We are once again seeing the Democrats dreaming of the day when they have unrestrained power and can finally do all the things that will guarantee that the dismal half of the electorate – of which you and I are a part – are fully disenfranchised and can never challenge leftist power again. In the last couple of weeks, as they’ve gotten more desperate watching Trump put points up on the scoreboard, Dems like that election-fail furry Beto and Eric Swalwell, when he’s not being flatulent or ineptly tapping some hard- 5 ChiCom spy who is giving it all for her country, have pushed for trashing the rules. They’re both out there trying to dominate the no-quarter faction of the Democrat Party by demanding to pack the Supreme Court and make DC and Puerto Rico states, and to facilitate this by repealing the filibuster.
Would the Democrats actually do this if they won the Senate? That’s the rub, winning the Senate. The map is bad for them next year, but who knows in 2028? Heck, something could happen in 2026 where we patriots could lose five seats and hand them a majority. But the reality is that, someday, they are going to get the Senate, and if they have the House and presidency at the same time, they will be able to do these things – assuming Democrats are shortsighted and corrupt enough to do them, which would probably be a safe assumption.
But right now, we have the presidency, the House, and the Senate. We can repeal the filibuster. As you know, except in rare cases like reconciliation, which is highly structured and narrowly focused for only certain kinds of bills, the filibuster essentially allows the minority party to refuse to end debate and move to a final vote on a bill. You need 60 votes to pass a law, and there are 47 Democrats right now, so Democrats can do any bill they don’t like. This super-majoritarian rule is not in the Constitution. It is a Senate rule, and because of the arcane rules of the Senate, it can be nuked by a simple majority – hence the term “nuclear option.” So far, the nuclear option has been invoked only rarely. Robert Byrd, the Grand Cyclops of the Democrat Party, had his majority nuke it for some judgeships years ago. Mitch McConnell, before he became a cartoon villain, warned him that the Dems would regret it. And boy did they when the Republicans nuked it to confirm Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett.
If John Thune wanted to nuke for all legislation and could convince his caucus to go along, he could do it tomorrow. Since we currently have the House and the presidency – it really only matters when you have all three – this could lead to a whole bunch of glorious outcomes. Just think of it. We could pass laws, glorious laws, not just issue executive orders. Concealed carry reciprocity across the fruited plain. Defunding of even more of the communist feed trough system. Bans on DEI. Criminalizing the mutilation of children and outlawing perverted weirdos swinging their unwanted junk as they parade through women’s spaces. Reforming the military, the education system, the healthcare system, and slashing government payrolls. It’s so exciting. Just thinking of it makes you want to grab a cigarette and have a cuddle.
There’s an upside, but there’s also a downside. Political winds shift. At some point, the Democrats are going to win the trifecta. Now, we can hope this only happens after the Democrats become sane again, or less insane, as the case may be. But the fact is that if we take that power for ourselves, somewhere down the road, they’re going to get access to that same power. Keep in mind that most countries don’t have a super- majoritarian requirement. In places like Great Britain and Canada, a bare majority is enough to do the things the majority wants to do, like ban free speech, mandate euthanasia, and generally turn their countries into frigid banana republics. That’s not exactly a selling point.
But the Democrats want to do this. They would have done it back when they had total control if not for Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. All the other Democratic senators supported it, but some of them probably didn’t want to. They were scared of their lunatic base, and so they let the mavericks take all the heat. But what if there are no mavericks? There are no mavericks now. Everybody in their garbage caucus is a pinko or too scared not to be. In other words, they’re very likely going to do this given the chance. There is a non-zero chance that cooler heads prevail, because it would mean the destruction of the Senate to the extent it hasn’t already been destroyed by Democrat obstructionism. But let’s just say you’d be better off doubling down on a 16 against the dealer’s king showing than betting against the Democrat Democrats repealing the filibuster the first chance they get.
With that understanding, the ball is in the Republicans’ court. We’re at what’s called a decision point, and we have several courses of action. The first course of action is the one typically preferred by Republicans, which is to bury their heads in the sand and pretend none of this is happening. That is, do nothing. Just run out the clock until the Democrats have a chance to seize power, and then ruthlessly use the elimination of the filibuster to pass an agenda that prevents us from ever gaining power again. Think about month-long election days, bans on voter ID, and election spending laws that end up only being enforced against Republicans and leave Democrat dark money with an empty field to play on. They would no doubt impose redistricting commissions, like the co-opted independent commission (sic) in California, where the Republicans appointed to it donate to Planned Parenthood, think The Bulwark is too right-wing, and drink oaky Chardonnay. The newly 15-justice Supreme Court would rubber-stamp anything they did, so kiss your country goodbye and hello to the world of my new novel, American Apocalypse: The Second American Civil War.
Now, there are two other possible courses of action. One is a preemptive nuclear option strike. The Republicans in the Senate could act now to blow up the filibuster and start passing all those laws that we have always dreamed of. This would take a lot of testosterone and fortitude from the GOP Senate caucus, so it’s out of the question. Also, there are some downsides. The filibuster acts as a hedge against extremism. If we get rid of it, it’s gone for sure and forever. That’s going to change the way this country works in ways we can’t fully imagine. We are conservatives, and we should look at major structural changes that have unknowable consequences with skepticism.
There’s a third course of action. It’s one that addresses all the issues and all the concerns. We don’t want to unilaterally disarm, and we also don’t want to allow them a free shot at our jaw. So, why don’t we ask them to put their money where their mouth currently is? Of course, their mouth is currently uttering the words, “The filibuster is sacred and a key component of Our Democracy.” They don’t mean that or believe that. They just don’t want us to exercise our power. But we can still take them up on it.
Let’s give them the choice. They can do one of two things. Turn down our deal, and we Republicans can nuke the filibuster, then go to town with all the laws we’ve always wanted. If they think they don’t like the administration now, just wait until we can do whatever the hell we want. Or we can take our deal.
Our deal is that we can all agree to make the filibuster effectively permanent. We do that by requiring a 2/3 vote to change the filibuster rules going forward. The exact process of doing that is for the goblins in the Gringotts Wizarding Bank of the Senate to determine, but if everybody agrees to something, it’ll happen. This would effectively agree to make the filibuster permanent for everybody.
So, we tell the Democrats that they’ve got a choice about the filibuster as to whether it gets eliminated, but not when it gets eliminated. If they don’t take the deal, they’re essentially saying they’re going to nuke it themselves when it’s to their advantage, making it to our advantage to preemptively strike. But if they want to make the filibuster effectively permanent, we can do that. They get to choose whether we have a filibuster, but if they choose not to, they get fili-busted.
GOP senators, call their bluff.
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