An immigration crackdown appears imminent in a second Trump administration at a time when an APVoteCast survey shows the president-elect’s supporters largely focused on immigration and inflation.
I honestly have no idea whether it is or not, but I don’t see any way that giving into hopeless despair and giving up helps us, so I’m going to operate under the assumption that it’s not. If nothing else, let’s make the fascists fight every single step of the way by throwing every inconvenience we can at them.
Speaking of which - Dems still have enough Senate seats to filibuster, right?
Yes, but the funny thing about the filibuster is that while it requires 60 votes to advance legislation, it is just a Senate rule, and Senate rules are established by majority vote. The Senate has kept the rule (and, in fact, have made it easier to use over the years) because Senate terms are so long that most Senators have experienced time in the minority at least once, and want to preserve that tool for when they end up there.
This election cycle was the toughest one for Democrats. The next one will be the toughest for Republicans, with 20 of their seats up for election, and nobody at the top of the ticket to boost their numbers. The math says Republicans will likely not hold on to the Senate in 2026. So the sensible thing to do is keep the filibuster.
OTOH, Republicans may see the things that they want Trump to do to be so transformative that they can get it all done in 2 years, and not have to worry about Democrats undoing it in the next term. In fact, they may welcome it, because if Democrats do take control without a filibuster they can go back to Der Gröpenführer and say “Sorry, we can’t do anything about it, please stop calling”.
I honestly have no idea whether it is or not, but I don’t see any way that giving into hopeless despair and giving up helps us, so I’m going to operate under the assumption that it’s not. If nothing else, let’s make the fascists fight every single step of the way by throwing every inconvenience we can at them.
Speaking of which - Dems still have enough Senate seats to filibuster, right?
Yes, but the funny thing about the filibuster is that while it requires 60 votes to advance legislation, it is just a Senate rule, and Senate rules are established by majority vote. The Senate has kept the rule (and, in fact, have made it easier to use over the years) because Senate terms are so long that most Senators have experienced time in the minority at least once, and want to preserve that tool for when they end up there.
This election cycle was the toughest one for Democrats. The next one will be the toughest for Republicans, with 20 of their seats up for election, and nobody at the top of the ticket to boost their numbers. The math says Republicans will likely not hold on to the Senate in 2026. So the sensible thing to do is keep the filibuster.
OTOH, Republicans may see the things that they want Trump to do to be so transformative that they can get it all done in 2 years, and not have to worry about Democrats undoing it in the next term. In fact, they may welcome it, because if Democrats do take control without a filibuster they can go back to Der Gröpenführer and say “Sorry, we can’t do anything about it, please stop calling”.