The SAVE Act, which requires people to show identification to vote, is rightly named, for it is the only law pending in Congress now that can actually save America. As we’ve seen over the last few years, unless we restore integrity to our elections, nothing else matters. When citizens no longer believe that they’ve had a say in electing their government, the great experiment in republican democracy is over
The American people agree with this point, for an overwhelming majority supports the SAVE Act. According to the most recent polls from Harvard CAPS/Harris, 71% of Americans support the SAVE Act, including 69% of independents and 50% of rank-and-file Democrats. Americans of all stripes distrust one another and understand that the only way to address this distrust is through manifestly honest elections. (And yes, the inscrutability of voting machines is still a problem, but one thing at a time.)
Indeed, the only people in America who don’t want the SAVE Act are Democrats and, seemingly, a handful of Republicans. The ostensible reason the Democrats give is that certain...um...“demographics” (i.e., minorities and married women) are too stupid to get an appropriate ID. Passing the SAVE Act, they say, would deny these people their civil liberties. Nobody except the most extreme members of the Democrat base actually believes this.
As for the Republicans who will not put the SAVE Act to a vote, Senate Majority Leader John Thune spoke for all of them when he said that the only way for a vote even to be possible is to force Democrats to engage in a “speaking filibuster.” What’s a “speaking filibuster”?
For a long time now, filibustering has been done, not in the old “Mr. Smith Goes To Washington” way of standing there until you lose your voice and collapse, but in a more modern, sophisticated way: You essentially announce that, given the chance, you would stand there and talk forever, but really, why should you waste everyone’s time? Let’s just consider it done and successful, and then move on to other business.
It’s a kind of buddy-buddy thing, where no one is inconvenienced, no one has to stand for their principles, and no one takes responsibility for depriving the American people of something they very badly want to see the government do.
That mindset is how we got Thune announcing in February that he wasn’t going to bring the SAVE Act to the floor because there’s just so much other business Congress needs to get to, never mind that, as I said, without the SAVE Act, our government is meaningless:
That’s a bluff from a man who doesn’t want to rock the boat. However, with the clock ticking toward November, Trump has just called his bluff:
Now, Thune need not fear that a speaking filibuster will stop other Senate business. Until the SAVE Act is put to a vote (and again, this is what the American people want), there is no other Senate business.
Now get out your popcorn as the Democrats begin explaining at great length how stupid they think the American people are.
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