Two Ways the Zero-Effort Senate Filibuster is Weakening America

When I sat down to write The Senate Deception, I was looking for an issue that our hero, Jackson Piper, could take a stand on. The Senate filibuster was an easy target.

Let’s be clear before we swim too far into these shark-infested waters discussing our do-nothing Congress. The partisan Senate is a modern invention. The zero-effort filibuster – the one that doesn’t actually require a Senator to hold the floor or read chapters of The Great Gatsby or The Senate Deception into the Congressional Record – is a modern invention.

The central premise of The Senate Deception is that this kind of hyper-partisan, zero-effort politics is making the United States weaker, not stronger. Shall we unpack this?

Partisan Tarpits

Let’s start with the hyper-partisan Senate. The role of Senate Party leader ala Majority Leader did not come into existence until the Wilson Administration. President Woodrow Wilson? Yes, the same. Can you name his years in office?

The correct answer is 1913-1920. We’ll count the last year of his term even though it was his wife, Edith, who most historians believe acted as President while the President lay incapacitated by a stroke. (Let me make a note in my journal to add those events to my list of future historical fiction novel ideas). SPOILER ALERT: The subject of presidential succession and the 25th Amendment plays a major role in What It Takes to Kill a Bull Moose.

Back to the matter at hand. Partisan control of the Senate is a custom, not an official part of the Standing Rules. Now that we have a U.S. Senate that conducts 98% of its duties along strict partisan votes, contrary to two hundred years of the Senate being the adults in Washington, some would argue (me included) that we are increasingly royally f*cked if we can’t find a way out of this partisan tarpit.

If every Senate debate is just about posturing in anticipation of the next federal election, nothing, and I mean nothing, will be accomplished by Congress.

Threats Not Debates

The driving problem in The Senate Deception is what to do about this zero-effort filibuster. Under an informal reinterpretation of Senate Rules by Majority Leader Mike Mansfield (MT) in 1972, the Senate developed the two-track Senate calendar. What the hell is that? It’s too complicated to get into it here, but the most important thing you need to understand is the two-track Senate calendar placed the talking filibuster into a basket and lowered it into a crypt beneath the Congress to die a slow and silent death.

How can the Senate do this? See the Calvin Coolidge quote at the beginning of The Senate Deception to understand how the Senate can make shit up as it goes along.

The dramatic scene in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington where Pennsylvania native Jimmy Stewart holds the Senate floor for hours to call out Washington corruption cannot happen in America 2024. That is because only threats, not debates, are necessary today because no Senator actually has to do that difficult work of holding the floor for hours to bring the Senate to a halt. The Senate politely “sets aside” the controversial measure and goes about its less controversial business, like commemorating National Pizza Day on February 9. Trust me, there will be speeches about it if the Senate bothers to gavel into business on Friday. Doubtful. But if they do anything this week, it will be neither epic nor save the Republic from its slow-motion approach toward the cliff of no return.

Solution to Fix the Senate

Many of my readers would join me in the sentiment of wanting to see the 100 most elite legislators in the greatest deliberative body in the world live up to the hype. Deliberate. Debate. Solve problems. We also wouldn’t mind seeing senators break a sweat while doing their jobs.

Would the latest Ukrainian Aid and Border Security Bill actually be “dead on arrival” or go down in defeat if the opponents of the legislation had to actually bring the Senate to a halt by holding the floor continuously to prevent a vote on the bill?

I yield to any of the 100 distinguished Senators who care to defend the zero-effort filibuster. While it creates the appearance of hard work, I happen to know on the Border bill no actual filibuster will happen at all.