Why background checks got blocked in the Senate

Sometimes when a vote doesn't go the way you want, you just have to sigh and remind yourself that this is how democracy works. Other times you have to wish that it actually did work.

The overwhelming majority of Americans support background checks for gun buyers. No matter. Blame the NRA or the Tea Party or money in politics or cowardice or senators who care more about reelection than governing. But first and foremost, the Senate's failure to pass the Manchin-Toomey Amendment yesterday was due to the fact that the Senate is not a democratic body. It's not a fluke that the upper chamber's actions didn't represent the will of the people; it's a function of its structure and its rules.

Technically, the senators who opposed this measure didn't vote it down; they filibustered it. As James Fallows points out, the news media should do a better job calling this what it is. It takes 51 votes to pass a bill. Background checks got 54—but the other 46 senators were filibustering, not voting no on the thing itself. And they only need 41 votes to do that.