty much everyone agrees, at one time or another, that the filibuster is unfair and undemocratic. Democrats want to get rid of it now, Republicans wanted to get rid of it a few years ago. But at any given time, the very people who don’t want the filibuster to go are the same people who, through the use of the filibuster, can block any efforts to eliminate it. And so it looks like we’ll be trapped in a filibuster stalemate forever…

But NOTHING is forever…

Nicholas Stephanopoulos, a New Republic writer with an unpronounceable name, has a proposal: pass legislation now to end the filibuster in 2017. By that point Obama will be out of office and every sitting Representative and Senator will have faced re-election at least once. Thus, no one knows who’ll be in power then. It could be anyone. Democrats, Republicans, Tea-Partiers… even ROBOTS.

Is it a good idea? Definitely. Will it happen? Probably not. Oh well…

…that’s the government for ya.

by Max Nussenbaum