The Filibuster and the Jan 6 Commission

Antifa was not prowling through the United States Capitol on January 6th. We know that is not true because if it were, the GOP would be clamoring for a commission to investigate.

In fact, most of the people roaming the Capitol were harmless people who were milling about having seen a crowd go inside. The problem, however, is that there were some malicious malcontents who were emboldened by the “stolen election” rhetoric who thought they really were stopping a coup. Other malcontents went in too, some of whom did mean to harm members of the United States Congress.

Virtually every Republican and Democrat in Washington knows this and many of them said as much. So why exactly do we need a commission?

I’m not opposed to one per se. But let’s not kid ourselves. We are in a hyper partisan environment with a media that has relentlessly spread Democrat rumors as fact only to get caught and/or retract them. The national media has become deeply hostile to the GOP in its entirety. Democrat uber-consultant James Carville is on record that the Democrats need to define the GOP with January 6th. The media has been glad to help. We are currently in an environment where the media that dismissed the Wuhan lab leak theory is now scrambling to pretend it did not while concurrently admitting it did so because of Trump.

Do you really think anything but partisan rancor, media hit jobs, and Democrat talking points is going to come out of this spectacle?

Seriously? The left and the American press have already made up their minds. All they want is the spectacle and you can tell by their reaction to the Republican senators filibustering the measure.

Now some want to understand why the Democrats just don’t kill the filibuster.

Maybe they will, but I actually think the Democrats do not want to kill the filibuster, though they must not let their base know.

Next year, the GOP will take back the House. They can do that without redistricting, but they will make bigger advances with redistricting. The Senate, next session, will not get anything meaningfully passed through legislation anyway even if Democrats maintain control and the nominations filibuster no longer exists.

Additionally, though the GOP does not actually have good odds of taking back the Senate in 2022, they might. They have tremendous odds of taking back the Senate in 2024.

So why kill the filibuster now when everything is still 50-50? If one of several Democrat senators die, Republican Governors would appoint their replacements and there would be hell to pay when McConnell takes back over. If, in 2024, the GOP beats Kamala Harris (hello inflation and crime), Democrats would see amazing destruction to their previously established agenda. Look how quickly the GOP rolled back last minute Obama era regulations. The 50-50 Democrat controlled Senate has not been able to do that with most of Trump’s last minute regulationsl even though doing so cannot be filibustered.

There’s just no sure thing for the Democrats with a 50-50 Senate now. Hell, they could not get their voting bill passed just with Democrats. They cannot get their tax increases passed with just Democrats. They cannot get their infrastructure plan passed with just Democrats. They’ve even abandoned their additional stab at using reconciliation.

They don’t want to kill the filibuster in a 50-50 Senate. They just can’t say it. And frankly, they’ll just use the talking point about the GOP blocking the commission for the next year and that’ll make them happy anyway.