The Witness Chronicles, August 25, 2024

Two cataclysmic events the Republicans fear may happen

Photo by MIKE STOLL on Unsplash

Will Harris and a Democratic Senate End the Filibuster?

It has helped Republicans block legislation for decades

This morning (a Sunday in late August) I have been digesting a lot of political stuff, some realistic, other things utterly speculative. There is so much speculation out there after Kamala Harris’s coronation by a unified Democratic Party, that weeding out what may actually be going on is a puzzle inside an enigma.*

*apologies to Winston Churchill, but more from him at the end.

You won’t learn anything from the Republican spokespeople and pundits because they have nothing. Everything she says is lies, she is a communist, she is this, that, and everything else, but it ain’t sticking and they know it. The problem is that their guy is not giving them anything to work with.

No policies, no positive stories, no good looks even. To me, an amateur, it looks like what Donald Trump really wants is to check out, be done with it, and play golf. But his need, addiction really, won’t let him do what is reasonable.

The combination makes for strange chemistry and that’s what we’ve got in the wake of the Harris/Walz flood. There is no message whatsoever coming from the Trump campaign that makes any sense, moves the needle in any way, or will convince any undecided voter to join Trump’s camp.

Meanwhile we have things like the subject of this post, the filibuster, a legislative weapon that has been responsible for nearly every significant Republican victory in congress, which is where laws are made. Killing the filibuster is the Democrats' nuclear option and they are starting to throw the idea around.

The filibuster, and I am not going to detail its arcane history, requires a majority of 60 to 40 votes in the Senate to pass a bill, confirm an appointment, or declare a resolution. Killing it means a simple majority (51 to 49) passes laws. Republican leader McConnell, who has seemingly checked himself out of the dirt of politics these days, used it over and over again to kill any Democratic law or appointment, strangling the legislative process.

Now the Democrats, sensing an opportunity, are openly talking about repealing this weapon. They think there is a possibility, a new possibility, that they can win both the White House and the Senate. And removing the filibuster would give even a tiny majority or a 50/50 Senate the ability to run the government on their own terms.

In a 50/50 Senate, Tim Walz would be the deciding vote, essentially handing Harris the power. And those behind the scenes in Republican DC are terrified of that prospect. That would be the long term consequence of a Trump loss and he doesn’t seem to give a damn (I had another word in mind but am feeling polite- get me another coffee).

The reality is that Trump seriously does not give a damn about any of this political shit (sorry, I said it). He is not fighting for power or glory, he is fighting to save his own ass, but this week he may have seen the possibility of losing that fight. Actually he saw it when Joe Biden endorsed Kamala Harris and she unified the party with lightning speed, wrapping up support in just 36 hours.

And possibly handing Donald Trump a prison sentence in the process.

I know, I’m covering a lot of territory here. But think about these two monumental political possibilities, Trump losing and the Dems killing the right’s most powerful legislative weapon, the weapon that helped them create a crooked Supreme Court and stop Donald Trump’s impeachment for treasonously colluding with the Russians to win in 2016, among many other destructive policies.

These are two reasons why we will see the Republican Party resort to a civil war to try and retain power. Maybe not an actual war, but a legal war that would paralyze the systems that make life viable in the US. They stand to lose everything. And they have a candidate who really doesn’t care, beyond trying to protect himself.

That destructive narcissism was the central theme of the attacks on Trump this past week at the DNC, and it was a masterful strategy. It simply cannot be denied when candidate Trump constantly reminds us of what his priorities are.

As my favorite Churchill saying goes:

“Now this is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is, perhaps, the end of the beginning.”

~ Winston Churchill, The Lord Mayor’s Luncheon, Mansion House, November 10, 1942

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