The Tyranny of the Minority

"And thus our Constitution was amended under the guise of an accommodating rule change. Forty-one senators can and routinely do block any disliked bill before them. Even more distressing, the Senate leader often declines to bring forward bills for deliberation if he is unsure of getting 60% support. In the first two years of the Obama administration Republicans have used 'the invisible filibuster' 84 times, more than in all the Congresses of the 1950s and 1960s put together. A practice that began as a courtesy to Senate speakers has morphed into a fundamental challenge to the principle of majority voting."

In the Los Angeles Times, Joyce Appleby calls for an end of the Senate filibuster.