Joe Biden and Democrats are pushing the Senate to kill the filibuster for their voting rights bills, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act, and allow the bills to be passed by a majority vote; i.e., 50 Democrats plus Vice President Kamala Harris.
But I wonder if they have thought this through. If they abolish the filibuster and pass their bills setting up national rules for presidential elections and elections to Congress by a majority vote, what is going to stop Republicans from passing their national election rules in 2025 if Republicans win Congress and the presidency in 2024?
In 2013, then-Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid got rid of the filibuster for judges (but not Supreme Court; there were no openings at the time) and other executive branch appointments so he could get three judges appointed to the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. Republicans took the Senate in 2014 and won the presidency in 2016. The result, once the Republicans followed through on Senator Reid’s logic and abolished the filibuster for the Supreme Court, was Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney Barrett.
As I said: Be careful what you wish for. You might get it.
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