Senate Democrats and Republicans are considering getting rid of the filibuster. The filibuster was a tool created in 1806 that allows the Senate to delay debates and requires more than a majority of votes (at least sixty) to pass a law. 

“Thursday, President Biden said he agreed with former President Barack Obama that the filibuster is ‘a relic of the Jim Crow era’”, noted Gillian Brockell from the Washington Post.

With reference to former President Obama’s original statement, Biden agreed, “‘ And if all this takes eliminating the filibuster, another Jim Crow relic, to secure the God-given rights of every American, then that’s what we should do’”. With the comparison of the filibuster to the Jim Crow era, they claim this is the reason why the filibuster is racist since the filibuster stopped one of the biggest civil rights movements(1957-1964) as reported by the Senate Historical Office. It is believed to be racist because it was used to block some civil rights laws after they passed the House

Republicans believe that the Democrats attempt to get rid of the filibuster is just exposing the hypocrisy within the party. “ This is sheer hypocrisy. Where was this urgency to ‘reform’ the filibuster when Democrats were using it to block funding for Trump’s border wall, block covid-19 relief, block police reform, block legislation forcing ‘sanctuary cities’ to cooperate with federal officials, and block legislation to protect unborn human life?”, Columnist Mark A. Theissen from The Washington Post writes. 

“‘After @POTUS @JoeBiden denounced the rampant abuse of the filibuster last year, we did some digging,’ Fox News anchor John Roberts tweeted Friday. ‘Republicans used it once. Democrats used it 327 times.’” Social Media producer Andrew Mark Miller says. “This was proof, he said, that the filibuster was being ‘abused in a gigantic way’” ; “By Biden’s admission, Democrats abused the filibuster to obstruct President Donald Trump’s legislative agenda. And now, Biden wants to use his own party’s “gigantic” filibuster abuse as justification to eliminate or restrict it when Republicans are in the minority”.

The filibuster was created in 1806. It can be defined mostly as a tool in the senate accidentally created that requires sixty votes to end a debate and is needed to pass a bill/law. 

“The filibuster was effectively limited only by Senate norms and the personal relationships between lawmakers until 1917 when the Senate enacted the cloture rule. The rule passed to support the American war effort in World War I, allowed two-thirds of senators to end debate on a topic.” Says Matthew Brown, a reporter for USA Today.

“But in fact, it makes sure that we just don’t talk about a whole bunch of things that might be necessary to talk about,” says Justin Boucher, a government and psychology high school teacher. He then goes on to say “ in the myth, it stops really egregious stuff from happening and it makes people talk to one another.” 

The filibuster could look like many things if it were changed or taken away. “ it used to be what we imagined. Someone has to stand on the floor of the Senate and talk and a group of people needs to get together and talk at the same time and agree to it beforehand. Then you have this big public spectacle” says Mr. Boucher.

“ I think if you remove the filibuster that. People might have to run their election campaigns a little bit more on what they did have, a little bit less on what they tried to do.” Says Mr. Boucher about life without a filibuster. He goes on to elaborate with the example, “ if I go into class and I do a lesson, the kids learn or they don’t. But if I go into class and someone in the back of the room throws a fit and then nobody learns anything. Right. And then we decide whether we want to do another lesson with me, did I get nothing done because I couldn’t, or did I get nothing done because there was a kid in the back of the room throwing a fit?”

After conducting a survey of my own on teens about 15-years-olds to 18-year-olds to see if people know what the Senate filibuster is; the results came out to be that the majority of people do know what the filibuster is but not by much. 

When asked what the filibuster is, a few responses were, “ A government building or a museum.” Says Janine, a senior at Hall high school.  

Another student when asked about whether we should keep or get rid of the filibuster responded with, “We should keep it… because it shouldn’t be based solely on the majority especially if one party is the majority.” says Kayla Waterman, junior at Hall high school.