Something is wrong in the United States Senate. A bill with overwhelming public support — one that simply asks voters to prove they are American citizens before they register to vote, and show a photo ID when casting a ballot — can’t make it through the Senate despite the fact that it has the votes to pass.
Republicans want this done. The White House wants this done. The American people want this done. So why can't it get done? Because Democrats in Congress are blocking it for no legitimate reason.
And the worst thing is, there are Republicans who don’t seem to care that Democrats are just blindly obstructing it.
“I have made it crystal clear that I will never vote to do this. Eliminating the filibuster is a foolish and lazy idea pushed by politicians seeking short-term gain at the expense of causing irreparable long-term harm to our nation,” Sen. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) said in a statement.
Hey buddy, I get it. I’ve long been against nuking the filibuster, but let’s be honest about what’s really happening here.
Tillis also came out swinging against the idea of a talking filibuster.
“A 'talking filibuster' would effectively make Chuck Schumer the new Senate Majority Leader," he claimed, "allowing Democrats to block every single Trump judge and executive branch nominee, and allow them to force endless votes on anything they want. Democrats would control the floor of the U.S. Senate until the end of the year."
That is hogwash. If that were the case, then the same thing would apply the next time Democrats have unified control of the government. In the end, Republicans still control the floor, the calendar, and a majority of the votes. If anything, a talking filibuster exposes Democrats’ extremism on election law in real time, instead of letting them hide behind quiet obstruction and friendly media spin. Tillis’ line is classic D.C. hogwash — a scare phrase meant to spook nervous Republicans out of fighting for the SAVE Act, not a serious description of how the Senate actually works.
ICYMI: Democrats Really Are Disgusting, and This Proves It
Tillis can talk all he wants about Republicans coming up with some consensus version of the legislation, but you don’t get any more consensus than a bill with 71% support according to recent polling. Bills like this should be passed and signed into law without breaking a sweat.
Tillis argued that the real solution is bipartisan legislation, that "both parties must find common ground" on voter ID and proof of citizenship. It's a nice thought. But bipartisanship requires good-faith negotiations, and today’s Democratic Party is incapable of that. It wasn’t all that long ago that they nuked the filibuster for judicial nominations and they have zero institutional loyalty to the rule when it stands in their way. And it was only just a few years ago that they tried to nuke the filibuster completely. They will nuke the filibuster. They will nuke it when they get the chance. It’s only a matter of time, so let’s stop pretending that Democrats are worth saving the filibuster for if they’re going to obstruct commonsense election integrity.
Why are we playing nice? We’re just delaying the inevitable. Why not beat the Democrats to the punch and secure our elections in the process?
