For all of Washington's chatter about filibuster reform, most Americans know very little about the filibuster or its rules:
In a January 2010 Pew Research poll, at the height of the Senate debate over health care reform, just 26% of Americans were able to correctly answer that it now takes 60 votes to break a filibuster in the Senate. About as many (25%) mistakenly said a simple majority of 51 votes can break a filibuster, while a 37%-plurality admitted they just didn't know.
As with most other questions on a news quiz, well-educated people, older Americans and men were more likely to know that 60 votes are required to break a filibuster. There was not much difference among partisan groups; as 30% of Republicans, 25% of Democrats and 29% of independents answered the filibuster question correctly.
A few things: First, while procedural complaints are a regular part of the partisan battle, both parties are fooling themselves if they think procedural complaints will have any traction with the actual public. Outside of dedicated partisans, most people don't know -- and don't care -- about the inner workings of Congress. Insofar that they have any bearing on the national conversation, it's as elite signaling; if one party wants to change the rules, and the other is vehemently opposed, then the public will read the change as controversial or unprecedented, even when neither are particularly true.
Second, this is actually a real problem. If 25 percent of Americans mistakenly believe that a filibuster can be broken with 51 votes, and 37 percent admit ignorance, then most Americans must be baffled by the Senate's inability to move forward with legislation. The public sees nothing but the majority's failed struggle to pass its legislation, without the necessary context of minority obstruction or broken rules. And understandingly, they blame the majority for its apparent impotence and ineffectiveness, rather than blame the system for its dysfunctions.
Eventually, accountability goes out of the window, and we're ultimately left in a world where elections are a big spectacle, but winning bears a complicated relationship to agenda implementation.
-- Jamelle Bouie
