We’re currently having a big debate about the Senate filibuster. It is possible you hadn’t heard, what with the onset of the holiday season, the fiscal cliff and several unexpected plot turns on “Homeland” to worry about. There’s just so much a person can handle.

In Washington, it’s all people talk about. O.K., not all. But there’s a lot of rancor. John Cornyn, the new Senate minority whip, predicted to Politico that if Democrats went forward with their plans to change the filibuster rules, “It will shut down the Senate.”

If the Senate did shut down, the country would not necessarily notice much difference. This week, there was a herculean attempt to pass The Sportsmen’s Act, a large, bipartisan mix of hunting and conservation provisions that has been waiting around for ages. The bill seemed to be sailing toward success when it got entangled in a fight over the price of duck stamps — a kind of hunting license and collector item the federal government sells to raise money for conservation.

“It gives the Department of Interior, unelected bureaucrats, power to decide how much to charge for a duck stamp,” announced Jeff Sessions of Alabama. This was certainly a powerful argument — first, the duck stamps; next, the death panels. But supporters suspected that the real issue was partisan ire over the filibuster fight.