Matthew Sheffield: “Not only has it made the federal government unable to address critical policy issues, it has also been the primary factor in keeping the Republican Party drifting further and further to the right. That’s because in a healthy political environment, parties advocating unpopular policies that somehow get elected pay significant political consequences if they try to enact them.”
“In the United States though, the filibuster has made it so that far-right politicians can get elected and stay in office for decades because their unpopular policies are never passed. As a result, instead of learning that voters don’t support their ideas and being forced to move toward the center, Republican voters have become increasingly radicalized by the fact that their legislators fail to make the conservative paradise of their dreams a reality.”
