Robert Van Houweling was quoted in UC Berkeley News:
While the insurrection posed an existential threat to American democracy, Berkeley political and legal scholars say the arcane workings of the filibuster pose a threat, too, because it increasingly is being used to block majority rule. Most often, Republicans are using it to freeze movement on popular issues related to economic fairness or racial justice.
Adds political scientist Robert Van Houweling: “The filibuster is straightforwardly anti-majoritarian and anti-democratic.”
And yet, Van Houweling sees a critical factor in the filibuster’s survival: It gives individual senators considerable power, and they use it for political advantage in ways that have little to do with today’s ideological warfare.
The full article is available here.