Senator Schumer is scared of a primary challenge from far left Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. He is willing to go to any extreme to appease the radical fringes of the Democratic Party including blowing up the Senate to do so. A good example of this is talk of eliminating the legislative filibuster. Not only have Democrat Senators Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin said they will not vote to repeal the legislative filibuster, but even liberal stalwarts such as Dianne Feinstein have hesitated to do it (she is now showing signs that she might cave to pressure after flip flopping on the issue literally overnight). As Republican Leader McConnell stated last week:
“He is yielding to the pressure of the hard left to turn the Senate into a speedway, as opposed to a place where things are paused and thought over,” McConnell said during an interview with Fox News’s Harris Faulkner. . . .
McConnell then went on to say that “fundamentally turning the Senate into the House” would “make it difficult for the Senate to function.”
“My point being that the fact that they get rid of the filibuster doesn't mean the Senate will work better. It means the Senate will work worse,” McConnell said. “And it is a step in the wrong direction for the institution and for the country.”
in the wrong direction for the institution and for the country.”
But you don’t have to McConnell’s word for it. Just four years ago, 33 current Senate Democrats wrote a letter to protect the legislative filibuster. Senator Schumer also said at the time:
'The ‘legislative filibuster’ is ‘the most important distinction between the Senate and the House… Let’s find a way to further protect the 60-vote rule for legislation.
Further, Democrat Senator and Judiciary Committee Chairman Dick Durbin stated in 2018:
I can tell you that would be the end of the Senate, as it was originally devised and created, going back to our Founding Fathers.
The Senate Republican Policy Conference has an excellent paper on the legislative filibuster with three key takeaways:
- After years of supporting and defending the filibuster during the Trump administration, Senate Democrats have begun alleging that the filibuster is a racist product of the segregation era.
- The filibuster’s history goes back far earlier than this, and just like every other legislative tactic, it has been used for both good and bad purposes.
- At a time of sharp, even dangerous partisanship, ending the filibuster would ratchet tensions even higher and raise the stakes still further for every federal election.
The Senate works by unanimous consent. If Senator Schumer was to force the Senate to become the House, the Republican Senators will fight back. As Leader McConnell describes it:
From our interview with @LeaderMcConnell:
— Ruthless Podcast (@RuthlessPodcast) March 23, 2021
If Democrats destroy the filibuster, it could turn the Senate into a nuclear winter.
Listen here: https://t.co/t46oSvWGQt pic.twitter.com/ZiX7OC2eOz