KEY VOTE: PRESERVE THE LEGISLATIVE FILIBUSTER

This week, Senate Democrats will attempt to nuke the legislative filibuster by changing Senate Rules to require what is being referred to as a “talking filibuster” which would ultimately allow for legislation to be passed with a simple majority vote. Republicans, using the filibuster, have repeatedly rejected Democrats’ attempts to rig election rules to create a permanent Leftist majority. As a result, Democrats want to discard the filibuster, which they used and defended just a few years ago, in order to pass the House Amendment to the Senate Amendment to H.R. 5746, the “Freedom to Vote and John Lewis Act”, a partisan federal takeover of our nation’s election laws.

Democrats will argue that a “talking filibuster” reforms but protects the filibuster by making it more painful for Senators to block legislation. However, this proposal reduces the filibuster into a purely performative act that eventually must end, with the end result being that legislation can be passed with just 51 votes. All that would prevent the Left from enacting their radical progressvie agenda would be the physical stamina of Republican Senators.

The filibuster is critical to the status of the Senate as the world’s greatest deliberative body. It has existed since 1806 and grants the minority party, and their constituents, a voice in the legislative process by forcing debate and compromise. Instead of the majority party forcing their policy preferences onto the entire country, they must work with and persuade their colleagues across the aisle to pass legislation.

In practice, the legislative filibuster is the only thing preventing Democrats from passing their radical agenda. Without it, every progressive policy from the Green New Deal to mass amnesty to Medicare for All would be on the table, despite the fact that Democrats currently control the narrowest margins of control in Congress in modern history. In a split Senate, this new change would allow 50 Democratic Senators to force radical changes onto the entire country, including the parts represented by the 50 Republican Senators. The filibuster gives everyone, regardless of their population size or influence to have a seat at the table and have their voice heard.

Not long ago, Democrats agreed with the importance of the filibuster. In 2017, when Republicans held unified control of government, 61 Senators, including Vice President Kamala Harris and 25 Democrats who are still in the Senate, signed a letter to Senate leadership urging them to protect the filibuster. Now, all of the 25, except for Joe Manchin of West Virginia, have changed their stance. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who now champions killing the filibuster, likely out of fear of being primaried by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, said that gutting the filibuster “would turn the U.S. Senate into a legislative wasteland and turn the Constitution inside out.” And President Biden, who now likens anyone who supports the filibuster to racists and bigots, once said weakening the filibuster is “an example of the arrogance of power” and a “power grab by the majority party” that would “eviscerate the Senate.” Both Schumer and Biden’s remarks came in 2005, at a time when Republicans controlled the House, Senate, and presidency.

What changed? Democrats took control of government by the narrowest margins in modern history, and now they want to make that control permanent and ram through a radical Leftist agenda. It is telling that the bill that Senate Democrats are choosing to nuke the filibuster over is one that would federalize election laws for their own partisan electoral benefit. If you need more evidence of what Democrats want to accomplish here, just listen to Chuck Schumer, who says that Democrats are lobbying Senators Joe Manchin and Krysten Sinema to blow up the filibuster by “saying things like I’ll lose my election” and “we’ll lose our majority” if this partisan power grab isn’t passed.

Democrats have viewed the filibuster as a tool to be used for purely partisan gain when convenient, and an obstacle to be discarded when in the way of their pursuit of power. Even this week, they exercised this Machiavellian view of the procedure. Showing that the depths of their hypocrisy knows no bounds, Senate Democrats filibustered a bill brought up by Senator Cruz to impose sanctions on Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline just hours after meeting with President Biden to strategize on how to destroy the filibuster. It’s a striking contrast to Senate Republicans, who preserved the filibuster between 2017 and 2019 when controlling both chambers of Congress and the presidency.

President Biden has said that history will judge people’s actions this week. That is true, though not in the way that he envisions. Any member who votes to gut the filibuster will be putting partisan gain over the future of the Senate and the country,and history will not look fondly on them.