U.S. Sen. John Thune offered a classical defense of the filibuster in the Jan. 11, 2022, edition of The Brookings Register. 

Among other things he stated that the current filibuster rule, which requires 60 votes in the U.S. Senate to debate and conduct the vote on pending legislation, “forces compromise” and “forces bipartisanship.” He further stated that the filibuster protects “minority party rights.” 

He concluded his piece by chastising Senate Democrats for their consideration of changes to the rules that govern the tradition of unlimited debate in the U.S. Senate noting that Democrats have defended the filibuster practice when they were in the minority. Indeed, both parties have offered vigorous defenses of the filibuster when it was in their interest to do so. 

As the second ranking Republican in the U.S. Senate, Thune is offering this defense of a non-majoritarian practice because Senate Republicans are relying upon the filibuster rule to prevent the Democratic majority from proceeding with floor debate and a floor vote on pending voting rights legislation and President Biden’s Build Back Better initiative.

I cannot improve upon Sen. Thune’s defense of the filibuster, but we need to understand it is the GOP abuse of the filibuster practice that is currently the problem and not the intended purpose of the Senate filibuster practice. 

The GOP Senate leadership is not interested in using the filibuster as leverage in seeking compromise or bipartisan legislation in the area of voting rights or social legislation. We see no evidence of GOP leadership offering to come to the table with Democratic Party leadership to hammer out differences regarding the pending legislation. The filibuster is being used instead as a tool of absolute obstruction of the law making process. Voting rights will not be further protected by the U.S. Congress as authorized by the U.S. Constitution and new legislation intended to “promote the welfare of the people “also authorized by the U.S. Constitution will not be approved because of the GOP assertion of minority rule over the U.S. Senate law making process which is not sanctioned by the U.S. Constitution.

Thune has confused minority rule with minority rights. The U.S. Constitution and laws of Congress afford many protections for the rights and liberties of minorities to temper the power of the majority as an essential element of our modern liberal democracy. 

These minority rights and liberties are secured from governmental abuse or denial but constitutional minority rights do not extend to the minority party right to totally obstruct the U.S. Senate law making process. The U.S. Constitution sanctions the practice of majority rule as opposed to minority rule in ordinary congressional law making. All lawmakers should respect that principle.