Senate Republicans voted Wednesday night to strip California of its right to set its own auto-emissions standards, a move that blocked vehicle standards that would phase out gas-powered cars. It’s an outrageous move—hostile to climate action, defiant of states’ rights, and in direct defiance of the Senate parliamentarian, the nonpartisan advisor to the chamber on procedural issues, who ruled it out of order. It will be tied up in the courts for years.
But here’s just as big of a story: Republicans just gutted the filibuster to get their way. And that’s a good thing.
Daily Kos has long advocated for the filibuster’s demise. Requiring 60 votes to pass legislation isn’t just anti-democratic—it’s a rigged game that hurts Democrats far more than Republicans. The Senate already gives disproportionate power to small, conservative states. Layering a supermajority requirement on top of that? It’s absurd.
Vehicles make their way westbound on Interstate 80 across the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.
Wyoming, with fewer than 600,000 residents, gets the same number of senators as California, with 40 million. In fact, there are 119 counties in the U.S. with larger populations than Wyoming. That’s bad enough.
But get this: The red states of Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota, Tennessee, Utah, West Virginia, and Wyoming—with a combined population of 40 million—get 30 senators. California gets two.
This is the system Democrats are expected to navigate with a 60-vote threshold? Come on.
Worse, that same minority can then turn around and call the Senate a “do-nothing” chamber, while they’re the ones obstructing progress. Most voters don’t even understand the filibuster, because it makes no damn sense. Republicans exploit that confusion. Democrats suffer the consequences.
The smart move has always been to kill the filibuster. Yes, it means Republicans can pass bad laws when they’re in charge, but that’s democracy. Let the public see what happens when they put the GOP in power. Let Democrats offer a clear alternative. No more hiding behind obscure rules, no more excuses.
And let’s be honest: Republicans have never respected the filibuster. They’ve carved out exceptions whenever it suits their agenda. So why the hell are Democrats still clinging to this nonsense?
Enough is enough.
Even some Democrats are waking up: The New York Times quoted Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer warning, “Republicans today cross a point of no return for the Senate, expanding what a party can do with a majority threshold. Republicans should tread very carefully today. What goes around comes around.”
California Sen. Alex Padilla didn’t hold back either. He promised that next time Democrats are in power, “all bets are off,” and added:“Think mining permits. Think fossil fuel project approvals. Think LNG export licenses or offshore leases, I.R.S. tax policies, foreign policy, every Project 2025 or DOGE disruption. Every agency action that Democrats don’t like, whether it is a rule or not and no matter how much time has passed, would be fair game.”
Don’t threaten me with a good time, Alex!
If Republicans want to kill the filibuster, let them. Let voters see exactly what GOP rule looks like. And then when we return to power, we can enact an actual agenda without the filibuster bullshit slowing us down.
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