The filibuster.
And before you say,
"Oh, that is some boring Senate rule.
What the (bleep) does that have to do with me, Trevor?"
First of all, please do not curse on my show.
There's no need to be crude.
And secondly, it actually has to do
with pretty much everything right now.
Like, think of all the big issues
that President Biden wants to tackle.
Voter suppression, protecting unions,
immigration reform,
finding out who snitched on his dog Major.
Right now, Senate Republicans can block Joe Biden
from doing any of that stuff.
Which is why now Biden is saying
he wants to shake things up.
For the first time in his presidency,
President Biden is making the case
for not eliminating but reforming
the Senate, uh, legislative filibuster.
You've been reluctant to do away with the filibuster.
Aren't you gonna have to choose
between preserving the filibuster
-and advancing your agenda? -BIDEN: Yes.
But here's the choice.
I don't think you have to eliminate the filibuster.
You have to do it what it used to be
when I first got to the Senate back in the old days.
With a filibuster, you had to stand up and command the floor.
And you had to keep talking on.
So, you got to work for the filibuster.
So, you're for that reform.
You're for bringing back the talking filibuster.
I am. That's what it was supposed to be.
It almost is getting to the point where there's...
You know, democracy's having a hard time functioning.
That's right. Biden doesn't want to stop the filibuster entirely.
He just wants to slow it down.
Kind of like how they try and slow drivers down
with those little speed bumps that they installed
around my neighborhood's elementary school.
At least, I think those are speed bumps.
And this may seem like a small change,
but making things just a little more annoying
could actually make a big difference.
I mean, think about it. We buy stuff online
because we can get it in one click.
But when you actually have to go down to the store,
then all of a sudden, you're like,
"Man, where... Ah, I have to find my keys.
"You know what? I don't need that heart medicine.
I'll be fine."
But the question is how did the filibuster
become the legislation buster that it is today?
Well, let's find out in another episode
of If You Don't Know, Now You Know.
? ?
Let's start with the simplest explanation of the filibuster.
It's basically a loophole in the Senate rules
for blocking legislation because even though
you only need 51 votes to pass a bill,
you need 60 votes to stop the debate
over voting on that bill in the first place.
Which means as long as the minority party
can keep "debating,"
then the bill is basically dead.
And if you're wondering, "Why on earth
would the founding fathers put that in the Constitution?"
Well, they didn't.
The filibuster began as a historical accident.
It's not some great tradition in the Senate
that's protected by the Constitution.
It happened in 1805
after Aaron Burr suggested a rules change.
NEWSMAN: Aaron Burr, as vice president in the early 1800s,
was going over these rules of the Senate,
and he made a critical mistake.
He thought, "We don't really need a way
"to stop a debate, do we?
"I mean, there's just a few of us.
"Like, we will debate until we're done,
"till everyone's had their say.
How slow could the Senate really be?"
NEWSMAN 2: Nobody knew it at the time.
It'd be three more decades before the first filibuster
was actually mounted, but that was the moment
the Senate created the filibuster.
That's right. The filibuster
isn't in the Constitution.
It's just a rule that was made up
by that guy who shot Lin-Manuel Miranda.
And it didn't seen start out as a way to block legislation.
It was a way for the Senate to keep debate open,
not to debate for so long
that nobody could ever actually vote on a bill.
So, its original purpose is completely different
from what people decided to use it for later on.
It's insane.
It's sort of like how Facebook was invented
as a way to see which of your classmates were hot
and then years later became a way
to organize a lynch mob for Mike Pence.
Who, by the way, is hot.
And you might wonder why senators back then
would want to risk having an endless debate.
But don't forget, guys, in the 1800s,
there wasn't anything better to do.
I mean, it was either listen to Thaddeus talk about a bill
or take a bumpy carriage ride back to your plantation,
where a bunch of Black people
wanted to discuss their terms of employment.
You're probably gonna want to hear what Thaddeus has to say.
Either way, eventually, senators realized
that they could block legislation by debating forever.
And that could get pretty ridiculous,
because there was no rule on what counted as a debate.
So senators came up with all kinds of random ways
to fill that time, which led to moments like this.
NEWSMAN: Louisiana Democrat Huey Long
filibustered several bills.
In arguing against a bill,
he recited recipes for salad dressing
and discussed at length the best way to fry oysters.
His most famous filibuster was on June 12, 1935.
He was able to speak without stop
for 15 hours and 30 minutes.
Running out of things to say about the bill,
he offered to give advice on any subject someone requested.
Yep. In 1935,
this white dude rambled on about nothing
for over 15 hours,
and, somehow,
he gets zero credit for inventing the podcast.
So unfair.
But the Senate is crazy, man.
This guy got on the floor and talked for 15 hours
about oysters and salad dressing.
I mean, they should make it a rule
that you at least have to try to connect your speech
to the bill that you're supposed to be debating.
"I guarantee this salad dressing is delicious,
"but you know what doesn't leave a good taste in my mouth?
Letting women wear pants."
But, still, I'm not gonna lie,
it's impressive that he could talk for that long.
That shit is hard. I can't even think of 20 seconds
of stuff to talk about to a coworker in an elevator.
-(Muzak playing) -So, going to floor nine, huh?
(chuckles)
Yeah. How's this weather we're having?
So much weather.
(exhales)
I think I-I'm just gonna get out here.
(grunts)
-(thud) -I will say though, it makes sense
that senators are so good at filibustering,
because most of them are grandparents.
Don't forget that.
Visit your granddad
and see if he doesn't take three hours
to tell you a story that happened in 20 minutes.
"You're filibustering, Grandpa!"
But it wasn't until the late 1950s
that the filibuster started to become more common.
And what cause was so inspiring to senators at that time
that they just had to stand up and speak for hours?
Being racist.
NEWSMAN: For a few decades,
the filibuster was used but pretty sparingly.
Then the Senate starts to consider
civil rights legislation,
and Southern senators really hate this.
But they don't have the votes to actually defeat the bills,
so they start using the filibuster.
NEWSMAN 2: It became a tool that Southern senators used
to prevent the federal government
from intervening in racial segregation.
NEWSMAN 3: Perhaps the most famous one
was when South Carolina's Strom Thurmond
took the floor against the 1957 Civil Rights Act.
NEWSWOMAN: Thurmond notoriously read the phone book,
clocking in at more than 24 hours,
to try to block a 1957 civil rights bill.
How did you last 24 hours?
You never left the Senate floor.
I had gone down to the Senate bath
for three or four days beforehand
-and dried out my body. -In the sauna?
Yeah, so I wouldn't be tempted to go to the bathroom.
(both chuckle)
And so... and-and so I was able to do that.
(chuckles) Oh, Strom,
you are too much. (laughs)
And when I think about all those Black people
who suffered because of you.
(laughing)
(scream-laughing)
Yo, for real, man--
how gross was that story?
This guy dried out his body
to help him filibuster?
You know someone is committed to racism
when they're willing to jerky themselves for it.
And it really is amazing what humans can accomplish
when confronted with their worst fears.
Just as a mother will be able to lift a car
off of the ground to save her child,
a racist senator will suddenly be able
to speak for days at a time
only if it will stop a Black person from using his bathroom.
I mean, the filibuster was used
to block Black people so many times,
I'm surprised they never use it at nightclubs.
"Uh, uh-oh. A Black guy.
"Hey, before I let you in,
"have I ever told you about my salad dressing?
"Two tablespoons of lemon juice,
"a pinch of rosemary.
"And what you want to try and do is make sure the--
Okay, he's gone. All right."
Now, eventually, the Senate decided
that all of these talkathons
were slowing things down too much.
So, in 1975,
they made what they thought was a small adjustment to the rules.
Instead of having to speak,
a senator could just announce that they planned to speak.
And unless there were 60 votes to prevent them,
the filibuster would be considered successful.
And that actually worked for a while,
until two things happened:
America elected a Black president
and a Senate minority leader
who was willing to do anything to stop him.
NEWSMAN: The practice became an art form for Republicans
under Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.
During the Obama years, McConnell impeded nominees
and legislation left and right--
he has the nickname "the Grim Reaper" for a reason.
NEWSMAN 2: Today, it's being used in a different way.
It's being used to, effectively, kill a measure, a bill,
a proposal that the minority really doesn't like.
NEWSMAN 3: In fact, there have been more filibusters
during Obama's time in office
than in the '50s, '60s, and '70s combined.
Over the entire history of the Senate,
before President Obama,
just 68 judicial and executive branch nominees were blocked
and required cloture, which ends a filibuster
and forces an up or down vote.
By contrast, 79 of President Obama's nominees
required cloture from 2009 to 2013 alone.
NEWSMAN 4: Republicans used the filibuster
against virtually every controversial bill
and nomination and some that weren't controversial at all.
Mitch McConnell has the devious distinction
of being the only sitting senator
that filibustered his own bill.
Goddamn.
Mitch McConnell loves to filibuster so much,
he filibustered his own bill.
And he had to get four ribs removed to be able to do it.
The man is sick.
But, yes, once Obama became president,
McConnell began filibustering everything.
Obama wanted to appoint a judge,
McConnell blocked it.
Obama wanted to pass a bill,
McConnell stopped him.
Obama wanted to watch something on Netflix,
McConnell hid the remote in his neck folds.
"Mah, I haven't seen it anywhere.
Mah, maybe you should read a book. Mah."
And once McConnell decided to block Obama's entire agenda,
that became the new precedent.
You know? When Democrats got the chance,
they blocked President Trump's agenda just as hard,
to the point where now practically every piece
of legislation in the Senate needs 60 votes to pass.
And that's why there's a movement
to get rid of the filibuster entirely.
Because it's not healthy for a democracy
if the losers can always block the winners
from passing their agenda.
Now, the Democrats don't have the votes right now
to kill the filibuster completely.
But based on Joe Biden's interview,
it seems like they may be willing
to make it more annoying again,
which won't stop filibusters from happening,
but at least we'll finally get to find out
what Mitch McConnell uses in his salad dressing.
"Eh, so what you want is the tears of poor people,
"mah, and then you want to grind it up
with oppression. Mah."
So, that's the filibuster.
And if you don't know, now you know.