Force the Democrats to filibuster the SAVE America Act

OPINION:

I rarely find myself disagreeing with The Wall Street Journal’s editorial page, which is reliably conservative most of the time.

So I was surprised when the editorial board Thursday pegged the SAVE America Act as a lost cause and advised Republicans to abandon it. The bill, which would secure America’s elections, is wildly popular with the public.

It passed the House last month on a mostly party-line vote, with all 218 Republicans present voting yes, along with three Democrats. It is stalled in the Senate because Democrats, who hate hampering their free-stuff army with voter ID laws and proof of U.S. citizenship for voting, have vowed to filibuster it.

Senate Majority Leader John Thune said he will bring the bill to the floor this week for a “show” vote but will keep it subject to the Senate’s 60-vote cloture threshold to end debate. That means the Democrats can kill it.

Mr. Thune has resisted bringing the bill to the floor for a “talking filibuster” and calling the Democrats’ bluff. This is despite President Trump’s insistence that the bill is vital for securing the nation’s elections before the November midterms. The Journal calls the idea of forcing a real filibuster a “mirage.”

A Harvard/CAPS Harris Poll found last month that 81% favor requiring voter ID to vote, 75% want proof of citizenship and 80% want noncitizens taken off voter rolls. The SAVE America Act would do all that.

The bill itself polled at 71% support, including 50% of Democrats, 91% of Republicans and 69% of independents.

Other than a resolution honoring Mother’s Day or perhaps something even less controversial, I don’t recall any measures with this much support.

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Democrats assume that Republicans will cave and not demand at least the “talking filibuster.” That made-up term describes an actual filibuster instead of the instant acceptance of one.

The instant filibuster is a bit like Major League Baseball’s change in the rules for intentional walks, with the batter not even bothering to stand at the plate to watch the pitcher throw four times beyond the strike zone. It does save time to just send the batter to first base, but do fans really want to pay to see the likes of Aaron Judge and Shohei Ohtani repeatedly denied a chance to hit instead of battling the pitcher?

Personally, I would ban intentional walks, forcing the pitcher to throw the ball at least near the plate to provide drama, but that’s another column.

In the case of the filibuster, there are good reasons to at least force a 24/7 talkathon. First, it would show that Republicans can play hardball instead of caving to “our friends across the aisle,” who are only too happy to give them a rabbit punch in the gut when no one is looking. Don’t they get tired of seeing Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer’s cat-that-ate-the-canary grin?

It would show that Republicans are finally serious about guaranteeing a citizen’s right not to have his or her ballot canceled by a noncitizen or otherwise unqualified voter.

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It would show how out of touch the Democrats are with the average American.

The Journal warns darkly that “the reality is that Democratic Senators could take turns giving interminable speeches. Cory Booker [New Jersey Democrat] last year went 25 hours all by himself.”

Bully for Mr. Booker, who persuaded no one about anything. And this is bad how, exactly?

Go ahead, Democrats, rail against something that more than 80% of the public wants. The Democrats would, of course, count on the media gaslighting the public, but they don’t control X and Facebook.

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Social media outrage prompted CNN to pull its item on the March 7 Islamist terrorist bomb attack in New York that had started this way: “Two Pennsylvania teenagers crossed into New York City Saturday morning for what could’ve been a normal day enjoying the city during abnormally warm weather. But their lives would drastically change.”

Yes, that happens when you throw bombs at people. This stuff has to hurt the media’s credibility, which is already lower than that of the Clintons.

Another strategy Republicans could use is the “nuclear option” of eliminating the filibuster and passing the SAVE America Act with their Senate majority. They can change the current rule with a simple majority vote.

Opponents warn that if the Republicans do this, the Democrats will do it to them. As The Journal puts it, “they’d certainly copy the maneuver next time to pass far more transformational bills than the SAVE America Act.”

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The answer to that is: They will do it anyway. Democrats were stopped from doing it in January 2022 only because of two Democratic senators, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, neither of whom is in the Senate now.

What could be more transformational than securing America’s elections? With millions of illegal aliens in America thanks to the Biden administration’s open border, requiring voter ID and proof of U.S. citizenship are crucial to restoring faith in fair elections.

If Republicans fail to protect voting, then Democrats will use all their devious means to get back into power and make sure they never lose it again. That would be transformational.

• Robert Knight is a columnist for The Washington Times. His website is roberthknight.com.

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