The one Republican elected official who has a serious and workable plan to end the government shutdown is, surprisingly enough, Donald Trump. The president’s idea is for the Senate to change its rules to allow the chamber to keep the government open with a majority vote, rather than to permit 41 senators to shut it down.
To be sure, Trump has not always framed his argument in the most cogent way. In a recent post on X, he wrote, “TERMINATE THE FILIBUSTER, NOT JUST FOR THE SHUTDOWN, BUT FOR EVERYTHING ELSE.” By way of explanation, he added, “THE DEMS ARE CRAZED LUNATICS, THEY WILL NOT OPEN UP OUR COUNTRY NO MATTER HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE IRREPARABLY HARMED!”
Generally speaking, depicting your opponents as “crazed lunatics” and yourself as the voice of reason is easier when you are not using all caps and exclamation points. Still, in this case, Trump’s position is correct. The filibuster is a deformed anachronism. Its demise would benefit the whole country, and Democrats especially, given the bills and Senate procedures that this tactic tends to block. If Trump’s impulsive, short-horizon leadership style is what finally does the filibuster in, then Democrats should help make it so.
Read: What if the government doesn’t need to be shut down?
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