Congressional Democrats are extending cancel culture to the House and Senate.
They are trying to sideline Republicans from any participation in the legislative process as a means to silence them. Don’t be fooled by the rhetoric, because the attack on the Senate’s filibuster and House’s motion to recommit is nothing more than a power grab and a way to squelch dissent.
While Woke Disney cancels Peter Pan, Dumbo, The Swiss Family Robinson and The Aristocrats, Woke Democrats in the House and Senate seek to cancel outspoken Republicans like Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) and Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX). The private sector woke warriors have pushed for the burning of Dr. Seuss books, while Drs. Rand Paul (R-KY) and Michael Burgess (R-TX) are being marginalized by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA). The progressive puppet masters of the Democratic Party are setting themselves up for a painful 2023 when Republicans regain majorities in the House and Senate if they continue to marginalize Republicans.
There is no doubt that Washington Republicans and Democrats are in a political war and have been for years, yet Democrat majorities in the House and Senate should not lead to Republicans participating in the legislative process being cancelled. That is not the way our Founders anticipated the legislative branch of the federal government to work.
President Joe Biden is wise to resist calls to destroy the nature of the Senate by abolishing the filibuster. As a former Senator, Biden understands that if Republicans are pushed to the sidelines and not allowed to offer amendments or engage in extended debate, they will find other ways to fight the party in power. With no opportunity to participate in the legislative process, expect war to bleed over into a public relations battle with Republicans verbally sniping at Democrats during press conferences and on conservative media platforms.
Progressives want Democrats to stamp out dissent by Republicans and even pockets of resistance in the Democratic Party like Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ). Those two members like being Senators and are not willing to sip the Socialism-lite Kool Aid that will end up devastating the Democratic Party. Progressives want to abolish the filibuster so they can bully moderate Democrats into going along with elements of the Green New Deal that will end up marginalizing Democrats with moderates.
In the House, conservatives are throwing roadblocks into the Democrats' administration of the House to leverage amendments and a more significant opportunity to participate in the legislative process. Politico reports, “a frustrated slice of the GOP conference is attempting to hamstring the House by refusing to allow quick passage of non-controversial bills — instead forcing every member to cast their vote on the floor and sometimes adding extra procedural votes. The rebellious Republicans say they're responding to broad anger with how Democrats are running the House, from the lack of GOP amendment opportunities to the razor-wire fences erected around the Capitol.” This is a natural outcome of Democrats removing the motion to recommit vote that Republicans traditionally have offered on bills as a way to get one amendment vote on legislation.
The House and Senate are broken institutions because there has been a chipping away at the rights of rank-and-file members by the leadership of both the Republican and Democratic parties over the past decade. In the Senate, the filibuster has been limited to legislation and members of the minority party in the House have lost the opportunity for an open amendment process on appropriations bills. Now we have Democrats going even further in a way that will cancel Republicans from being fully participating senators and representatives with the abolition of the filibuster and all amendments in the House.
Progressives are short sighted because they don’t understand that any victories locked in will be short lived if Republicans take control of the Congress in two years. History should be instructive to Democrats that their grip on power is temporary. Remember that President Donald J. Trump took a beating in the House when he lost 40 seats in 2018. President Barack Obama lost 63 House seats and six Senate seats in 2010. History tells us that it is likely that enough seats will be lost in the House and Senate to flip control of both chambers in 2023. They are establishing a precedent that the majority has all the power over the legislative process and the minority party be damned.
The progressive quest to cancel Dr. Seuss, Dumbo, and everything they disagree with extends to Republicans in Congress. Cancelling congressional Republicans is yet another way for left wingers to silence dissent and force upon the American people some radical ideas that will creep us a bit toward socialism.
Brian Darling is a former Counsel for Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) and wrote a report on the filibuster for The Heritage Foundation in 2011.