Monday, April 19, 2021
It seems as if the world’s greatest deliberative body can no longer deliberate. Partisan gridlock has all but crippled the United States Senate. At the center of this is a tool that isn’t easy to understand: the filibuster.
The nature of the filibuster has changed over the years, as has its use. Today, with a 50-50 partisan split and the vice president needed to break a tie in favor of Democrats, Republicans see the filibuster as a “kill switch” that stops legislation from even getting to that point. Is this what the founders had in mind?
How did the filibuster start? How did it become a way to end the democratic process, and what would happen if it went away?
Guest
Adam Jentleson, former deputy chief of staff to Sen. Harry Reid, author of Kill Switch: The Rise of the Modern Senate and the Crippling of American Democracy
