“The prospect that a large part of their agenda could go nowhere, even though their party controls both houses of Congress and the White House, has angered many Democratic activists. They’ve put abolition of the filibuster into the spotlight to a degree not seen for nearly half a century. A book denouncing the filibuster by Adam Jentleson, a former aide to Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.), has become required reading for progressive Democrats.”

“I think it’s super smart,” said Adam Jentleson, a former aide to Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid. “If you let Mitch McConnell define what is bipartisan, nothing ever will be. Defining it based on public opinion is accurate and opens the door to doing big things.”

“This is going to require presidential leadership,” said Tre Easton, senior adviser at Battle Born Collective, a progressive group pushing to end the filibuster. President Biden has a choice to make pretty early, probably earlier than he wanted, about how much he wants to push.

“Mr. Jentleson said Republicans had abandoned any coherent policy goals in lieu of pursuing a “negative partisanship” agenda — which he defines as “doing simply whatever will terrorize your opponents the most.” In essence, Trumpism.”

Tonight, Battle Born Collective, Justice Democrats, Data For Progress, Sunrise Movement, and New Deal Strategies put out the following statement on the Senate Parliamentarian’s ruling against including a $15 minimum wage increase in budget reconciliation:

“A common way senators filibuster bills is by signaling their objection, often without explaining their reasoning, Adam Jentleson, a former longtime Senate aide and author of the book Kill Switch: The Rise of the Modern Senate and the Crippling of Modern Democracy, told NPR.”

“Democrats have not used the power they have as efficiently as they could,” said Ms. Kirszner Katz. “We have very little time before the midterms and we need to get as much as we can right away.”