Extreme abuse of the filibuster by Republicans.
Under Barack Obama, Republicans have engaged in extreme abuse of the filibuster option to kill anything they don’t like in the Senate. The filibuster allows a minority to block any legislation they don’t like by invoking the filibuster option. Then you need a 60 vote supermajority to bypass the filibuster and that is very hard to get.
Normally, the filibuster was when someone got up and spoke forever and ever, often reading from newspapers or from the dictionary. Others would take his place to keep it going. This type of filibuster is more reasonable as it was the traditional kind. However, lately the Republicans have been simply invoking some type of filibuster that does not mandate that they get up in the Senate and talk forever. This is a more hazy and sleazy type of filibuster.
People on the Left have been calling for an end to filibuster abuse for a while now. A recent reform of the filibuster finally made it through the Senate, changing Senate rules. The Republicans were completely obstructive in all attempts to change filibuster rules. The reform bill originally was very moderate and reasonable. Any sensible person could have gone along with it.
But almost all of the teeth were stripped out of it somehow by Harry Reid and other Democrats possibly caving in to Republican demands. The result was a pathetic joke of a bill. It’s not completely understood why Reid stripped everything good out of the bill, but he had a lot of help from other Senate Democrats. No one quite knows why the Democrats refused to fight for sensible filibuster reform. They seem to be spineless wonders.
On the plus side, the Republicans actually agreed to change Senate rules. Changing the rules of the Senate is something that is almost never done, and it was indeed amazing that it was done in this case. However, the result was some tiny changes that will do almost nothing to solve the problem at hand.