Jonathan Bernstein, Columnist

It’s a Filibuster World. Senators Just Live in It.

The likely Republican bid this week to prevent Congress from investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol riot has been called the year’s first filibuster. Don’t believe it.

May 24, 2021 at 11:30 AM UTC

By Jonathan Bernstein

Jonathan Bernstein is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering politics. A former professor of political science at the University of Texas at San Antonio, he wrote A Plain Blog About Politics.

Going strong.
Photographer: Drew Angerer/Getty Images

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I’m a moderate on the question of what should happen to the filibuster in the U.S. Senate. I’d like to see some sort of compromise that keeps it around, although I’ve given up hope of that happening. I don’t believe that it’s inherently undemocratic for some things to fail despite having a simple majority of votes in that chamber.