Rethinking the Senate: The Modern Filibuster, Political Appointments, and Minority Rule

KQED's Forum

KQED

Politics, News, News Commentary

4.6 • 656 Ratings

🗓️ 3 March 2021

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

With 60 votes required to override a filibuster, even the Democrats’ narrow Senate majority doesn’t guarantee that President Biden’s legislation will pass. The modern filibuster, where senators delay or block a bill just by signaling their intent to filibuster, is enough to kill a bill. The Senate rules have been tweaked over the past decade, but that’s not enough to escape the filibuster’s role in history -- it became a tool to uphold slavery and block civil rights laws. Amid calls to #EndtheFilibuster and reform the Senate rules, we’ll take a step back and talk about the Senate’s role in upholding minority rule. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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1:08.7	From KQED. From KQED, public radio in San Francisco, I'm Nina Kim.
1:24.2	Coming up on forum, we look at how the U.S. Senate became so polarized and the role of the filibuster in creating legislative gridlock.
1:32.3	Today, senators can delay or block a bill just by signaling their intent to filibuster, and with 60 votes required to override it,
1:40.3	Democrats say their narrow Senate majority won't ensure that President Biden's agenda will be enacted.
1:46.4	In his new book, Killswitch, Adam Gentleson looks at how the filibuster became a powerful tool for minority rule, as well as its racist roots.
1:56.1	He joins us after this news.
2:12.3	This is Forum. I'm Mina Kim.
2:13.6	We're joined this hour by Adam Gentleson, author of Killswitch, The Rise of the Modern Senate and the Cripling of American Democracy.
2:20.3	Jentelson worked as Deputy Chief of Staff for Senator Harry Reid when Reid was the Democratic leader in the Senate.
2:26.3	Adam Jentelson, welcome to Forum.
2:29.3	Thank you. It's great to be here.
2:31.3	So Killswitch is about the role of the Senate filibuster and how it became a powerful way to uphold minority rule.
2:38.9	To help us understand the impact of the filibuster right now, I actually want to talk to you about the $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill that Democrats plan to bring to a vote in the coming days.
2:50.0	First, can you remind us what's basically
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