To nuke the filibuster or not to nuke the filibuster?

That’s the big question as we head into the sixth week of a record federal government shutdown.

We keep hearing that the filibuster is a powerful weapon in the U.S. Senate.

But the ordinary American doesn’t know what it is, where it came from, who’s in favor of it, and what good or bad things it has been used for throughout history.

In corner-bar language, the filibuster is basically a Senate-made house rule that allows a single member to prolong a debate or prevent a full vote on a bill by talking about it forever unless 60 members vote to force him to sit down and shut up.

The filibuster slowly evolved, starting in 1805 or so, but its major debut was in 1837.

That was when a bunch of Whig senators who hated President Andrew Jack

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