The republican party will kill the filibuster (#4426)

      As much as republicans whine about democrats wanting to kill the legislative filibuster it will actually be republicans who do it. Take for instance the last budget reconciliation bill that provided stimulus to our citizenry, localities and states, plus needed funds for arresting the pandemic. Not one republican in either chamber, House nor Senate, voted to pass the bill into law. Surely they will take credit for it in parts but not one vote came from them to make all of it a reality. The idea that not one republican would vote for the wildly popular law is insightful. Given that bipartisanship is the glue holding together the filibuster, republicans had an opportunity to show even with a handful of yes votes that the filibuster is purposeful.
     But since none of them voted for the stimulus law, we see that bipartisanship is not the glue that holds the filibuster together. Instead it is obstruction that is holding the filibuster together. The needs of the many aren't considered when republicans control the filibuster as the minority. So what is the real purpose then of the legislative filibuster? As many can now see it is just a cudgel used by the republican party to bring harm to our citizenry while undermining the goodwill of the democratic party. Let me explain it this way, it is like getting stabbed in the stomach with a spear and then letting the spear remain within us because of fear. Well the filibuster is the spear we democrats are being stabbed with and if we don't remove the filibuster it will continue to harm us to the point of death.
     Even our most conservative members of Congress are starting to understand that the supposed good of the filibuster remaining is heavily outweighed by removing it. Sure, they are slow to come around because of tradition but the logic of keeping the filibuster for questionable idealistic concepts is being exposed and the arguments for removing it are becoming much more time sensitive and valid. Especially around the new voting rights bill that needs to be signed into law when it passes the Senate. But it cannot be passed in the Senate unless it has a way around the filibuster rule. We will lose our democracy and our one person one vote principle if we do not find a way to pass the voting rights bill out of the Senate!