Eli Zupnick of Fix Our Senate: “There is a clear consensus across the Democratic Party and among outside scholars and observers that the filibuster is a threat to our democracy and cannot be allowed to stand in the way of progress any longer. Let’s get it done, Democrats.”
WASHINGTON, DC — Leading columnists and observers are highlighting the need for federal legislation protecting Americans’ voting rights and the health of our democracy - and the reality that the only way to enact these essential bills is by addressing and reforming the filibuster:
- Rep. Mondaire Jones (D-NY) in an interview with City & State NY: “The filibuster should not exist. It is an anti-majoritarian Jim Crow relic that has been and continues to be used for the purpose of blocking civil rights and economic legislation in the best interest of the American people. For me, as someone who understands that our democracy faces its greatest test since Jim Crow, filibuster reform has to at a minimum include making an exception to the filibuster for purposes of passing voting rights and other democracy reform legislation.”
- Eugene Robinson column in the Washington Post, On voting rights, Democratic senators need to face reality: “Republicans have practically fallen over themselves in a rush to enact laws that limit or dilute the voting power of Americans of color — who, not coincidentally, tend to vote for Democrats … All attempts by Congress to guarantee that all qualified citizens in every state have the right and ability to vote have been stymied by the Senate filibuster. It is past time for Senate Democrats to deal with reality as it is, not as they wish it to be … Democrats need to recognize that preserving our democracy is much more important than Senate tradition.”
- E.J. Dionne column in the Washington Post, The hypocrisy argument on the filibuster is itself phony: “[T]he core reason the filibuster must be reformed is the moral imperative of passing bills to defend democracy. It confronts multiple challenges: to the right to vote; the right to have votes counted without political interference; and the right of voters to select their representatives — and not have politicians do it by drawing wildly partisan district boundaries … If it fails to act, the party that won power in 2020 as the bulwark of democracy and civil rights will be saying that these commitments matter less than fealty to an outdated, dysfunctional practice that has been altered repeatedly in pursuit of far less noble goals.”
- MSNBC, Steve Benen: Democracy scholars on voting rights: 'Midnight is approaching': “The question, of course, is not whether Senate Republicans will act to protect our democracy — they've already said they will refuse — but rather whether Senate Democrats are prepared to carve out an exception to the chamber's filibuster and pass the legislation through majority rule … democracy scholars are not neutral on the subject: ‘To lose our democracy but preserve the filibuster in its current form — in which a minority can block popular legislation without even having to hold the floor — would be a short-sighted blunder that future historians will forever puzzle over.’”
- Jonathan Alter column in The Daily Beast: “Democrats are now in agreement that, as Majority Whip Dick Durbin put it, a ‘reckoning’ is coming on the filibuster. They don’t want the Senate to fiddle while democracy burns. So that leaves the option of reforming the filibuster … If they break the filibuster on the debt ceiling and the Freedom to Vote Act, Democrats would have renewed hope of doing the same on immigration reform, gun safety legislation, family and medical leave, abortion rights, policing, and other bills. Even if they return to majority rule just on voting rights, this would mark a critical moment in the protection of American democracy.”
Eli Zupnick, spokesperson for Fix Our Senate, said: “Every single Democratic Senator backs federal voting rights and democracy-protecting legislation and has seen that there’s simply no way to make progress without addressing the filibuster. There is a clear consensus across the Democratic Party and among outside scholars and observers that the filibuster is a threat to our democracy and cannot be allowed to stand in the way of progress any longer. Let’s get it done, Democrats.”
