The Filibuster - If You Don’t Know, Now You Know

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 streak things up for the first time and his presidency, President Biden is making

the case for not eliminating, but reforming the Senate 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? 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 center and back in the old days at a filipbuster, you had to stand up and command the floor and you had to keep talking along. So

you gotta work for the filibuster. So you're for that reform. You're for bringing back the talking Philippus, I am, that's what it was supposed to be. It almost is getting to the point where there's you know, democracy is 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 drives down with those little speed bumps that they installed around my

neighborhoods elementary school. At least think those were 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, well I have to find my keys, you know what. I don't

need that hard medicine. I'll be fine. But the question is, how did the filibuster become the legislation US so 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 fifty votes to possible, you need sixty 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 with 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. That happened in eighteen o five after Aaron Burke suggests that the rules changed. Aaron Burr, as Vice President in the early dreds, is going over these rules of the Senate and he made a critical mistake. We thought, we don't really need a way to stop a debate, do we. I mean, there's just a field us like, we will

debate until we're done, until everyone's had their say. How slow could the Senate really be nobody knew it at the time. It would be three more decades before the first filibuster was actually mounted, but that was a 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 linn Manuel Miranda. And it didn't even 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 it's 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, 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 hundreds, wasn't anything better to do. I mean, it was either listened to Thaddeus talk about a bill, or take a bumping carriage right 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. 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.

This most famous filibuster was on June twelve. He was able to speak without stop for fifteen hours. In thirty minutes, running out of things to say about the bill, he offered to give advice on any subject someone requested. Yep in this white dude rambled on about nothing for over fifteen hours, and somehow he gets zero credit for invent in the podcast. So unfair, but the Senate is crazy, man. This guy got on the floor and talked for fifteen

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 they're shalad dressing and delicious. But you know what doesn't leave a good taste in my mouth letting women wear a pan. But still, I'm not gonna lie. It's impressive that he could talk for that long. That ship is hard. I can't even think of twenty seconds of stuff to talk about to a

coworker in an elevator. So I'm gonna floor nine. Huh. Yeah, how's this weather? We're having so much weather? I think I'm just gonna get out here good. 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 twenty minutes.

Your filibuster and grandpa. But it wasn't until the late nineteen fifties that the filibusters 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. For a few decades, the filibusters 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. It became a tool that Southern senators used to prevent the federal government from intervening in racial segregation. Perhaps the most famous one was when the South Carolina strom Thurmond took the floor against the nineteen fifty seven Civil Rights Act. Thurman notoriously read the phone book, clocking in it more than twenty four hours to try to block a nineteen fifty seven civil rights bill. How did you last twenty four hours? You never left

the Senate floor? I go now to sendvance three day of aforehand and drive out my body in the Yeah, so I wouldn't be chempted to go to the bathroom and so and so I was able to do that. Oh strong, you are too much. And when I think about all those black people who suffered because of you, A go for real, man, how gross was that story? This guy dried out his body to help him filibuster?

You know someone has committed to racism when they're willing to jerky themselves for it, and greatly is amazing what humans can accomplish when confronted with their worst fears. Just as a mother will be able to lift the 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. A black guy, Hey, before I let you in, have I ever told you about my salad dressing? Two table spoons of lemon juice, a pinch of rosemary, And what you want to try and do is make sure that okay, he's gone now. Eventually, the Senate decided that all of these talkathons were slowing things down too much, so in 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 sixty 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. 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. Today it's being used in a different way. It's being used to effectively kill measure a bill, a proposal that the minority really doesn't like. In fact, there have been more filibusters during Obama's time in office than in the fifties, sixties, and seventies combined over the entire

history of the Senate. Before President Obama, just sixty eight judicial and executive branch nominees were blocked and required closure, which ends a filibuster and forces an upper down vote. By contrast, seventy nine of President Obama's nominees required cloture. From two thousand nine alone, Republicans used the filibuster against virtually every controversial bill and nomination, and some that were

in controversial at all. Mitch McConnell has the devious distinction of being the only sitting senator that filibustered his own bill. God damn, Mitch McConnell loves to filibuster so much. He filibustered his own bill, and he has to get four ribs removed to be able to do it. The man is sick. But yes, once Obama became president, McConnell began filibuster ring everything. Obama wanted to appoint a judge, McConnell blocked it. Obama wanted to possible, McConnell stopped him. Obama

wanted to watch something on Netflix. McConnell hid the remote in his neck. Falls. I haven't seen it anywhere. Man, Maybe or should write a mark ma. And once McConnell decided to block Obama's entire agenda, that became the new president. 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 sixty

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 will finally get to find out what Mitch McConnell uses in this salad dressing. So what you wanted the chairs of poor people man, and you want to grind it up with oppression. So

that's the filibuster. And if you don't know, now you know. The Daily Show with Trevor no Ears Edition. Subscribe to The Daily Show on YouTube for exclusive content and stream full episodes anytime on Paramount Plus. This has been a Comedy Central podcast