Learning to love the nuclear option

If Republicans remove the filibuster for legislation, they may regret it

The word “filibuster” sounds silly, like the name of a pompous but ultimately well-meaning character in a Dickens novel. The phrase “nuclear option,” on the other hand, sounds terrifying.

So now that the Republicans have used the nuclear option to kill the poor filibuster to clear the way for the elevation of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court, we can lose perspective. In truth, eliminating the filibuster is a minor change compared with the problem that such a move takes a step toward solving: the recent rise of a system based on supermajority rule rather than majority rule.

Of course, the