Congressional leftists are claiming centrist Democrats in the Senate are “killing our democracy” because they won’t abolish a legislative tool that … protects democratic principles.
Responding to news that Senate Republicans filibustered Democrats’ latest elections reform bill this week, Rep. Ilhan Omar and her fellow “Squad” members blasted Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema for refusing to help liberals kill the filibuster, a legislative stall tactic that requires 60 votes to bypass.
The filibuster—and the Democratic Senators who continue to uphold it—are killing our democracy. https://t.co/ElvqA96d3U
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) October 20, 2021
Omar has proved once again that, for leftists, “democracy” is really just a term that means “whatever I want to do.” Abolishing the filibuster would not make Congress any more democratic, as she is claiming. In fact, it would do the exact opposite. The entire purpose of the filibuster is to force lawmakers to reach a 60-vote compromise so that one party can’t steamroll the minority and force through an agenda that would not otherwise pass. Compromise, debate, equal access to the legislative process — those are all things that make democracies work.
But Omar doesn’t want a democracy; she wants a tyranny of the majority. Except, in the Senate, at least, leftists don’t even have that! Half the time they can’t convince members of their own party to vote for their legislation. The voting rights bill, for example, only secured 49 votes — meaning, even if Democrats had abolished the filibuster, there is no guarantee it would have passed.
The problem is not the filibuster, it’s the Left’s agenda. Perhaps Omar ought to focus on writing laws that all Democrats — liberals and centrists — can get behind instead of trying to bend the democratic process to the Left’s will. Clearly, the current strategy isn’t working.
