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.
You may be right about that, and yes we still need to do the persuasive ground-game of actually converting the people in these states to recognize that it’s the working class vs the Epstein class, but as it currently stands: When a good bill bubbles up from the House or from someone like Sanders in the Senate, right now these conservative Senators can block it lazily and without any public scrutiny upon them.
Removing at least the cloture filibuster means these bills can at least be discussed, good and bad, and in the public light. That makes a world of difference and hands a little bit more power and a little bit more responsiveness back to The People.
Bernie Sanders and Jon Stewart had a good little exchange on the filibuster @ ~ 41:00