As incredible and providential as Donald Trump’s election victory was, it’s hard not to shake the feeling that we’re living on borrowed time. By now, Democrats were supposed to be well on their way to solidifying a stranglehold on the American electorate, wielding their imagined “permanent Democratic majority” gained through entitlements, race hustling, and illegal immigration to ram through structural changes that would seal them in power forever. Instead, Republicans, with control of every branch of the federal government thanks to Trump’s magnificent run, have been gifted with one more bite at the apple. We squander this chance at our peril.
With the above statement will come all manner of debates. Trump’s cabinet picks are already raising eyebrows even among some conservatives, although I would say he’s done a solid job overall picking people who will implement his agenda and threaten the establishment. There will be deportations and judiciary picks and executive orders and hopefully lots of good news from the new Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy-led Department of Government Efficiency. We’ll hopefully enjoy all or most of that stuff. There will also be attempts, since Republicans do control both houses of Congress, to implement a legislative agenda. We probably won’t enjoy all or most of that.
Why? The answer is the same reason Republicans haven’t been able to pass anything truly meaningful in decades - the Senate filibuster. Ironically, and predictably, Democrats are now embracing the handy tool they once sought to abolish just a few years ago. The brazen attempts from Democratic senators Richard Blumenthal, Chris Murphy, Chuck Schumer and others to basically beg for mercy and allow them to use the filibuster they once wanted to nuke when they were in power to obstruct Republicans over the next four years is the very definition of chutzpah, but these people have no shame. And Republicans, being the Stupid Party they’ve been for decades, are more than happy to acquiesce.
Incoming Senate Majority Leader John Thune has stated his intention to keep the filibuster intact. I’m sadly unaware of any Republicans who have come out in opposition to that position, although that could change if President-elect Donald Trump weighs in after he realizes he won’t be able to pass anything of substance otherwise. Even Sen. John Fetterman, ever the pragmatist, acknowledged that he would hardly blame Republicans for doing what his own party has threatened for so long.
Those who argue that the filibuster would be doing away with some sort of key function the country’s framers installed might be surprised to know that the framers never actually installed the filibuster in anywhere near its current form. Until the '70s, when the ‘silent filibuster’ became a thing, there were always physical limits to how long a senator could stand, speak, and delay procedures. Senators in the minority on an issue delayed and were able to even kill some legislation, but at least they had to earn it. Cloture votes didn’t exist until 1917, when a required two-thirds majority was placed in the Senate rules. That was amended again to today’s 60 in 1975.
Even recently, the filibuster has been weakened. Democrats amended the rules in 2013 to allow a simple majority vote for executive and judicial nominees, then Republicans returned the favor in 2017 for Supreme Court nominees. So it’s not like either side abolishing the filibuster or even doing away with the silent filibuster and making senators earn it again would be unconstitutional in any way. In fact, the Constitution doesn’t address filibusters at all.
In his piece from last week on the issue, RedState’s Ward Clark pokes fun at Democrats for their hypocrisy, yet argues like most that Republicans should keep the filibuster anyway, even to their own detriment: “And, no doubt, there will be some calls from the right to amend or eliminate the filibuster out of frustration,” he writes. “Those calls should be ignored. The filibuster is in place for a good reason, and the Senate GOP and activists on the right must remember that sooner or later, that shoe will be back on that same foot, the Republicans will be in the minority once again, and they will make good use of the filibuster to keep things to some semblance of sanity. That's a pendulum that never stops swinging.”
Clark’s arguments for the filibuster being in place for “good reason” are certainly solid. Sure, in a perfect world the Senate indeed would be the “cooling saucer for the passions of the House.” In an era where bipartisanship generally carried the day, when the main difference between the political parties was far less stark than it is now, when every piece of proposed legislation didn’t have the potential to rock the worlds of at least half the country, things actually got done despite the looming possibility of a filibuster mucking up the works.
Today’s political environment, of course, is as far from those collegial eras as anything we’ve seen since the Civil War. And while you might argue that that means we need the filibuster now more than ever, I would argue that if you’re depending on the filibuster to save us, you’re depending on a paper tiger. Indeed, that bulwark that is supposed to stand against excesses and promote bipartisanship is merely a rule that can be deleted anytime at the whim of 51 senators, or 50 plus the wrong vice president. That's right. The filibuster itself isn't filibuster-proof.
And therein lies the rub, because those of us with a memory longer than a minute remember how the Cheshire Cat Communists retreating into a fetal position and begging for mercy now (and also during the first Trump administration) were openly trying to change the rules when it suited them in 2021. As certainly as the sun will rise tomorrow, when they get power again Democrats WILL nuke the filibuster, they will do it without hesitation and without mercy, and nothing will stop them, especially since the two lone filibuster defenders in their party, Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, will be long gone. Then, they will easily pass nightmares like election ‘reform’ (i.e. legalized fraud), court packing, amnesty, and other structural changes that will make it virtually impossible for Republicans to win again.
To Republicans, I say it’s time to stop acquiescing. It’s time to strike while the iron is hot, to lay the hammer down on Democrats who we all know will be more than happy to do the same to us. Because our only hope for a lasting Republican majority is to pass meaningful legislation that makes the lives of Americans better, legislation that will be difficult if not impossible for Democrats to cancel without significant political blowback. It’s time to pass the Trump agenda, the populist agenda - all of it - and let the chips fall where they may.
It would be one thing if Republicans could use the ‘nuclear’ threat to somehow strengthen the filibuster so Democrats couldn’t abolish it themselves when they have the chance, but no such path exists. Any such deal would entirely depend on the word of coiled up snakes just waiting to strike when the time is right. And we should never trust snakes, or Democrats.
Like it or not, the Senate filibuster IS going away. The nuclear bomb IS going to explode. It’s just a matter of whether it's Republicans or Democrats who strike first. If Republicans get the first shot, we at least have a chance. If it’s Democrats, the country as we know it is over.
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