Why President Trump’s Second Term Shows the Filibuster Needs to be Removed
Every nation has history and traditions. Some of these make sense, oftentimes, others do not. While the United States is as great as any country that has existed, not all of the customs of America’s past should be revered. No nation is perfect, and sometimes present reality means that historic norms need to be adjusted. Obviously, the US has modernized many ways in which some minorities were treated over time, and those were positive changes. One of the wisest decisions the Founding Fathers made was to make the Constitution a living document, while still ensuring certain core principles of free speech and other values enshrined in the writing would remain the foundation of America.
One supposed norm that has become accepted by both Republicans and Democrats despite having absolutely no foundation in the Constitution is the filibuster. There is nothing in the Federalist Papers, the Bill of Rights, or the overall Constitution to support the filibuster that exists today. If a party that controls all three branches of government cannot govern, then that country is simply not sufficiently Democratic. While a system of checks and balances is a critical part of what has made America so successful, there is a problem if a party can’t govern even after winning national elections and controlling the House, Senate, and White House.
Yet this is exactly what happened after the last election. President Trump ran a brilliant 2024 campaign and focused campaign centered on securing the border, bringing prices down, and ending the wars in the Middle East and between Russia and Ukraine. Trump won a resounding victory in the Electoral College in addition to being the first President to win the popular vote since 9/11, other than George W. Bush, and this enabled Republicans to take control of the House, Senate, and White House. Still, while Trump has done an excellent job on the border and his passage of the big and beautiful bill was a major accomplishment, much of the MAGA agenda continues to be stalled in the Senate because of the historical relic known as the filibuster.
While critics of people who want to take down the filibuster will say that removing this historic norm will enable the left to pass transformative legislation that could cause severe damage to America, the reality is that elections have consequences, and majorities should be able to rule in a Democracy. President Trump won the popular vote and the Electoral College, he had a mandate and a majority. The President could not govern. While many are blaming John Thune, who was weak at the time for sure, the bigger problem is the ahistorical filibuster, which again has zero basis in the Constitution. For too long Americans have been told that the norms and traditions of the Senate cannot be changed, even though this argument is not true.
The far left, which controls today’s dangerous and dysfunctional Democratic Party, is also no longer playing by the ordinary rules. The Democrats have already prosecuted and persecuted Trump and MAGA, in addition to throwing members off of committees with no justification. Today’s left is also talking about taking actions such as stacking the court and making Washington, D.C., a state. In the current, more dangerous political environment, Republicans needed to take advantage of control of the three houses to govern. Elections have consequences, and traditions that are no longer relevant shouldn’t be respected. While conservatives should still have another chance to lead, the right can’t afford to allow esoteric norms to block the popular will of the public again when the Republicans are in charge.
