The beginning of the end of the Filibuster?

If you follow left-leaning blogs at all, you don't need me to tell you how counter-productive to good government and ahistorical the current use of the filibuster is (e.g., this Krugman column).  If you have doubts, check out yesterday's excellent column making the case that the Filibuster as practiced is, in fact, unconstitutional

Let me be clear, the filibuster is not going away anytime soon (though it should).  I do think, however, that it will be ended within the next decade and it's will be traced back to the current uprising against it in the lefty blogosphere.  It's going to take a while– most Senators are far too attached to it for their own selfish interests–  but I do think eventually sufficient pressure will be brought to bear to bring an end to this anti-democratic procedure that harms democratic accountability.  Sure, think-tanks and political science professors and such may have been talking about this, but I think it is ultimately the fact of this huge on-line presence marking smart and unceasing arguments to end the filibuster that will eventually filter out to the inside the beltway establishment and bring some change.  I'll report back in ten years and see if I was right.

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About Steve Greene
Associate Professor of Political Science at NC State http://faculty.chass.ncsu.edu/shgreene

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