On January 6, violent insurrectionists laid siege to the United States Capitol in an attempt to overturn the presidential election.

The racist, militant mob was out for blood.

And not just that of Democrats.

Had they found Vice President Mike Pence, they may well have assassinated him.

But yesterday, Senate Republicans (who themselves were under attack on January 6) exploited the shameful Jim Crow relic known as the filibuster to block the establishment of an independent commission to investigate that fateful day when our democracy very nearly fell prey to fanatical authoritarianism.

Here’s the thing about the filibuster:

A lot of people — even some members of Congress — seem to think that the filibuster encourages bipartisanship.

But in practice it does the exact opposite.

• Not that long ago, filibusters were relatively rare, and it took only 51 senators to advance most bills.

• Senators from the two major parties might fight tooth and nail, but at the end of the day, once either party got to 51 “yea” votes, what would actually happen is that senators who had been opposed would come onboard so that they could try to influence the exact language of the legislation and so that they could get some credit for something that was going to pass anyway.

• In other words, avoiding the filibuster facilitated bipartisanship!

• But now, all it takes is for Mitch McConnell to invoke the filibuster and everything grinds to a halt, with the only “winner” being obstructionism and rank partisanship.

• That isn’t how this is supposed to work.

• The filibuster originated by accident, and does not even appear in the Constitution. The Framers, imperfect though they were, never intended for the Senate to be rendered essentially dysfunctional by a minority of its members.

As vital as a bipartisan January 6 commission would be, there is even more essential legislation — the For the People Act (a.k.a. H.R.1 / S.1) and the John Lewis Voter Advancement Act perhaps most critically of all — that Mitch McConnell and Senate Republicans will stonewall if the filibuster remains an option.

Tell Senate Democrats:

The filibuster is a relic of Jim Crow that has been exploited primarily to maintain white supremacism and to stonewall popular, progressive legislation. And, contrary to what some believe, it actually *impedes* bipartisanship. It is time to join together and consign the filibuster to the history books.

Add your name.

Thanks for taking action.

For progress,

- Robert Weissman, President of Public Citizen

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