The Will to Nuke the Government

Senate Republicans are looking at a bill that will prohibit millions of votes to prevent a dozen bad ones. Do they have the political currency to pass it? Or even consider it?

I've been thinking about the S.A.V.E. Act. I've had some encouraging thoughts.

1) As monstrous as the bill's provisions are, it indicates that the GOP has every intention to continue having elections, going forward. Something this fundamental shouldn't feel like a win, but it does.

2) Not only has it not yet passed in the Senate, it hasn't even been discussed since it was formally received five days ago. No committees have taken it up, and there's been no apparent pressure to take any action on it whatsoever. Obviously this is a very short time for something like this to happen, but if this legislation is a GOP priority, the GOP-dominated Senate has shown no sign of that.

3) Passage will require eliminating the filibuster, or more likely a nuclear carve-out-- a process wherein a simple majority of Senators agree to suspend the filibuster for just this one case, so they can bring it to a vote. This is a politically explosive action(hence the use of the word, "nuclear"), and would certainly be seen and widely reported as a colossal power-grab by the GOP. It was my strong belief that such a carve-out was imminent, even with the token objections of Senators Murkowski and Collins-- without whom the GOP still have 51 seats in the chamber. But it appears to be less cut-and-dry than I'd thought.

4) The order of loyalty that's demanded by the regime is Trump, Party, and then everything else. Mitch McConnell is not running for re-election, and has made it clear that his loyalty is to the Party and the Constitution, and nothing after that. He does not like Trump, and has even voted against him on a couple occasions since Jan 20. It seems likely that he would vote against a rule suspension for this bill, if he knew if would get Trump's goat.

5) It occurs to me that Senate Republicans don't trust each other, and as Trump marches the Party and the country into the sea, those divisions are calcifying. Senators are hearing from their pollsters and analysts, and I think they are reporting that under the current state of play, prospects are bleak for the midterm elections next year. Several GOP Senators won their seats in 2020 by thin margins, and Democrats are already lining up to challenge them now. Against this background, it seems likely that each individual Senator with eyes on re-election-- or at least holding their seat for the Party --is not eager to be on the record to have voted to disenfranchise millions of people.

Do these five points come together to guarantee that this toxic legislation will die on the floor of the Senate? I don’t think so, but I do find them encouraging. They indicate-- maybe not definitively --that there may actually be gravity in the GOP. There may actually be rules that are bigger than loyalty to a man. And I find it comforting how precipitously out of his depth that man is, because the more we see him bungle the office he’s dubiously achieved, the more his support among anyone who isn’t completely insane withers.