Democrats' Radical Takeover Plan
KEY TAKEAWAYS
- The filibuster lies at the heart of what makes the Senate the Senate. Without the filibuster, we will see wild swings in policy as the parties trade majority control.
- Democrats know that breaking the Senate by ending the filibuster is the only way to pass their overpoweringly bad idea that Congress should stage a federal takeover of elections.
- After they break the Senate, they won’t stop at elections. Democrats are intent on silencing the millions of Americans who live in Republican states, removing any need for compromise or a middle ground, to enact their radical agenda.
Democrats want to use fake hysteria to break the Senate. Their ultimate goal is to silence millions of Americans and ram through a radical takeover of our elections and our entire country.
Historic 2020 Turnout Shows No Voter Participation Problem
Fake Hysteria
The Democrats’ elections bills are full of bad policies that create more problems than solutions. We should be focused on making it easier to vote and harder to cheat; instead Democrats are inventing problems to justify their federal takeover of elections.
Democrats have said that their election bills are necessary to increase voting participation, particularly for minorities. In reality, the 2020 election cycle saw a turnout of 66% of eligible voters, the highest since 1900, despite the COVID-19 pandemic. This trend held steady across the country, with most states recording their highest turnout in 40 years. The 2018 midterm elections had also set turnout records.
Democrats have said that their election bills are necessary to increase the public’s faith in the system. In reality, a Pew survey after the 2020 election found 88% of Black, 76% of Asian, and 68% of Latino voters said the election was well administered.
Democrats have said that their election bills are necessary to counter state actions that supposedly make it harder to vote. In reality, only 33% of Americans say it’s currently too difficult for eligible voters to vote. More Americans think it’s too easy to vote and rules should be tightened.
Their bills aren’t about voting rights. They’re about creating fake hysteria to scare people into accepting their ultimate goal: breaking the Senate, cementing their power, and overturning the filibuster.
break the senate
The filibuster lies at the heart of what makes the Senate the Senate. As Joe Biden said when he was a senator, “At its core, the filibuster is not about stopping a nominee or a bill, it's about compromise and moderation.” Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said four years ago that we should “build a firewall around the legislative filibuster” and called it “the most important distinction between the Senate and the House.” Democrats changed their tune not because something changed in America, but because they are now in charge and want absolute control.
Democratic Flip Flops on the Filibuster
The filibuster story begins in 1806, when Vice President Aaron Burr reorganized the Senate rules to remove a motion to consider the previous question, creating the possibility of a filibuster. It was not until 1837 that senators actually made the first filibuster. They were trying to stop supporters of Andrew Jackson from rescinding a censure that the Senate had passed against him for withdrawing federal deposits from the Bank of the United States. Over time, it was used by some senators to slow or stop antislavery provisions, but it was used more often in the later part of the 19th century on international matters like the annexation of Hawaii and an extradition treaty with France.
Without the filibuster, we will see wild swings in policy as different parties take majority control in the Senate. In the last 20 years, complete party control has happened four times, alternating between Republicans and Democrats. Observers of any political stripe looking at the list of cloture motions will find some filibustered bills they like and some they dislike. The potential for bad bills to pass without the filibuster is obvious. At a time of razor-thin margins in the House and Senate, how much confidence can Democrats have that the partisan laws they enact today will not be repealed in a few years?
elections takeover
Democrats know that breaking the Senate and ending the filibuster is the only way to pass their partisan election takeover. Democrats wrote their elections bills with no Republican input. They then passed the first version, H.R.1, in the House with bipartisan opposition and no Republican votes. Their “compromise” bill after that – a compromise between the left and the far left – garnered no Republican votes on the Senate floor last October. The bills are all based on the overpoweringly bad idea that Congress should stage a federal takeover of elections and force a-one-size-fits-all approach on more than 10,000 voting jurisdictions in the country.
Their most recent proposal, S.2747, was written under the guise that it requires states to enact popular voter ID laws. But the provisions only apply to in-person voting and only in states that currently require voter ID, while prohibiting ID requirements for vote by mail. It would render most state voter ID laws meaningless by requiring states to allow witness affidavits in lieu of identification, as well as basically any document that includes a voter’s name. One poll last June found that 80% of adults – including 62% of Democrats – think people should have to show a photo ID to vote.
The law would restrict states’ ability to clean up their voter rolls to make sure they are accurate, and it requires states to allow at least 15 days of early voting and to offer same-day voter registration at all polling locations.
It mandates ballot drop boxes and requires states to let felons vote in federal elections. This provision highlights how micro-managing state elections causes more problems than solutions. Most states do not allow a felon to vote in state elections as soon as they are released from prison. Those states will either have to allow felons to vote in state elections or they will need two separate voter rolls and two separate ballots for state and federal elections. State officials will have to choose between a politically untenable initiative their residents hate and a disastrously complicated logistical challenge. This provision also is likely unconstitutional; the 14th Amendment leaves felon voting decisions to the states.
Headlines Show Problems with Dems’ Bad Ideas
S.2747 contains public financing of political candidates in the form of both a 6 to 1 federal match for small donations to candidates for the House of Representatives and a “Democracy Credit” program in which people can request a $25 credit they can donate to candidates for the House. Candidates will be paid by the state, which will be reimbursed by the federal government. State participation is voluntary, but the Federal Election Commission is required to set up the program using federal dollars for any state that chooses to participate. Under that system, the federal government will inevitably end up using federal funds to support politicians with views most taxpayers don’t agree with.
The original drafts of their election takeover bills, which they are likely to revive once they’ve eliminated the filibuster, included even more terrible provisions. S.1 required that states allow ballot harvesting, which opens an obvious avenue for fraud where harvesters fill in and return other people’s ballots. This is not hypothetical, it is precisely what has happened in the past. Avoiding this kind of corruption requires careful oversight, but states will be spread thin implementing this rule and dozens of others, from mandatory automatic voter registration to using very specific envelopes for mail-in ballots.
S.1 would politicize the FEC by changing it from a six-member commission, evenly divided by party, to a partisan, five-member commission. The chair of the FEC would be able to make key staffing changes, allowing the commission to attack the winning party’s opponents. S.1 would also allow judicial review of matters that were dismissed by the FEC because no violation of law was found. This could lead to more litigation costs for those participating in the federal campaign finance system.
Silence Americans To enact Radical Agenda
The election takeover is just the first step Democrats want to take. After they break the Senate, they won’t stop at elections. Democrats are intent on silencing the millions of Americans who live in Republican states, canceling any need for compromise or a middle ground.
Voices of Millions of Americans Across the Country Silenced
After taking over the country’s elections, Democrats will turn to defunding the police and giving amnesty to all illegal immigrants past and future. They will make the District of Columbia a state, adding two more Democratic senators to protect their majority for decades to come. Democrats will push through the biggest, most radical version of the Green New Deal, raising gas and energy prices even more. They will pack the Supreme Court to ensure the courts rubberstamp their agenda, and they will enact huge tax hikes on every part of the economy.
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