The Filibuster Is a Market in Bottlenecks

Nobody defends the filibuster for what it does; they defend it for what it might stop. That's the tell. It isn't a brake on legislation, it's a market in bottlenecks: a sixty-vote threshold means any senator can hold a bill hostage and name a price, and the price is rarely principle. The "cooling saucer" cools nothing — it relocates heat to committees, courts, the executive, anyone who can act without a vote. Its most reliable product is that nothing happens, which is itself a policy. And the strangest part: the rule survives because everyone who hates it now expects to love it later. That isn't a constitutional principle, it's a hedge. A rule that only its future beneficiaries can love isn't a tradition. It's a bet.