Originally Posted by David Cotterell
James Madison argued against any super-majority requirement in the Constitution the Framers were then designing, writing that otherwise, in his words, "the fundamental principle of free government would be reversed,“ “It would be no longer the majority that would rule: the power would be transferred to the minority.”
Alexander Hamilton said “how much good may be prevented, and how much ill may be produced if a minority in either house of Congress had the power of hindering the doing what may be necessary.”
A filibuster/super majority was only to be used for rare occurrences as written by the framers.
impeachments, expulsion of members, overriding a presidential veto, ratification of treaties, amendments to the Constitution.
Starting with the Obama administration use of the filibuster has increased tremendously and on virtually every type of legislation, well beyond the constitutional 5 things.
So how did it come to this? Especially the fact that 41 R senators, who only represent 21 % of the population get to basically run everything in their favour?
Dave
As far as carving out the filibuster, the most recent case was back in 2017 when "then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., eliminated the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees, clearing the way for then-President Donald Trump's first nominee to be confirmed."
Additionally, for an unbiased review of the filibuster:
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/senate-filibuster-calls-change-voting-rights/story?id=82186354