The Democratic Party is so short-sighted they're practically Mr. Magoo.
They're also evil, and willing to blow up Constitutional norms and procedures to codify abortion -- throughout the entire nine months of pregnancy -- at the federal level.
Kamala Harris is on record as favoring doing a way with the filibuster to pass abortion legislation through the Senate. Her position was so distasteful that it cost her the endorsement of Joe Manchin, who called her position 'the most horrible thing.'
Manchin said, 'I think that basically can destroy our country and my country is more important to me than any one person or any one person's ideology.' And he's right.
But that's a gamble the Senate Democrats are willing to take, apparently:
Senate Democrats think risk of nixing filibuster for abortion is worth the reward https://t.co/aj6GBrbCDL
— The Hill (@thehill) September 29, 2024
Senate Democrats concede there is considerable risk to doing away with the filibuster to codify abortion rights, but also suggest they are likely to try to do so if they get the chance in 2025.
The risk is that once an exception is made for abortion rights, exceptions will be made by a future Republican Senate on a host of issues.
But Democrats say codifying abortion rights and other key legislative priorities is worth the risk.
“There’s real risk anytime there’s debate about rules and procedures in the Senate. It becomes very bitter,” Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) said. “So yes, there is risk.”
Before I delve into the heart of my argument, let's take a trip down memory lane, shall we?
In 2013, Chuck Schumer destroyed the filibuster with concern to judicial nominees to lower courts. At the time, this is what Politico wrote:
“We all know that today is a sad day,” Schumer told reporters in Washington, shortly after the Senate, following years of threats, exercised the so-called “nuclear option” to restrict the use of the chamber’s storied filibuster.
After years of threats, triggered by increasingly regular use of the tactic by Republicans, the Democratic leadership finally amended the chamber’s rules to keep the minority party from bringing the president’s appointment process to a halt.
And just four years later, a Republican majority Senate nuked the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees.
Here's what the National Constitution Center wrote at the time:
Before the first cloture vote, Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer decried the expected move to kill the filibuster for Supreme Court nominees. “I know that in 20, 30, or 40 years we will sadly point to today as a turning point in the history of the Senate and the Supreme Court. This is a day when we irrevocably move away from the principles our founders intended for these institutions," Schumer said.
"You know in your hearts of heart that he deserves to be confirmed. And that is why this is an especially sad state of affairs," Senate Judiciary chair Chuck Grassley said before Schumer spoke, referring to nominee Neil Gorsuch.
After the cloture motion was defeated in a 55-45 vote twice, Schumer failed in an attempt to postpone Gorsuch's consideration until April 24. Using a tactic called the Nuclear Option, which was deployed by Harry Reid in 2013, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made a motion, which could not be appealed, for the full Senate to vote on a point of order he raised, requesting that the Gorsuch nomination go forward with a simple majority vote to limit the debate about his nomination. That motion was approved by a 52-48 vote.
This isn't a point I see any other journalist making: the reason Roe was over turned in the first place is because the Democrats 'took the risk' to remove the filibuster for lower court judicial nominees and the Republicans -- playing by the Democrats' rules -- nuked it for the Supreme Court.
Yet somehow, Chuck Schumer and the rest of the Democrats seem to have forgotten this little bit of history.
They would do well to remember it.
But back to the matter at hand.
Not only does Kamala support nuking the filibuster for abortion, she is also on record supporting nuking the filibuster to pass the Green New Deal.
There is no piece of Leftist legislation that they would not try to push through the Senate with a slim majority: abortion, the Green New Deal, gun confiscation. You name it, the Left will do it. They do not care about norms, precedent, or the Constitution. They will push through their agenda without a second thought and applaud as they do it.
That's just one of the risks.
The other is, of course, that Republicans take control of the Senate and with that same 51-vote majority, pass their own legislation. And this becomes a pattern that repeats in perpetuity.
Do you see where this is heading?
If not, let me tell you:
Removing the filibuster will create a political seesaw where in the Senate spends all its time undoing legislation the previous administration did. In the same way removing it for judicial nominees led directly to Roe being overturned.
Democrats are in charge? Abortion. Gun control. Green New Deal. Socialized medicine.
Republicans in the next session? They repeal all of that and pass their own legislation.
We will end up with a government that spends all its time playing political tug of war and zero time actually governing. Every hot button issue will be a permanent political football, and every election will be fraught with concern that giving the Republicans or Democrats a 51-vote majority means another legislative cycle of repeal and replace.
If you think the abortion debate is bad in the 2024 election cycle, imagine having that battle every two years. Forever. On every single major political issue.
The filibuster is a guard rail that prevents this sort of back-and-forth that would leave laws subject to the whims of the majority party. Imagine the ongoing political upheaval we'd have to live through in that situation. If we think America is divided now, we haven't seen anything yet.
If the Democrats want to pass federal abortion laws -- ones that will undoubtedly be struck down by this Supreme Court anyway -- they need to earn a filibuster proof majority in the Senate. They do that by making the case to the American people to earn their votes.
They have failed to do that.
So rather than win on the merits of their arguments, they're openly willing to risk the stability of this nation.
For what?
To make it legal to kill babies throughout all nine months of pregnancy.
We cannot let them upend the norms of the Senate to assuage their bloodthirsty, pro-abortion base.
The benefits do not -- in any way, shape, or form -- justify the risk of nuking the filibuster.
And given what happened the last time the Democrats removed the filibuster, they'd do well to tap the brakes on this.
