So you’d think that under Trump there would’ve been more successful filibusters than ever given Democratic opposition.

Nope.

The vast majority of cloture votes passed — the Senate already nuked the filibuster for things Republicans care about https://on.msnbc.com/3qVNzGu 

During the Trump era, there were an historic number of cloture motions filed in the Senate: 529 of them. 466 of them got votes — 93% of them passed

Compare to Obama’s first term: only 70% passed the first half, 57% in the second https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/filibuster-hurts-only-senate-democrats-mitch-mcconnell-knows-n1255787?icid=msd_topgrid

Why? In 2013, Senate Dems nuked the 60 vote threshold to get past a filibuster on nominees, except for SCOTUS, but left it for legislation

But when controlling Congress and the WH, the GOP didn’t move much legislation. They got what they wanted anyway https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/filibuster-hurts-only-senate-democrats-mitch-mcconnell-knows-n1255787?icid=msd_topgrid

So when Mitch McConnell says “no no, you have to keep the filibuster for legislation” it’s because he knows that it doesn’t matter when the GOP is a majority

The filibuster isn’t a useful tool for Democratic minorities — just Republicans https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/filibuster-hurts-only-senate-democrats-mitch-mcconnell-knows-n1255787?icid=msd_topgrid

This essay is brought to you by several hours of combing through cloture motions for this spreadsheet, which shows a major drop in the filibuster blocking cloture after 2013 — with one exception highlighted, which I’ll explain in a second

That spike is from Obama’s last two years in office, when Rs controlled Congress. But a major caveat: those were almost all cloture votes on legislation, which still needed 60 votes

McConnell brought almost no Obama nominees to the floor in that time.

That’s the period when Merrick Garland couldn’t even get a vote. It’s also when McConnell kept all the seats that he filled in the next two rows of the chart in under Trump.

He knows that his goals don’t need filibuster reform. https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/filibuster-hurts-only-senate-democrats-mitch-mcconnell-knows-n1255787?icid=msd_topgrid

Judges and tax cuts! That’s all the GOP really pushed for in the Senate over the last four years, neither of which can be filibustered.

Compare that to Democrats, who need legislation to pass.

It’s totally unbalanced now. https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/filibuster-hurts-only-senate-democrats-mitch-mcconnell-knows-n1255787?icid=msd_topgrid

A final caveat: it’s impossible to know what Republicans would have passed for sure without the filibuster for legislation. Cloture votes aren’t an exact predictor for a filibuster taking place.

But consider this: you didn’t hear much complaining from the GOP then, did you?