I know the spectacle we say today in the Senate was not technically a filibuster with respect to the rules of the Senate, but it's a paradigm for how filibusters should have gone: if you oppose the something a majority of your peers support and want to filibuster it, you should ACTUALLY stand before the American people and explain yourself until you're too tired to do it anymore. You don't just go "lol NAY" as an easy way to block your opponent's agenda. The filibuster shouldn't be merely a tool for obstructionism or political calculation. You explain why you want this to be deliberated with REAL energy and REAL speeches.
Like Sanders did.
Here's how the past two years should have gone: if the Republicans filibustered a measure, they would have to explain why they were filibustering with opportunities for Democratic rebuttal. Nobody could leave Congress until the filibuster was declared over because if you're going to bring legislation to a halt, it shouldn't be easy for you to halt it. You don't get to just halt governance and decide to go the fuck back home.
You explain before the American people why a majority vote in favor of something can't fucking proceed.
And the Senate majority can either decide to accept your arguments for further deliberation or it can wait until you're too tired to argue anymore.
And during the filibuster, Americans can call in and either tell their Senators to support/acquiesce to the minority filibuster OR tell the minority filibusters that their position is untenable and tell them to back down.
I've been opposed to keeping the filibuster mostly because of how it's been used; if it were actually deployed in the way I described, I might consider keeping it.
Bernie Sanders showed everyone today how a filibuster should go: with energy, with passion, with a battalion of facts, with courage, with resolve. And for that, on top of everything else, we should thank him. Thank you for showing what the spirit of the Senate should be.