"Mr. President [of the Senate], the right to extended debate is never more important than when one party controls Congress and the White House. In these cases, the filibuster serves as a check on power and preserves our limited government. . . . For 200 years, we've had the right to extended debate. It's not some 'procedural gimmick.' It's within the vision of the Founding Fathers of our country. They established a government so that no one person — and no single party — could have total control. Some in this Chamber want to throw out 217 years of Senate history in the quest for absolute power. They want to do away with Mr. Smith coming to Washington. They want to do away with the filibuster. They think they are wiser than our Founding Fathers. I doubt that's true" (Sen. Harry Reid, Nev., Senate floor speech, 5/18/05).
"You know, the Founders designed this system, as frustrating [as] it is, to make sure that there's a broad consensus before the country moves forward. . . . And what we have now is a president who . . . [h]asn't gotten his way. And that is now prompting, you know, a change in the Senate rules that really I think would change the character of the Senate forever. . . . And what I worry about would be you essentially have still two chambers — the House and the Senate — but you have simply majoritarian absolute power on either side, and that's just not what the founders intended" (Sen. Barack Obama, Ill., remarks at the National Press Club, 4/26/05).
(As quoted by Jeffrey H. Anderson in "The Democrats on Reconciliation," National Review Online, 3/1/2010).
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So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
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