Dear Joe Biden: The filibuster will stop all your ideas

On the third night of the Democratic National Convention, a couple rather neglected topics came first in the proceedings — namely, gun control and climate change. Gabby Giffords, a former Democratic member of Congress from Arizona who was shot in the head in 2011, spoke movingly about her long and difficult recovery, and the need for reasonable gun control laws. Several scientists and activists similarly spoke about the stark need for aggressive climate policy to protect America from climate change.

It's nice to see the Democratic Party making room for these issues alongside newsier problems like the coronavirus pandemic and the economic collapse. A future President Biden will have more crises on his plate than any president since Franklin Roosevelt in 1933.

However, we should remember that unless the Democrats get rid of the Senate filibuster, there will be little or no progress on any of these issues, big or small. Republicans will almost certainly retain more than 40 seats in the Senate and, if the filibuster remains, be able to bottle up almost all legislation there as Mitch McConnell did for nearly the entirety of the Obama presidency. Moderate Democratic senators have long expressed reluctance about getting rid of the filibuster, but the truth is that unless it is abolished, America will remain nearly impossible to govern.

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