With Joe Biden saying he is willing to support ending the Senate filibuster, the longstanding rule now likely rests in the hand of three Democratic senators. And while West Virginia’s Joe Manchin and Arizona’s Kyrsten Sinema are still signaling their opposition to eliminating it, they may now be alone.
Jon Tester of Montana said in 2018 that he couldn’t imagine a scenario where he would change his mind on the filibuster. Apparently, all it took was the possibility of unified Democratic control of the government, as now he has changed his tune. Tester now says that if the GOP were to “stonewall” Democrats, he would be willing to toss the rule.
Tester, like many in the Democratic Party, has apparently forgotten the last attempts by Democrats to seize power in the Senate. Chuck Schumer has also forgotten; he professed his regret before President Trump was sworn in back in 2017, yet now he has declared “nothing’s off the table.”
It was former Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid who started the unraveling, with a similar “stonewalling” complaint. In 2013, he invoked the “nuclear option” for judicial nominees for every court except the Supreme Court. In 2017, Mitch McConnell extended it to Supreme Court nominees, allowing the GOP to push through Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh in back-to-back years.
The Republicans came out on top in that fight, with Trump and McConnell hitting 200 judicial confirmations in June. This was the expected outcome, as the counterpunch always lands harder than the initial strike. Now, Senate Democrats want to throw the same punch again, and they will once again lead with their chins.
The filibuster is supposed to be a tool for compromise. Tester and Senate Democrats are engaged in an act of stonewalling right now, blocking the Republican police reform bill because they want more expansive reforms. They’re doing it to negotiate more favorable reforms on their side, which is how it’s supposed to be used.
If the Democrats take the Senate with enough breathing room, Sinema’s and Manchin’s opposition won’t save the filibuster. Turning the Senate into the House of Representatives, where the majority party can simply walk over the minority with no negotiations or compromise, would be a grave mistake. If anyone should know that, it’s a supposed centrist like Tester.
