The Democrats want control over the U.S. Senate… and they’re acting as a “blue wave” 2020 election is a done deal.
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NBC News reports that Democrats created a secret “war room” where they’re plotting with progressive groups to change the basic rules that have governed one of America’s most sacred institutions for generations.
And it could alter the very face of this nation’s democracy.
The Democrats’ goal: to quickly change Senate rules so they could enact a radical left agenda and ensure that Republicans not only have no say but that they lose all hope of regaining control of the chamber for generations to come.
NBC says the “war room” includes a who’s who of leftist groups including Demand Justice, Data for Progress, Evergreen Action, Stand Up America, Common Cause, the Working Families Party, and the Brady Campaign.
And the plan starts with a single sweeping action: ending the filibuster, which requires 60 votes in the Senate on most issues.
The Senate has long been known as “the world’s greatest deliberative body” in part because this rule forces lawmakers to slow down, build consensus and ensure careful consideration.
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Republicans warn that ending the filibuster could change that forever.
“This threat to permanently disfigure, to disfigure the Senate, has been the latest growing drumbeat in the modern Democratic Party’s war against our governing institutions,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., warned on the Senate floor.
He added: “Today’s Democrats have lost patience with playing by the rules and want to wage war on the rulebook itself.”
But progressive activists have been angling for this for a long time.
“Rhetoric alone simply won’t get it all done,” Christina Harvey, managing director for Stand Up America, said in a statement. “It’s time for action – and it’s time for Biden and Schumer to pledge their support for abolishing the filibuster.”
And it’s not just activists anymore.
Former President Barack Obama has said the Senate should ditch the filibuster, as has former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.
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“If President Biden wants to get things done, he can’t play around with the filibuster,” Reid told NBC News. “So I think that should be the first item of business with a Senate majority which is Democratic — to get rid of the filibuster.”
And a growing number of current lawmakers also favor the change, including Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass.:
We know what's broken in this country and we know how to fix it. But widely popular policies are stuck—and Republican obstruction in the Senate is only getting worse.
We won't make progress unless we face this head on: It’s past time to get rid of the filibuster.
— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) August 1, 2020
If Biden wins, a filibuster-free Senate and Democrat control over the House would give the left almost unchecked power.
Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., the No. 2 Republican in the Senate, said that would “strip away the protections that the minority has in the United States Senate.”
And he had a warning for voters.
“I hope the American people think long and hard about that when they vote this fall,” he said, according to The Hill.
Changing the filibuster would allow the Democrats to push agendas that include a move almost unthinkable even just a year ago: statehood for Washington D.C. and Puerto Rico.
“We’d never get the Senate back again,” Arizona Sen. Martha McSally, R-Ariz., warned in an interview with NBC News.
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But there’s at least some chance that move would backfire – because Puerto Ricans aren’t by any stretch automatic Democrats.
“People in the continental U.S. think that Puerto Ricans are going to vote Democratic, but on the other hand, the conservative values and Latin traditions are more akin to the values of a Republican Party,” José Garriga Picó, a political scientist and former member of the Puerto Rican Legislature, told Politico. “You can’t really predict what voters are going to do here.”
Indeed, both houses in the Puerto Rico legislature are led by Republican-affiliated politicians. Many on the island are also deeply religious and aren’t exactly marching in lock-step with many progressive ideals including abortion on demand.
A Puerto Rican state could ultimately elect not just one but two Republican senators… and even send what could become crucial “swing” presidential Electoral College votes to a future GOP candidate.
In other words, Democrats may want to be careful what they wish for… because the very move they hope would help them consolidate power could ultimately cause them to lose it.
— Walter W. Murray is a reporter for The Horn News. He is an outspoken conservative and a survival expert, and is the author of “America’s Final Warning.”