Playing games, whether it be team sports, video games, or board games with friends and family, can be one of the greatest joys in life. Because people have always relished friendly competition, the opportunity to push mental and physical limits, and even bragging rights, games in some form have been a part of our existence since the beginning of human history. Sadly though, as long humans have desired to win games, a small minority has always been willing to cheat or even change the rules mid-game to their own advantage.
From baseball to gin rummy, there are and must be rules to every game. These define the parameters of competition, ensure a fair and equitable outcome, and allow the losers to leave the ‘field’ of play disappointed for sure, but comfortable in knowing they lost fair and square and fully aware of what they need to do in order to improve their game for the next time they play. Allow a cheater to prevail, however, and everything falls apart. For example, what if your tennis opponent suddenly decided that balls they hit that land in the doubles zone count, but yours don’t? You would naturally pause and have a word with your opponent. If he or she failed to listen to reason, what would you do? Why, stop playing, of course, right?
Which, oddly enough, brings me to politics, something that is most definitely NOT a game (though I sometimes wish it were). The rules of the ‘game’ in the United States are so simple that most of us learned it in high school civics class, though the actual sausage-making has become uber-complex. It takes a House majority and at least 60 votes in the Senate - if one side invokes the filibuster - in order to pass a bill to the president, who can then sign or veto. Then, the Supreme Court has the power to determine the constitutionality of the passed law.
However, within this framework, there are ways to tweak the system - to ‘cheat’ - that may be technically legal, but if enacted would fundamentally change the ‘game.’
Adding Senators
The Senate, a body created to be deliberative with long-standing rules that foster compromise, is comprised of two senators from each state. The last time a state was added, the political balance of Alaska and Hawaii were carefully considered so as to not unfairly benefit one party. Though there has been some clamoring to break up California, at no point have Republicans suggested, ‘hey, why not break up Alabama into four states so Republicans can get six extra senators.’ It's a game anyone of any political persuasion could play all day. Republicans could find new ‘states’ in southwest Virginia, eastern Oregon, northern New York, and countless other solid blue states, while Democrats could point to places like southern Florida, western Tennessee, and others.
For now, Democrats ‘merely’ want to make Washington D.C. a state, followed by Puerto Rico. Notwithstanding the recent runoff results in Georgia, they know the Senate is their Achilles heel with small, red states able to send as many senators to Washington as California or New York. To that end, they see four new Democratic senators, and an almost unsurpassable Senate majority, as their birthright.
Packing Courts
Yes, Congress technically does have the power to change the number of Supreme Court justices. However, Franklin Roosevelt once proposed packing the Supreme Court with justices friendly to his agenda, only to be laughed out of the room by members of both parties who saw it for the disgusting political power-play that it was. Democrats today, however, see packing the Supreme Court as a way to undo former President Trump’s success in appointing justices.
Elections
In their efforts to rid the country of every means to ensure that every eligible citizen gets one vote and one vote only, Democrats know that enabling cheating will result in wins for the side that (primarily) cheats. Why else would they be pushing for ballot harvesting and the end to voter ID?
Immigration
The unending hordes of illegal immigrants are coming here at the encouragement and invitation of President Biden and Democrats. If these were potential Republican voters, do you think they’d receive the same welcome mat? Of course not. Ultimately, smart people on the left know that their ideas are toxic and in many cases super unpopular. Therefore, the only way they can keep winning elections is to import voters they see as sympathetic to their cause.
Ending the Filibuster
It all starts here, of course. The Senate filibuster, though it has undergone some changes throughout history, has never been this close to ending at the hands, or tentacles, of a raw power grab. Former President Trump begged then-Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to do away with the filibuster, but the Kentucky senator refused, rightly appealing to tradition, fairness, and the chances that the tables would eventually be turned. Democrats strongly agreed … then … but now that the tables HAVE turned, they’re singing an entirely different tune. They know, as does President Biden and every leftist granola-cruncher from here to Woodstock, that they have a small window in which they could - if they could only ditch the filibuster - conceivably pass everything they’ve ever dreamed of passing, from the Green New Deal to making Washington D.C. the 51st state.
In other words, they want to change the rules so they can change the rules. Why? So they can stay in control of our lives forever. Tragically, this is NO game, and there’s nothing noble or even slightly well-intentioned about their motives. They are ghouls, and the language they speak is power.
So, what should fair-minded participants do when bad actors they are in a ‘game’ with cheat and change the rules to suit their own evil ends? Sure, we should try to stop it, and that’s what Republicans, even some of the weak-kneed ones, are trying to do. The jury is out on whether they’ll find success.
But what’s the answer if Republicans don’t succeed? What’s the answer if the left rigs the game so that the United States becomes a permanent one-party state? Well, at that point, millions of conservatives may eventually just stop playing the game.
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