When Politico reported on March 30 that the Senate is inching ever-closer to the non-congeniality cliff and that “no one seems to care enough to save the Senate from itself,” they were right on the money. If the current pattern holds and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is able to keep his caucus together in opposition to Judge Neil Gorsuch’s Supreme Court confirmation, the Senate as we know it could be changed forever.
If the more pragmatic members of the chamber aren’t able to find a way out of this morass, the upper body could gavel in later this month with the filibuster weakened to an even greater extent than it is today. Many senators grasp the urgency of this situation. This week, Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., begged his colleagues on the floor to “to avoid what I see as something that’s very, very detrimental to the United States” — and yet they can’t seem to find the political courage required to avert a parliamentary catastrophe that is bearing down on the Senate.
Consider what happens if the nuclear option is indeed invoked in order to confirm Gorsuch to the bench:
1) The Senate will no longer be the Senate: The Senate is commonly referred to as “the world’s greatest deliberative body” for a reason. It’s a forum where real debate and discussion is not only encouraged, but mandated before bills are passed and presidential appointments are confirmed (or not confirmed). It’s a place where the minority party has certain powers at their disposal to protect their core prerogatives and to stop the majority from getting whatever it wants. The filibuster is perhaps the most indispensable element of the Senate as an institution, forcing a liberal Democrat from California to talk to a conservative Republican from Alabama in order to find some kind of compromise to get an item through the body. Take the filibuster away, and those discussions will no longer occur.
2) More partisanship and extremism is inevitable: To many Americans, the filibuster is one of those strange and archaic rules that stretch out debates unnecessarily and significantly hinder the ability of Congress to actually get something done for the American people. Productivity is often sacrificed at the alter.
Yet the filibuster isn’t all bad. By forcing the majority party to clear a 60-vote threshold to move a bill or Supreme Court nomination to final debate, a Republican or Democratic president has to think twice before tapping an individual who is considered a fringe or extremist candidate by the other party. Unless the president is willing to take a gamble and run the risk of losing a high-stakes battle in public, they’ll need to find a Supreme Court pick that is marketable to at least some members on the other side. Remove the filibuster for Supreme Court nominations, and we can expect a lot more radicals on the high court from both the Left and the Right.
3) Pretty soon, the filibuster will be gone entirely: In politics, like in physics, one action creates an equal and opposite reaction. Senate Democrats eliminate the filibuster for all presidential nominees (except the Supreme Court) in 2013, and Senate Republicans use that unfortunate decision to help justify why eliminating the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees is an appropriate next step. A GOP blockade of Judge Merrick Garland last year provides Senate Democrats with an excuse to filibuster Gorsuch’s nomination. Follow this logic to its conclusion, and pretty soon we may wake up and see Republicans or Democrats destroying the 60-vote threshold for legislation too.
The Senate, that historic institution of democracy, is only a few short steps away from becoming a smaller House of Representatives, where the majority dominates the proceedings and the minority is forced to swallow bills jammed down its throats. We are traveling on dangerous terrain.
Daniel DePetris (@DanDePetris) is a contributor to the Washington Examiner’s Beltway Confidential blog. He is a fellow at Defense Priorities. His opinions are his own. If you would like to write an op-ed for the Washington Examiner, please read our guidelines on submissions here.
