Finicky Fillibusters

Gene Healy, an editor at the Cato Institute, makes a case for why conservatives should support the Senate's fillibuster mechanism instead of throwing it away for cheap (and short-lived) political gain. Fillibusters, after all, can help to stall legistlation that expands the scope of government or that imposes majoritarian tyranny. Ironically, contemporary American conservatives seem to be demanding the so-called "up or down vote" so their legislators can approve judges who would expand the scope of state power.

Healy is right: Keep the fillibuster. Whenever the political pendulum begins to shift in the other direction, conservatives will rue the day they got rid of a powerful mechanism for checking political power.