This resolution would force senators to work through a shutdown or be arrested
James Wallner, a longtime Republican Senate staffer and a political scientist at the R Street Institute, makes a version of this argument in his new book On Parliamentary War: Partisan Conflict and Procedural Change in the US Senate. The problem with the modern Senate, he says, is dysfunction is relatively costless — the two sides whine about it, and complain about it, and then go off and fundraise on it. There is no better example of this than the modern filibuster, which is now a genteel agreement that happens behind closed doors — not the grueling talk-a-thon that led Jimmy Stewart to collapse in Mr. Smith Goes to Washington.
This is, he argues, something of a quiet pact made between the two parties. The Senate is run for the mutual convenience of its members, and while policy and even process preferences might change, both sides have an interest in heading home for long weekends and working reasonable hours.
