One of the things Democrats warn voters about Trump is that if he is elected, it will be the end of democracy. However, today, Kamala Harris revealed that it is she who wants to do away with one of the most important democratic norms in America: the filibuster. Ostensibly, it’s to return unlimited abortion to America, but the reality is that if she wins the White House and Democrats control Congress, America becomes a one-party nation...forever.

The Senate authorized the filibuster over 200 years ago, in 1806, and it was first put into effect in 1837. Its purpose is to allow a minority to invoke the filibuster to keep a bill from being voted upon unless three-fifths of the Senate’s members invoke cloture. This prevents majority rule by forcing a broad agreement on bills that will have a profound effect on America.

Image: Kamala Harris (edited). YouTube screen grab.

Only recently, as they’ve become more radicalized, have Democrats, when in the majority wanted to do away with the filibuster. Their primary goals are to pack the Supreme Court and add Puerto Rico and D.C. as states. (That the Constitution theoretically bars D.C. from becoming a state is irrelevant if you control the Supreme Court). Once they do that, they will have achieved permanent control over the government, and the Constitution will be a dead letter.

And no, this is not a conservative conspiracy theory. Back in 2020, the Democrats were open about their plan to end the filibuster if Biden won and the Democrats controlled the Senate. Vox’s Ezra Klein detailed the wish-list:

Virtually everything Democrats have sworn to do — honoring John Lewis's legacy by strengthening the right to vote, preserving the climate for future generations by decarbonizing America, ensuring no gun is sold without a background check, raising the minimum wage, implementing universal pre-K, ending dark money in politics, guaranteeing paid family leave, offering statehood to Washington, DC, and Puerto Rico, reinvigorating unions, passing the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act — hinges on this question.

As for the Supreme Court, activists were open in their calls to pack the Court, while Biden tried to hide that by playing footsie with reporters.

By January 2021, Biden was in the White House, and Kamala was the tie-breaker in the Senate. However, unexpectedly, Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin stood firm, refusing to end the filibuster.

But the one thing you can say about Democrats is that, unlike Republicans, they never give up. And so it is that Kamala is once again urging people to vote for her and a Democrat Senate so that Democrats can end the filibuster. This time, Kamala’s using her biggest strength in the campaign to make that argument: She says she’ll reverse the Dobbs decision and reinstate Roe v. Wade. That is, reversing the filibuster will set in motion taking abortion from the states and returning it to the feds. It’s 1973 all over again:

Vice President Harris says she would support eliminating the filibuster in the U.S. Senate in order to bring back federal protections for a woman's right to an abortion as they existed under Roe v. Wade.

Harris outlined her position during an interview Monday with Wisconsin Public Radio, saying that when it comes to the issue of abortion, she believes the Senate should do away with the filibuster rule that requires a 60-vote threshold for most legislation to pass.

"I've been very clear, I think we should eliminate the filibuster for Roe, and get us to the point where 51 votes would be what we need to actually put back in law the protections for reproductive freedom and for the ability of every person and every woman to make decisions about their own body and not have their government tell them what to do," Harris told WPR host Kate Archer Kent.

Of course, we all know that abortion is the tip of the spear. Go back to Ezra Klein’s 2020 wish-list to understand what will happen if Kamala takes control of D.C. It’s not just a four-year thing; it’s a forever thing.

It’s also important to understand that Republicans need to step up their abortion messaging. The two polls that I’ve reviewed (one for Pennsylvania and one for Georgia) show that the biggest gun Kamala has is abortion. While voters care most about the economy and illegal immigration, abortion is their next biggest concern.

This concern, while primarily coming from Democrats, also crosses over to conservatives who are not abortion absolutists. Democrats have done a great job of convincing both their party and conservative non-absolutists that the only way to allow any type of abortion (including in cases of rape, incest, or the life of the mother) is to re-federalize it by giving Democrats control over the federal government.

Meanwhile, Republicans have done a terrible job of making clear that all states have exceptions for rape, incest, or the life of the mother. In that regard, Republicans need to push back hard against Kamala’s sob story narrative about Georgia residents Amber Nicole Thurman and Candi Miller, both of whom died after taking abortion pills.

The truth is that Georgia’s heartbeat law is not what caused the women to die. In Thurman’s case, it was pure medical malpractice because Georgia law allows procedures when a woman has failed to expel fetal matter (no matter how the baby died). In Miller’s case, she didn’t even go to a doctor:

Unless Republicans, from Trump on down, allay the concerns of the people who are either fully pro-abortion or not completely anti-abortion, this issue may be the wave that gets Kamala into the White House, Democrats into the Senate, and the Constitution into the garbage.