Pollak: Democrats’ ‘War Room’ to Kill the Filibuster Aims to End the Republican Party

Democrats are becoming increasingly open about the fact that they intend to kill the Senate filibuster if they win the elections in November.

News reports Friday revealed that former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) — who took the first step by killing the filibuster for some presidential nominees in 2013 — is supporting the effort.

Nuking the filibuster should be the “first item of business,” Reid said.

The filibuster rule requires a supermajority — 60 votes — for the Senate to close debate on any particular bill and move to a formal vote. It is a rule that prevents the Senate majority from passing whatever it wants without at least consulting with the minority party. It has been a force for moderation, and has encouraged dialogue between the parties.

While both sides have been frustrated with it — and President Donald Trump has said Republicans should get rid of it — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has retained it, knowing the GOP will not govern forever.

But Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has hinted that he would support removing the filibuster, if Republicans oppose whatever Democrats want to do. That has given a green light to radicals within the party to begin their plans — and advertise them.

There could be a backlash: voters may worry about giving Biden’s increasingly left-wing party the power to pass any bill it wants. But clearly Democrats are more worried about motivating their base than about alienating voters in the middle.

The message is clear: Democrats want their base to understand that they have an historic opportunity in November to wipe out the Republican Party as a political force.

Once the filibuster is eliminated, Democrats can pass whatever they want. And the first order of business will be immigration reform — amnesty — for the estimated 11 million illegal aliens living in the country. Once they become citizens, and they have the vote, Republicans will lose Texas and several other states, forever.

Former President Barack Obama expanded on Democrats’ plans during his eulogy for the late Rep. John Lewis. Obama not only said that Democrats should eliminate the filibuster, but suggested that they should add the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico as states. That would add four seats to the Senate — seats that would be held by Democrats.

Republicans would almost never gain a Senate majority again.

The Democrats’ goal is clear: to end the Republican Party as a potential governing party on the national level. Forever.

In 2013, when Reid removed the filibuster for low-level judicial nominees and all executive appointees, he expected his party to retain the Senate in 2014 and win the presidency in 2016. So when Republicans ended the filibuster for the Supreme Court, after Democrats filibustered Neil Gorsuch in 2017, Democrats could not complain: elections have consequences.

That is a mistake that Democrats will not make again.

This time, if they win a majority in the Senate, and Joe Biden wins the presidency, they intend to shut the door. They will use their new, unimpeded power to change American democracy forever.

According to NBC, their effort includes a cross-section of left-wing leaders — from a former Obama administration aide to Faiz Shakir, who managed the presidential campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT). The group is calling itself “Fix Our Senate,” implying that the current system, which preserves minority rights, is broken.

Obama played a key role by framing the filibuster as racist — because Democrats, ironically, once abused it to block civil rights bills.

Shakir is warning Democrats that there “will be no forgiving from Democratic voters” if a Democrat-run Senate allows the Republicans to do what Democrats have done in the minority throughout Trump’s four years in office thus far.

This is not a secret plan. It is out in the open. It is a reminder of what is at stake in November.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). His new book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.