cross-posted from: https://news.abolish.capital/post/5013
US President Donald Trump late Thursday urged Senate Republicans to scrap the legislative filibuster to end the prolonged government shutdown without Democratic support—the kind of scenario progressives warned about when imploring Democrats to eliminate the 60-vote threshold during former President Joe Biden’s term.
In an all-caps post to Truth Social, Trump wrote that “THE CHOICE IS CLEAR—INITIATE THE ‘NUCLEAR OPTION,’ GET RID OF THE FILIBUSTER AND, MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Trump noted Democrats’ failure to terminate the filibuster when they controlled Congress under Biden, pointing specifically to the central role that Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema—both of whom have since left office and the Democratic Party—played in obstructing filibuster reform.
“Just a short while ago, the Democrats, while in power, fought for three years to do this, but were unable to pull it off because of Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. Never have the Democrats fought so hard to do something because they knew the tremendous strength that terminating the Filibuster would give them,” Trump wrote. “Now I want to do it in order to take advantage of the Democrats.”
With the filibuster intact, 60 votes are required to pass most legislation in the Senate. Republicans currently hold 53 Senate seats.
Progressives warned repeatedly during Biden’s presidency that Republicans wouldn’t hesitate to scrap the filibuster in the future should the 60-vote threshold become a severe hindrance to their agenda. Abolishing the legislative filibuster to end the shutdown would clear the way for other Republican policy proposals to get through the Senate with simple-majority support.
“I spent the entire Biden presidency warning idiotic establishment Senate Dems and Biden who opposed getting rid of the filibuster that Trump and the GOP would come back to power and do it themselves,” journalist Mehdi Hasan wrote Thursday in response to the president’s demands. “I hate to say I told you so but… I fucking told you so.”
Adam Jentleson, former chief of staff for Sen. John Fetterman (D-Pa.) and a vocal advocate of ending the filibuster, noted that “it’s pretty easy” to initiate the “nuclear option” on the filibuster “because despite everything, the Senate is a majority rule institution, per the Founders’ design.”
“The rule that overrides all other rules is that a majority of senators can vote at any time to change the rules—including getting rid of the filibuster, which the Founders abhorred anyway,” Jentleson wrote late Thursday. “They could do it tomorrow! No preparation needed.”
Trump’s demand came just over 24 hours before millions of people across the US are set to lose federal nutrition assistance due to the shutdown and the administration’s illegal refusal to tap emergency funds to pay out the benefits.
Millions of Americans are also facing the prospect of skyrocketing health insurance premiums as Trump and congressional Republicans decline to support extending Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire at the end of the year.
Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) said earlier this month that he would oppose scrapping the filibuster to end the shutdown, but he could change his position amid Trump’s pressure campaign.
One progressive, Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), has called for a filibuster carveout that would allow senators to keep the government open with a simple-majority vote.
“I’ve been consistent on this,” Khanna said in an interview in early October. “I said this when Biden was president, and I’m now saying it when Trump’s president.”
From Common Dreams via This RSS Feed.
Establishment Dems didn’t want to get rid of the filibuster because it gave them a convenient excuse for why they couldn’t make good on their campaign promises for the base. Which raises an interesting question: if Trump and the GOP goes through on this, and the blowback on their agenda leads to an Obama-like situation come 2029 where the Dems hold both chambers and the presidency, what’s their excuse going to be then? Are they going to bribe the Senate Parliamentarian every time they introduce a bill to kill it?
The classic oh we can’t get manchin/cinema/exactly enough Dems to have a majority to pass this piece of legislation to vote for it it’s too radical for them
They’ll reinstate the filibuster and resume using it as an excuse, probably
I can hear it now “when they go low, we go high”
“We must reinstate the filibuster in order to restore Norms”
Why would they need an excuse when they have an army of Blue No Matter Who fucks whose loyalty is completely unconditional
The ride or die dems are only like 30-40 percent of the electorate. They need the political theatre in order to convince the rest that they’re an actual opposition party and not controlled opposition.
I guess they need an excuse but literally any excuse, no matter how flimsy or nonsensical, will work.
“We asked ChatGPT and it said to wait on passing any legislation, so good luck with that food or whatever you all are complaining about now.”
Also…
They need the political theatre in order to convince the rest that they’re an actual opposition party and not controlled opposition.
Or what? They’ll lose their control of both chambers? I’m sure they’d view that as a positive; nothing Dems hate more than being expected to actually govern.
Donations
Most democratic donations come from corporate or large single donors. One of the notable things about the Bernie campaign was that it broke the individual donor record for a primary. They don’t need them for donations, they need them for the political theatre to work. This shit doesn’t work without the politically illiterate ‘moderates’ making the elections close. Cause that is the point, make the elections as close as possible winning or losing so people still feel like they need to participate.
On one hand, yeah the Dems prefer to not be holding the reins of power. On the other, if they give up even the pretension of being a functional political party, then what keeps it going as an entity? And I’m not talking about the Vote Blue No Matter Who base, I mean why would the donors continue to throw millions at a party that serves no purpose?
The flip side of keeping up the political theatre is that the Trump era has demonstrated that the standards and norms of DC can be violated and business goes on as usual. The Democrats can wither and die, the US becomes a uni-party state, the system continues without crisis, and the establishment will still insist America is democratic.
“There’s no point in passing legislation now, Republicans will just undo it, so we’re going to focus on building closer relationships with the private sector.”
“If we pass legislation, it’s only going to give Republicans justification for passing legislation. So if we don’t, then they won’t
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