Kill the Filibuster in 2027

It’s finally time to kill the filibuster in 2027. The Democratic Party has won the Senate with a huge majority this midterm. As I write this, the results aren’t final, but there will be somewhere between 54-56 senators who caucus with the majority, plus Lisa Murkowski who we kinda tolerate (and minus John Fetterman who we don’t). That is, as you can see, not enough to break filibusters, which means the Senate will have a very hard time passing any real reform.

But more importantly, the mentally degraded and intensely bitter old man who is currently president will remain president for the next two years. Even if he gets too sick and has to resign, or if he is otherwise kicked out of office, the Vice President is JD Vance, which obviously isn’t going to work out very well. So we still have two more years of incompetency in the executive branch.

That means even if a ton of bills get passed, the president probably will be vetoing most of them out of pure spite. So then… what’s the point in passing them?

Why Kill the Filibuster in 2027?

It’s the message. The message that the president should not be a king. The message that Congress actually has the ability to reform the country, if not for the president. The message that, come 2029, here’s all the stuff we can actually do.

We’ve got all these new Senators eager to gain more influence and experiece. A generation of baby boomers well on their way out. Time to actually do some legislation. Kill the filibuster in 2027, and accomplish as much as humanly possible.

“Oh no, this will ruin democracy and create a death spiral of civility in Congress!” some dumb people might cry out. To that I say, sister, Congress is less popular than Kevin Spacey. We’ve spent over 15 years with a do-nothing legislative branch that has sat by idly as the executive branch amasses more and more power, and the judicial branch actively enables it. The minority party literally encouraged a coup in 2021! We are way past civility!

You don’t have to permanently kill the filibuster for all votes. There’s already exceptions even under the current rules. Do whatever exceptions make all you rich powerful guys feel good about yourselves so you can keep going to each other’s dinner parties. But to the average person who gives zero craps about arcane Senate rules, make THEM think the filibuster is dead and gone.

The 2027-2029 Path

Why is 2027 the best time? It’s precisely BECAUSE Congress and the presidency are misaligned. If the Democrats had the trifecta, it’d be seen as a power grab and media narrative would instantly shift towards “illegitimate laws passed that can easily be repealed in a couple years.” But doing it now basically gives two years of “free testing grounds.”

The President will obviously veto most bills passed, but the point is passing them. Everything that’s extremely popular. Everything that might be a little risky to cowardly swing district representatives suddenly becomes a lot easier when you know it won’t ever make it past the veto. And hey, what do you know? Sometimes the President may forget to veto it and it’ll pass into law anyway.

With no filibuster, we can focus on passing bills in important areas to prepare for 2029. To show the public, “this IS possible.” And, in some cases, to pass a law, see it vetoed, and then find out the public hates it and shelve it.

That TikTok ban sure would have been nice if they had passed it this way instead of everyone just illegally not enforcing the law.

Here’s what I’m talking about with bold bills that a no-fillibuster Congress could easily pass:

1. The National Film & TV Tax Credit Bill – This one has a small chance of passing in the lame duck session, but if not, then it’s already a bipartisan bill. But even if our senile president turns on it out of pure spite, it’s still worth a pass and could probably survive a veto.
2. End the Iran War – Obviously!!!!
3. End the Tariffs – Obviously!!!!!!
4. End military aid to Israel – Obviously!!!! This is the textbook example of “bill that cowardly swing district representatives are too afraid to vote for, and will inevitably get filibustered by Ted Cruz, but actually the majority of normal people really, really want this.”
5. Price caps on produce –
   1. It’s a tricky one to do correctly and not kill farmers’ careers, but obviously everyone is begging for this. I listened to a nice podcast episode proposing that grocery stores could be incentivized to cap prices on the core essential fruits, veggies, and grains, in exchange for a cap on credit card swipe fees. That sounds like a win for everyone but the payment processors, who we don’t care about anyway.
6. Mass transit infrastructure funding –
   1. Something literally everyone with a brain wants, but impossible to pass when you need 60 senators to get on-board and they keep attaching poison pill additions to virtue signal about killing woke or whatever. Amtrak was supposed to get massive funding to expand its routes. Cities are supposed to be getting more funding for buses and light rail. Congress can’t do too much to end the gas price crisis by itself, but funding infrastructure and ending the Iran War would be a big boon.
7. Puerto Rico Statehood –
   1. I mean come on! Millions of people disenfranchised! Why in the world does the U.S. still have colonies?! This can’t pass without the filibuster because most Republicans incorrectly think PR would be heavily Democratic.
8. Healthcare reform! –
   1. I’m not smart enough to speak on this one because U.S. healthcare is too crazy to comprehend.
9. NEW CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS!
   1. There’s so many parts of our system that are completely broken. The executive branch has too much power. The Supreme Court has given the executive branch more and more protections, more and more ability to circumvent the law and the will of the people. The only way to fix this is to change the system, and the only way to do that is through new Amendments to prevent another January 6th or DOGE Massacre from ever happening again.
   2. End self-pardons, reform the whole pardon system to be more transparent.
   3. End presidential immunity.
   4. Reform the Supreme Court in whatever wonky way works for you. I prefer a pool of judges that rotate in and out every term.
   5. Set permanent term limits for Congress and the Supreme Court.
   6. Permanently codify LGBTQ+ rights in a full amendment.
   7. Each one of these can pass, most will get vetoed, and the rest will circle around the states for a few years and probably eventually make it.

This is just my biased selection of bills that the Biden Administration utterly failed to act on, but are broadly popular and easy to pass if the Senate will kill the filibuster in 2027.

Making Congress actually a little bit popular, even if the bills they pass often can’t become law, has another knock-on effect…

2028 Sweep Time

There’s a confluence of three events coming by 2028 that are very important to prepare for:

1. The current president, if he is even well enough to finish his term, cannot run in 2028. He might still try, but obviously, two more years of this guy are going to be pretty ruinous. He will not suddenly become respected and popular. Less so if he is vetoing dozens of bills that Congress passes.
2. The AI Bubble is very likely to burst before the 2028 election. It’s possible that it won’t be so big that it sends the country into a recession, but it sure won’t be good on the economy.
3. The 2028 senate map is the stuff of dreams for the Democratic Party:

Democrats will be defending four competitive seats: Georgia and Arizona are pretty safe thanks to well-liked popular Senators in Warnock and Kelly, while Pennsylvania will be an open race when Fetterman retires and Nevada will probably be a pretty fierce fight.

Republicans, on the other hand, will be defending…

• Alaska
• Florida
• Iowa
• Wisconsin
• North Carolina
• Kansas
• South Carolina
• Missouri
• Louisiana
• Indiana
• Hell, even Utah with a strong independent candidate

In an environment with a recession, two more years of the sleepy ramble man as president, and similar enthusiasm to 2026, every single one of these states is a competitive one.

Democrats (and Democrat-aligned independents) could EASILY pass 60 seats.

And then in 2029, all the reforms that got blocked after two years of vetoes can finally actually happen. The country can heal from 12 years of democratic backsliding, executive overreach, pointless wars, and evil bigotry.

And then inevitably the Democratic Party will control the trifecta and everyone will want to just pretend it’s business as usual and do another round of Biden-style head-in-the-sand timewasting. But with 60 senators in the majority and no filibuster? Even the Democrats’ strong tendency to blow every chance they get can be overcome.

Conclusion

Yes, please kill the filibuster in 2027. This is the only opportunity to do it with almost no blowback, almost no real negative consequences.

The United States has a massive risk of falling into dictatorship as it currently stands. The executive branch is TOO powerful. Normal people have been suffering for years, but Congress does nothing. If nothing changes, we could have a president become permanent king before the end of the 2030s. It doesn’t matter what party they belong to; that’s the end of the Republic.

We have only one shot to fix this, so let’s not be precious about keeping around a Senate rule that nobody likes or cares about. Congress, focus on accomplishing literally anything at all, please.