Stabenow: I’ve Changed on Filibuster Due to ‘Perversion’ of It, Minority ‘Can Stop the Will of the Majority’

On Tuesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Hallie Jackson Reports,” Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) stated that her viewpoints on the filibuster have changed because there is now “a perversion of the rules” and that the founders supported majority rule and people “will lose faith in their government” if we don’t have majority rule.

Stabenow said, “My calculus has changed. I came to the Senate 20 years ago. I had a different view at that time, similar to our senator from Arizona, and the world has completely flipped upside down. We now have a perversion of the rules. We have tyranny of the minority really, and I think Alexander Hamilton is probably rolling over in his grave. Because the fundamental debate in our Constitution was about majority rule. They debated majority rule versus supermajority rule and they came down on the side of majority rule, and in fact, I’m going back now in deep and reading the Federalist Papers, Federalist 22, where Alexander Hamilton really laid out what’s happening now and how people will lose faith in their government if it’s not majority rule, how the minority can manipulate things, can stop the will of the majority, which is exactly what is happening now.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett

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