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Article Critique

Specifically, the first possible explanation for Reid's stunning reversal is simply that he fears losing the ability to filibuster Republican legislation in the event of a future republican majority in the Senate more than he cares about restoring functionality to the bicameral U.S. Congress. His reasoning would be that if the republicans gain control of the Senate in the upcoming mid-term Congressional elections, a Democratic minority would need to be able to block Republican legislation by filibustering to force a two-thirds supermajority voting threshold, exactly as the Republicans have been doing since the 2010 mid-term elections. At the very least, this is hypocrisy and forsaking the best possible governmental function for partisan loyalty to a political party over country. Horsey does allude to this, although so subtly that one could miss it altogether.

Horsey never even addresses the other plausible explanation for Reid's reversal: it is a result of the fact that the National Rifle Association and the pro-gun lobby more generally still holds enough clout with voters and campaign contributors to threaten Democratic seats in the event meaningful gun reform passes under a Democratic majority in the Senate. It is likely that the elimination of the silent filibuster would have led immediately to the successful passage of gun reform carried by a simple majority vote in the Senate. Reid might be afraid that if gun reform passed Congress in that way, too many Democratic seats might be lost in both chambers to sustain a majority in either. While that may be a legitimate concern in and of itself, to allow those types of political calculations relating to elections to take precedence in