Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who is challenging Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to be the next Senate majority leader, said Friday he wants to abolish the filibuster and ruled out a potential presidential run in 2028.
Van Hollen, speaking to reporters at the What’s Next conference in Denver, argued that legislation should pass the Senate with simple-majority votes and that the filibuster, which requires senators to muster 60 votes to pass most legislation, is “undemocratic.”
“My personal opinion is that we need democracy in the United States Senate and that means allowing ultimately a majority of senators to answer the call of the American people, so that means 51 votes,” Van Hollen said.
“My personal view has been all along that the filibuster is an antidemocratic — small ‘d’ — provision. It’s not in our Constitution. It was put in there by senators to enhance their power over the power of the people,” he added.
I feel the same way. Look, at the end of the day – if we get the Electoral College gutted as we very well might now – if the American people vote in the majority to install a Trumpian-like figure, well then reap what you sow.
People are worried about the Senate overly-represented these red states, but we just say Kansas, Mississippi, Georgia, Texas, North, and South Carolina shift heavily. Maybe – just maybe – how we appeal to these states is about to change.
But in the event we have a majority Republican Senate but a majority Democratic President, at least that President can still veto just the same.
Don’t use the filibuster as a band-aid which has only actually impeded progress more than it has stopped damage in the past 2 decades; instead solve the systemic reasons for what makes people vote against their own interests in the first place.