There are moments in politics when the people you once believed in disappoint you so deeply that the sting is almost personal. This is one of those moments.
Democrats are abusing the filibuster, and nothing is being done about it. What's at stake isn't just a Senate procedure. It's the future of election integrity in America. And the question is whether Republican leadership has the nerve to fight for it.
I donated to John Thune's 2004 Senate campaign. It was the first time I'd ever given money to an out-of-state race. Watching him knock off Tom Daschle — the Senate Minority Leader — felt like a genuine conservative victory. I don't regret that donation. But over the years, Thune has increasingly disappointed me.
As Senate Majority Leader, Thune is now actively telling Republican senators to stop publicly discussing eliminating the filibuster.
“Senate Majority Leader John Thune encouraged senators to stop talking about President Donald Trump’s stated priority of nuking the filibuster, according to two sources familiar with the matter,” the Daily Signal reports. “After a few moderates at the Senate’s Wednesday steering lunch urged the Republican conference not to talk about nuking the filibuster, Thune agreed that the move lacks the necessary support in the current conference, the sources said.”
The filibuster requires 60 votes to end Senate debate, meaning Republicans — even with their majority — can't pass major priorities without Democratic cooperation. Democrats will never give that cooperation. Not on election integrity. Not on anything that matters.
The key thing being blocked right now, of course, is the SAVE America Act. This bill requires proof of citizenship to register to vote, mandates photo ID for federal elections, and limits mail-in voting. It's not a fringe proposal. It has bipartisan public support. Voters across the political spectrum want elections that are secure and verifiable. And yet it’s stuck in the Senate because of Democrats.
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Now, I've opposed nuking the filibuster for years. The GOP has used the 60-vote threshold to block genuinely dangerous Democratic overreach, and I didn't want Republicans to be the party that torched a long-standing Senate norm. But that principled restraint has a cost — and we're paying it right now.
Nuking the filibuster today would give Republicans plenty of time to pass key legislation — those 80-20 issues that the public desperately wants that Democrats won’t let them have.
Here's what Thune and the moderates refuse to acknowledge: Democrats have already made clear they'll nuke the filibuster the moment it benefits them. They nearly did it under Biden. They only failed because Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema stopped it. I was happy at the time because that prevented Democrats from passing legislation that would have federalized elections and undermined election integrity. But now we have an opportunity to secure our elections, and the inevitability that next time Democrats control the House, the Senate, and the White House — and that day will come — they won't hesitate to end the filibuster.
When that happens, Republicans who spent years clutching their pearls over Senate norms will have nothing to show for it.
Taking the high road is a virtue. But taking the high road off a cliff is stupidity.
