The Senate recently passed President Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill along party lines. During the debate surrounding the bill, the Senate parliamentarian — an unelected government official — ruled that a $15 minimum wage could not be included as part of the relief that so many Americans need so desperately. Sen. Bernie Sanders introduced an amendment to raise the minimum wage, anyway. This move was voted down by Senate Republicans, one independent senator and seven Democratic senators. While Biden’s relief bill will help working people during the pandemic, a higher wage would have brought long-term relief to workers who are living paycheck to paycheck. The eight senators who did not support Sanders’s effort have turned their backs on their constituents.

Sen. Krysten Sinema, a Democrat who voted against the minimum wage, said in a statement that she understands the struggle of living in poverty but feels there needs to be collaboration across the aisle to raise the wage — but that won’t happen because of the filibuster rule.

With the Senate’s 50-50 party split, there is no way for progressive bills to gain the 60 votes necessary to pass. In order to pass Biden’s COVID-19 relief plan, Senate Democrats had to use a process called reconciliation that allows a party with a small majority (which they have with Vice President Kamala Harris’s vote) to pass legislation related to spending, taxes or the federal budget. The reason this route was the only way forward is because of the archaic filibuster, a rule that allows the minority party to stall legislation. It is an undemocratic rule that empowers a handful of lawmakers to act tyrannically against the majority.

While most Democrats want to end the filibuster, others continue to support what is clearly an outdated function that inhibits American democracy. In fact, the filibuster is a tool of America’s racism. It has been used to stall civil rights legislation since the aftermath of the Civil War, and is weaponized even today to oppress marginalized communities by withholding legislation that can improve their lives. Until we abandon this rule, Biden’s agenda to expand voting rights, solidify workers’ rights and raise the minimum wage will not get through the Senate. Just as it has in the past, the filibuster will surely be used to block any legislation that would improve the livelihood and political freedoms of America’s multiracial working class.

Raising the minimum wage is one of the most robust ways to combat the economic crisis caused by the pandemic. It would mean raises for almost one-third of Black workers and a quarter of Latino workers in the United States. The wage raise would strengthen our economy while decreasing the economic inequality that has become so prevalent in America. 19 million women — many of whom work for starvation wages as essential workers — would also benefit from raising the minimum wage. This is particularly important for the Black women on the front lines of the pandemic since one in three Black women works in an essential job.

Of course, increasing the minimum wage to $15 should have happened years before the pandemic — if we had kept up with inflation and economic growth, the minimum wage would be over $24 now. However, the effort to increase to $15/hour was derailed in the 1960s, making that the compromise number for which many workers are currently advocating. Importantly, $107 billion would be generated by the new wage increase — and that money would go directly into the hands of consumers, which in turn would stimulate the economy and alleviate the COVID-19 recession. Unfortunately, the economic relief that the US could gain from raising the wage will be blocked by the Senate’s filibuster. Any hopes of creating real change in the nation will die in the Senate, even with a Democratic trifecta, because some senators refuse to end an undemocratic weapon that has only been used to hurt marginalized communities.

Senators like Sinema hold on to the filibuster in an effort to maintain legislative bipartisanship. But if Americans wanted bipartisanship, we would not have elected Democrats to hold the majority in both legislative bodies as well as the White House. Besides, the filibuster has never been used to promote bipartisanship; it does the opposite. The rule is always wielded by the minority party to prevent the majority party from governing, further polarizing our nation. The House abolished their filibuster rule in the 1890s — almost 130 years ago — because it led to gridlock and increased political polarization. This fundamentally changed the way the House operated, allowing leaders to debate and pass laws more democratically and achieve real progress toward the legislative agenda of the majority party. The Senate is long overdue to follow the House.

If the filibuster was a bipartisan tool, Biden would not have needed to use reconciliation to pass his COVID-19 relief bill. Democrats were forced to resort to that strategy, which might seem sneaky or unfair, because of the filibuster. The COVID-19 relief package was ultimately passed along party lines, with Sen. Lisa Murkowski, the only Republican who might have been in favor, voting against it even after her own amendment into the bill was included. Clearly, Republicans Republicans have no intention of working with Democrats or the Biden administration to build a better America out of the tragedy of the pandemic. The filibuster will be their weapon against the Democrats, and working-class communities of color will suffer the unjust consequences. The few Democratic senators who support the filibuster are choosing the side of anti-democracy, despite having nothing to gain from their position. If we ever want to end economic inequality, reduce poverty, uplift the working class and build a multiracial democracy, the filibuster has to die. Sinema, Manchin and their like-minded peers stand in the way of that future.

[email protected]

@theisaacreese