Killing Bills

Words are the weapons of the politician, but the filibuster is the weapon of the Senator. The filibuster is a "prolonged speech" that obstructs the passage of legislation or just progress in general, but does not break any sort of rule. It is the WMD of partisan politics, deplored by all until it comes time to press the big red button. Within the timespan of one speech, they can go from absurd to controversial to simply off-topic. Ted Cruz credited his father with the invention of green eggs and ham, and told the world that he liked burgers in opposition to Obamacare. More recently and more topically, Rand Paul spent 10.5 hours denouncing the evils of government surveillance. However, the filibuster was not always common practice in the Senate.

Contrary to popular belief, the filibuster was not woven into the fabric of the Senate's creation, rather, it was created by mistake. Sarah Binder of the Brookings Institution reports that at one time, the House and Senate both had similar rulebooks. However, in 1805 Vice President Aaron Burr sought to lessen redundancy in the Senate's rules, and the Senate removed a rule that allowed a simple majority to cut off debate. Removing the rule legally allowed filibusters, but it would be some time before Senators chose to employ it. Only until the second half of the 19th century did the filibuster come into widespread practice as politicians became more divided by party lines. Eventually, in 1917, Woodrow Wilson forced the Senate to finally adopt Rule 22, creating a cloture rule where a supermajority could stop a filibuster.

Even after Wilson forced through this measure, the filibuster continued to be a potent weapon. Even soon after in 1919, cloture failed to stop a filibuster on the Treaty of Versailles. In fact, between 1919 and 1960, only 4 out of 23 cloture movements succeeded.