{"id":2637132,"date":"2026-07-29T09:25:55","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T13:25:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaigngop-senators-use-the-filibuster-as-an-excuse-to-do-nothing-for-voters\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T09:29:58","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T13:29:58","slug":"utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaigngop-senators-use-the-filibuster-as-an-excuse-to-do-nothing-for-voters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaigngop-senators-use-the-filibuster-as-an-excuse-to-do-nothing-for-voters\/","title":{"rendered":"GOP Senators Use Filibuster As Excuse To Do Nothing For Voters"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Futm_sourcerssutm_mediumrssutm_campaigngop-senators-use-the-filibuster-as-an-excuse-to-do-nothing-for-voters%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2637132&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The article discusses the concerns surrounding the Senate&#8217;s use of the filibuster and its impact on legislative progress, particularly on issues like election integrity and the SAVE America Act. Despite meaningful popular support for policies such as voter ID and proof of citizenship, the filibuster often prevents these bills from advancing, frustrating voters and undermining the will of the majority. Senate leaders frequently enough claim they lack the votes too pass such legislation, but the core issue is the Senate majority&#8217;s reluctance to challenge the filibuster, which is portrayed as a sacred tradition despite being a modern obstacle to democracy.<\/p>\n<p>The author emphasizes that the filibuster was never meant to be an inviolable part of the Constitution, citing its infrequent use in foundational governance. Critics argue that it empowers minority opposition and creates legislative gridlock, effectively overriding the democratic principle of majority rule. The idea of eliminating the filibuster, sometimes labeled the &#8220;nuclear option,&#8221; is portrayed as necessary to restore accountability and prevent the minority from wielding veto power over essential issues. Historical figures like Alexander Hamilton and James Madison warned against supermajorities, warning they could hinder government responsiveness.<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, the article argues that the filibuster has evolved into a tool of tyranny for the minority, rather than a safeguard for minority rights, calling for its abolition to ensure the majority&#8217;s rightful influence in legislative affairs and to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/mccarthy-rejects-power-share-with-democrats-to-keep-speakership-were-in-the-majority-no-surrender\/\" title=\"McCarthy refuses to share power with Democrats for speakership, asserting .... No surrender.\">address pressing national issues<\/a>.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Does the Senate care more about the filibuster than the American people? For the answer, compare election outcomes to their results. The election outcome was more than 77 million votes cast for Donald Trump in the presidential election. Voters armed him with Republican majorities in both chambers of Congress.<\/p>\n<p>For a result, consider one of his top priorities \u2014 election integrity and the SAVE America Act. It requires voter photo ID \u2014 backed by more than 80 percent of Americans, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pewresearch.org\/politics\/2025\/08\/22\/majority-of-americans-continue-to-back-expanded-early-voting-voting-by-mail-voter-id\/\">Pew<\/a> Research Center and <a href=\"https:\/\/news.gallup.com\/poll\/652523\/americans-endorse-early-voting-voter-verification.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Gallup<\/a> polls \u2014 and proof of citizenship to vote, supported by 83 percent of Americans, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/news.gallup.com\/poll\/652523\/americans-endorse-early-voting-voter-verification.aspx\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Gallup<\/a>.  <\/p>\n<p>Just before Trump gave a primetime television address on July 18, urging Congress to pass the SAVE America Act, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/ThomasSowell\/status\/2077785334369190338\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">asserted<\/a> that \u201cthe SAVE [America] Act is dead on arrival.\u201d But is minority opposition all there is to it? Some assert that\u2019s the case. The Hill <a href=\"https:\/\/thehill.com\/homenews\/senate\/5917188-save-america-act-senate\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported<\/a> on June 10 that Senate Majority Leader John Thune said, \u201cIt\u2019s a well-known fact around here . . . we don\u2019t have the votes.\u201d<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Why This Betrayal Feels Personal<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Many Americans are wondering why Republicans in Congress and President Trump cannot get fundamental issues that got them elected passed into law. The answer is that the Republican Senate majority prioritizes keeping the filibuster more than the core issues that drove the election result. For all their tenacity defending the filibuster, test their sincerity by asking yourself if any senator seeking reelection ever campaigned on capitulating on every issue to preserve the filibuster. The filibuster is nothing more than their opposition\u2019s veto power, but look at what the majority tosses aside to preserve it.<\/p>\n<p>Despite the hand-wringing that follows broken promise after broken promise, experience proves they wouldn\u2019t have it any other way. Republican senators blame the opposition, claiming they could not break the filibuster\u2019s threshold. Yet the majority creates this default self-destruct mechanism when, by a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/constitution\/articlei#section5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">simple majority vote<\/a> under Article I, Section 5, of the Constitution, each newly elected Senate adopts its own rules. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/senate\/3878248\/where-every-senate-republican-stands-trump-end-filibuster\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Washington Examiner<\/a> reported in November of 2025, that 24 senators (45 percent) of the Republican conference have expressed publicly that they do not favor abolishing the filibuster. <\/p>\n<p>Sen. Thune\u2019s attempt to shift responsibility away from the Republican majority and onto the opposition with the common \u201cwe don\u2019t have the votes refrain\u201d does not tell you everything about why the SAVE America Act is \u201cdead on arrival.\u201d Many Senate Republicans are content to let it die a slow death \u2014 election integrity be damned. They alone are responsible for their refusal to lead without permission from the opposition.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>The \u2018Nuclear Option\u2019 Lie<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The filibuster is neither sacrosanct nor constitutionally required. Quite the contrary, the founders inserted supermajorities into the Constitution in only a handful of extraordinary circumstances: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/constitution\/articlei#section7\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">overriding vetoes<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/constitution\/articleii#section2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">treaties<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/constitution\/articlei#section5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">impeachments<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/constitution\/articlev\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">constitutional amendments<\/a>, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/constitution\/articlei#section5\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">expelling members<\/a> from Congress. Remember that when alarmists describe the conduct of ordinary Senate business as the founders intended as the \u201cnuclear option.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Some insist the filibuster\u2019s existence is institutionally necessary, citing the importance of tradition and the defense of the minority. But any procedural device that is so powerful that it renders the governing majority impotent on the most vexing, controversial, and significant issues of our day is plainly not defensive but offensive. Issues that drive election results should not have their fate determined by the party not elected to lead.<\/p>\n<p>Others defend it out of fear \u2014 insisting that if we eliminate the filibuster, the opposition will do the same when they regain power. Their solution is to cede power over to the minority now so the damage can be minimized when the minority becomes the majority. That is not leadership. It is abject surrender. Senators using this defense telegraph their weakness and unwillingness to attempt anything the opposition disapproves of despite political rhetoric to the contrary that they will \u201cfight for you.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Underlying this objection is the unsupported notion that today\u2019s political strategists know more about politics, the behavior of political adversaries, and human nature than the founders who designed our Constitution with checks and balances to control it. But the enduring nature of the Constitution itself disproves that fallacy by its stability, resilience, and course correction throughout generations of imperfect leaders and political opportunists.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>The Founders\u2019 Warning<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Alexander Hamilton warned against this exact tyranny of the minority in <a href=\"https:\/\/avalon.law.yale.edu\/18th_century\/fed22.asp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Federalist 22<\/a>, arguing that requiring supermajorities for ordinary legislation can \u201csubject the sense of the greater number to that of the lesser\u201d and \u201cdestroy the energy of government.\u201d He described the inevitable result as \u201cthe impracticability of obtaining the concurrence of the necessary number of votes, kept in a state of inaction\u201d unless the majority capitulated to the minority \u2014 even through contemptible compromises of the public good. Hamilton\u2019s warning describes the carnage of the filibuster with uncanny precision.<\/p>\n<p>James Madison gave the same caution in <a href=\"https:\/\/avalon.law.yale.edu\/18th_century\/fed58.asp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Federalist 58<\/a>, in response to the notion of requiring supermajorities for regular business, saying that \u201cthe fundamental principle of free government would be reversed. It would be no longer the majority that would rule: the power would be transferred to the minority.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>The preeminent fear shared among the framers of the Constitution was that of a tyranny of the majority \u2014 that pure majority rule was dangerous and could easily lead to an oppressive majority at the expense of basic rights of the minority. It is ironic that today\u2019s filibuster has turned that fear on its head and has established an ongoing tyranny of the minority. Be certain of this, the filibuster is a precision instrument in the hands of a tyrannical minority, and devastating against a weak and fearful majority.<\/p>\n<p>The SAVE America Act is just one example that illustrates how today\u2019s filibuster has neutered the Senate majority when they choose to permit their own defeat over something as rudimentary as requiring American citizenship to vote in American elections. How can we possibly expect such institutionalized weakness to ever muster the fortitude necessary to address such looming issues as maintaining the solvency of Social Security, Medicare, or lowering the national debt?<\/p>\n<p>The truth is that the filibuster has become a convenient scapegoat for a Senate majority\u2019s abhorrent public policy decisions and risk-averse behavior. It also enables them to blame the opposition for positions they hold contrary to their own constituents, but will not admit publicly.<\/p>\n<p>With all the benefits (to both parties) of hiding behind the filibuster, is it any wonder why late-night backroom deals are becoming the norm rather than the exception? If the filibuster is the sacrosanct institutional monument to tradition it is claimed to be, why do senators act in secret, with no one watching? Lawmaking is public business, and darkness has no legitimate place in it. <\/p>\n<h2><strong>Long Overdue Accountability<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>The filibuster rule\u2019s defenders describe eliminating the filibuster as the \u201cnuclear option,\u201d but that view rests on the fundamentally flawed belief that majority rule determination of regular Senate business is the radical construct, while hostage-taking by the minority is not. <\/p>\n<p>In truth, it is the filibuster itself that is the nuclear weapon. It replaces the system the framers designed with one they abhor. It is an institution that disrespects, and in fact, holds in contempt the outcome of our elections. It is time for the filibuster to be vanquished, and the tyranny of the minority overthrown, before we lose the last semblance of majority rule and meaningful representation in our government. <\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      David De La Paz, Esq., is a former felony prosecutor and former senior counsel to several Florida House Speakers, where he advised legislative leadership on constitutional structure, legislative process, and public policy.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Does the Senate prioritize the filibuster over voters&#8217; will?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4376,"featured_media":2637133,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Copy-of-Untitled-2026-07-28T171056.158.png","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[10130,6203,5894,3709,33790],"class_list":["post-2637132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-filibuster","tag-gop","tag-politics","tag-senators","tag-voter-rights"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Copy-of-Untitled-2026-07-28T171056.158.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2637132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4376"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2637132"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2637132\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2637136,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2637132\/revisions\/2637136"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2637133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2637132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2637132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2637132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}