For too long, Republicans have been blocking vital legislation from becoming law—from health benefits for 9/11 first responders to job opportunities for Iraq veterans. In total, conservative Congress members have used 386 filibusters during the Obama administration. Americans can no longer afford to be held hostage by Republican legislators. Nation correspondent John Nichols joins MSNBC’s The Ed Show to outline the changes we need for the filibuster law, to force political blockading out of back rooms and into the open.

—Christie Thompson

For more on our failing filibuster law, check out John Nichols’s “Don‘t Eliminate the Filibuster, Restore It.”