Last Thursday, even as California’s chaotic primaries demonstrated the need for a nationwide election integrity law, Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) voted to kill the SAVE America Act. This would be understandable if the bill were unpopular with the electorate. But its requirement that voters in every state must provide proof of citizenship before registering to vote and produce a photo ID when casting a ballot are wildly popular among Republicans and Democrats. Yet, because its passage is one of President Trump’s top priorities, TDS forced them to ignore his agenda and that of the voters.
In reality, not one of this querulous quartet of Senators voted against the SAVE America Act based on genuine principles or the will of the people.
The only member of this cadre of recalcitrant Republicans with a rational excuse, other than TDS, to vote against the SAVE America Act is Maine Sen. Susan Collins. She is involved in a tough reelection campaign and had she voted for the bill her depraved Democrat opponent, “oysterman” Graham Platner, would no doubt use that vote to bolster the ridiculous claim that she is a rubber stamp for Trump. According to a bulletin published by the Maine Democratic Party, “FiveThirtyEight found that she voted with Trump 67 percent of the time during his first term.” North Carolina Sen. Thom Tillis has no rational excuse for his vote against the SAVE America Act. In a statement issued after the first of his two votes against the bill he said,
All of my Democratic colleagues currently serving supported nuking the filibuster to try to pass their own partisan election reform bill. Democrats were dead wrong to try to change the filibuster when they controlled the Senate, and Republicans would be dead wrong to try to change the filibuster now that we control the Senate. The only real path to address the American people’s declining confidence in our elections is for both parties to find common ground on legislation that supports universal adoption of voter ID, proof of citizenship, and other vital election integrity measures.
This alleged concern for the “sacred” filibuster is frequently offered by Republican Senators who dislike President Trump and know he wants to get rid of it. Their lofty rhetoric is nothing more than hot air. Sen. Tillis is retiring at the end of his current term because he is very unpopular in North Carolina and would probably lose against any credible primary challenger. In fact, at least one poll found that his approval rating in his home state was a mere 25 percent. So, all his balderdash about both parties finding common ground on legislation that supports universal adoption of vital election integrity measures means nothing. He knows the Democrats have no intention of working with Republicans on genuine election integrity.
It is true that killing the filibuster is something that shouldn’t be done lightly, but this means nothing to the Democrats. Indeed, they are committed to eliminating it in order to pass several pieces of controversial legislation and would have done so already but for the opposition of former Senators Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. Eventually, the Democrats will regain control of the Senate whereupon they will consign the filibuster to history. In fact, despite their denunciation of President Trump’s musings about “nationalizing” elections, one reason they are certain to kill the filibuster involves passing the “For the People Act,” which would nationalize our elections. As the Heritage Foundation describes it:
H.R.1 would federalize and micromanage the election process administered by the states … It would implement nationwide the worst changes in election rules that occurred during the 2020 election and go even further in eroding and eliminating basic security protocols that states have in place. The bill would interfere with the ability of states and their citizens to determine the qualifications and eligibility of voters, to ensure the accuracy of voter registration rolls, to secure the fairness and integrity of elections, to participate and speak freely in the political process.
This brings us back to our four wayward Republican Senators. In the SAVE America Act they still have a very real opportunity to pass legislation that will bolster election integrity and prevent most non-citizens from voting, yet their “principles” stood in the way. Here’s Senator McConnell’s excuse:
The Trump administration can, and should, support state-led efforts to authenticate voter rolls, train election officials, upgrade voting technologies, and combat voter fraud. But they ought to be careful. Even a targeted federal mandate to strengthen election integrity today could make it easier for a future Democratic president and Congress to use more sweeping mandates to carry out a federal takeover of American elections.
McConnell knows perfectly well they’re going to do that anyway if they can. His real objection is that he hates Trump’s guts, although he voted to acquit Trump in both impeachments. And that brings us the Senator of “Seward’s Folly,” Lisa Murkowski. Like Susan Collins, she voted to convict Trump in the farcical J6 impeachment trial. She insists that her vote against the SAVE America Act is about federalism: “For starters, the Constitution largely entrusts states with the administration and oversight of elections, providing authority to hold them at the ‘times, places, and manner’ of their choosing.” She forgot that the Constitution gives Congress the last word: “But the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations.”
In reality, not one of this querulous quartet of Senators voted against the SAVE America Act based on genuine principles or the will of the people. They are all afflicted with TDS and that is what motivated them to vote the way they did. The good news is that two of them are about to retire, one may lose her Senate seat to a pervert and one is just an irritating nepo baby who is rapidly approaching her sell-by date. They will all be gone soon — but not too soon.
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