How the filibuster is about to break the Senate

An old vision of the U.S. Senate is rapidly dying — and the new version could look very different in a few years.

South Carolina Sen. Darline Graham is best known for being at the intersection of two distinct forces: a deep personal loss and an expression of Donald Trump’s political clout. More than anything, though, she embodies the quiet transformation of the U.S. Senate in recent decades: increasingly, a body that once prized seniority, expertise, and institutional experience is becoming populated with a new wave of political neophytes. Crucially, that new wave is coming as the Senate itself has become the center of partisan dispute, with Democrats and Republicans increasingly at odds over the basic structure and function of the body itself. Now, the arrival of this new generation of senators, just as many in the GOP begin to question traditions like the filibuster, is adding pressure on an already broken institution — and could push it over the edge in the years ahead.