Remember that the filibuster is not in the US Constitution. It did not even begin as an English word. When the Dutch said “vrijbuiter” they called someone a “robber”, or a “pirate.” Translated into Spanish as “filibustero” the word referred to the low-life soldiers of fortune who exploited Latin Americans. The Senate filibuster was envisioned in the 19th century by the traitorous Aaron Burr and popularized in the twentieth by the reactionary segregationist, Strom Thurmond. In the filibuster, a minority exercises tyranny over the majority. Although Abraham Lincoln thought it worth dying to defend government “of the people, by the people, for the people,” today’s filibuster has canceled that democratic (small “d”) principle. The filibuster does not so much protect the rights of the people, but rather the rights of the states in a purely political power play.