Senators, please mutiny

Moderate senators must abandon their leaders and seek out compromise

The Capitol Building.
(Image credit: Illustrated | Tanarch/iStock, ayzek/iStock)

Here's the dirty little secret: The Senate is broken and the midterms won't fix it.

Regardless of which party wins control of the chamber on Nov. 6, the Senate next year will likely remain closely divided with a majority leader more interested in manipulating procedure to shove controversial legislation down the throats of the other party than in finding common ground. This will leave rank-and-file senators with a choice: Do they support this mentality? Or do they finally revolt and use the inherent power that accrues to each senator in a closely divided chamber to force leadership to compromise?

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Brian Rosenwald

Brian Rosenwald is a Resident Senior Fellow at the Robert A. Fox Leadership Program at the University of Pennsylvania, co-editor of Made by History at the Washington Post, and author of Talk Radio's America, forthcoming from Harvard University Press in 2019.