By Jennifer Rubin
Columnist |
Today at 10:00 a.m. EST
Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.), in a “Dear Colleague” letter sent on Monday to fellow Democrats, set a time frame for action on voting rights — tantamount to a showdown on the filibuster.
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Setting a deadline of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which is on Jan. 17, Schumer vowed a vote to change Senate rules if Republicans once more tried to filibuster measures supported by all 50 Democratic senators. (He reminded members reluctant to dispense with the filibuster that in “June, August, October, and once more in November, Republicans weaponized arcane Senate rules to prevent even a simple debate on how to protect our democracy.”)
Citing the late Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, Schumer concluded: “We must adapt. The Senate must evolve, like it has many times before. The Senate was designed to evolve and has evolved many times in our history.” Schumer also asked for the public to weigh in, a rare call to pressure not only Republicans but members of his own caucus.
The vote will come in the context of a full-scale Republican assault on voting rights in state capitols, where, Schumer pointed out, simple majorities of Republicans have stripped voting access and have set up mechanisms to undermine election administration conducted by nonpartisan officials.
The filibuster decision is timed just after the first anniversary of the only violent insurrection set in motion by a sitting president in U.S. history. With Jan. 6 looming, the country and Senate will be reminded that, before unleashing a mob a year ago, President Donald Trump attempted to delegitimize the 2020 election result and applied tremendous pressure to weak points in our electoral system (e.g., strong-arming state election officials, encouraging states to send alternate slates of delegates, filing frivolous fraud lawsuits, bullying the Justice Department and his own vice president). It is those very pressure points that now require reinforcement.
Schumer pointed out that the Jan. 6 assault based on the “big lie” was the start, not the end, of efforts to subvert democracy: “They want to unwind the progress of our Union, restrict access to the ballot, silence the voices of millions of voters, and undermine free and fair elections.”
We are at risk of future coups that might be carried out peacefully using mechanisms and theories given a test run in 2021. It must not stand, Schumer argues convincingly, that Senate lawmakers cannot insert legal protections for democracy against strictly partisan state legislation (passed without super majorities) while those undermining democracy can with a minority of senators thwart democracy’s defense.
The timing of the filibuster fight is also auspicious — Schumer could not have anticipated this one — given that Trump just endorsed Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orban. (Imagine a major political party’s leader in the 1930s endorsing one of the European fascist dictators menacing Europe.)
How exquisitely appropriate that the wannabe authoritarian would hold up as his model the dictator who deployed a web of lies, nationalistic fervor and xenophobia to deform his country’s democracy and essentially establish one-man rule. Freedom House reports that Orban has since moved to hamper "opposition groups, journalists, universities, and nongovernmental organizations” with “unfavorable” perspectives. No wonder Trump is so enamored.
Trump and his MAGA mob keep telling us in word and deed what they are up to. They believe violence may be necessary if they don’t get their way in elections. They deploy lies, propaganda and fear to stir the base, discredit voting and make democracy unworkable. They are willing to sabotage free, nonpartisan-administered elections. Trump is shouting from the rooftops: See what I will do if you don’t stop me!
And so the question for the Senate — and for filibuster fetishizers Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) — is whether to stop the former president and his ilk. Democrats must decide whether they will do the bare minimum to fortify our democracy in the face of an obvious, potent and immediate threat. If they do not, they will be accessories to its collapse.
Columnist |
Today at 10:00 a.m. EST
Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (N.Y.), in a “Dear Colleague” letter sent on Monday to fellow Democrats, set a time frame for action on voting rights — tantamount to a showdown on the filibuster.
Opinions to start the day, in your inbox. Sign up.
Setting a deadline of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, which is on Jan. 17, Schumer vowed a vote to change Senate rules if Republicans once more tried to filibuster measures supported by all 50 Democratic senators. (He reminded members reluctant to dispense with the filibuster that in “June, August, October, and once more in November, Republicans weaponized arcane Senate rules to prevent even a simple debate on how to protect our democracy.”)
Citing the late Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd of West Virginia, Schumer concluded: “We must adapt. The Senate must evolve, like it has many times before. The Senate was designed to evolve and has evolved many times in our history.” Schumer also asked for the public to weigh in, a rare call to pressure not only Republicans but members of his own caucus.
The vote will come in the context of a full-scale Republican assault on voting rights in state capitols, where, Schumer pointed out, simple majorities of Republicans have stripped voting access and have set up mechanisms to undermine election administration conducted by nonpartisan officials.
The filibuster decision is timed just after the first anniversary of the only violent insurrection set in motion by a sitting president in U.S. history. With Jan. 6 looming, the country and Senate will be reminded that, before unleashing a mob a year ago, President Donald Trump attempted to delegitimize the 2020 election result and applied tremendous pressure to weak points in our electoral system (e.g., strong-arming state election officials, encouraging states to send alternate slates of delegates, filing frivolous fraud lawsuits, bullying the Justice Department and his own vice president). It is those very pressure points that now require reinforcement.
Schumer pointed out that the Jan. 6 assault based on the “big lie” was the start, not the end, of efforts to subvert democracy: “They want to unwind the progress of our Union, restrict access to the ballot, silence the voices of millions of voters, and undermine free and fair elections.”
We are at risk of future coups that might be carried out peacefully using mechanisms and theories given a test run in 2021. It must not stand, Schumer argues convincingly, that Senate lawmakers cannot insert legal protections for democracy against strictly partisan state legislation (passed without super majorities) while those undermining democracy can with a minority of senators thwart democracy’s defense.
The timing of the filibuster fight is also auspicious — Schumer could not have anticipated this one — given that Trump just endorsed Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orban. (Imagine a major political party’s leader in the 1930s endorsing one of the European fascist dictators menacing Europe.)
How exquisitely appropriate that the wannabe authoritarian would hold up as his model the dictator who deployed a web of lies, nationalistic fervor and xenophobia to deform his country’s democracy and essentially establish one-man rule. Freedom House reports that Orban has since moved to hamper "opposition groups, journalists, universities, and nongovernmental organizations” with “unfavorable” perspectives. No wonder Trump is so enamored.
Trump and his MAGA mob keep telling us in word and deed what they are up to. They believe violence may be necessary if they don’t get their way in elections. They deploy lies, propaganda and fear to stir the base, discredit voting and make democracy unworkable. They are willing to sabotage free, nonpartisan-administered elections. Trump is shouting from the rooftops: See what I will do if you don’t stop me!
And so the question for the Senate — and for filibuster fetishizers Sens. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) — is whether to stop the former president and his ilk. Democrats must decide whether they will do the bare minimum to fortify our democracy in the face of an obvious, potent and immediate threat. If they do not, they will be accessories to its collapse.
