Thursday, February 19, 2026

(#6227) Will republicans in the Senate be able to withstand trump's intimidation?

      The Senate has achieved enough votes from republicans, 50, to pass the voter restriction act that trump is fully behind. The problem is that the Senate has a filibuster rule that makes nay bill that comes before them pass a cloture vote, (which is a proceed to debate mechanism) of 60 ayes.. If it gets the 60 votes the voter suppression bill can then be passed with a simple majority of 51 votes. It is the cloture vote that is hanging up trump and his desire to disenfranchise 10's of millions of voters. He presents this bill as necessary to stop voter fraud. Of which there is practically speaking none. So the bill being presented isn't about fraud it is about making voting harder for his opponents. It isn't that difficult to understand why since he has alienated the American citizenry with his abhorrent behavior and lack of working middle poor class policies.
     So what trump will be doing over the next months is coercing, threatening. demanding and generally putting the republicans in the Senate under duress to eliminate the filibuster and pass his voter suppression bill. the Senate republicans who are on record for defending the filibuster will get the most attention from trump and has been the case for about a decade, trump ends up getting his way. In this case I suspect it will be the same. The republicans in the Senate know that if they eliminate the filibuster that the next democratic Congress will make changes that bypass them with no obstructive tool like the filibuster at their disposal. What trump will counter argue is that with this bill no democratic majority will ever win again.
     Will the republicans in the Senate fall for this embellished argument or will they surprise me and hold the line against the angered trump? Again, I think they will fold as they always do but I am not sure because Senate republicans really want to keep the filibuster. Senate republicans must also worry that the Supreme Court will find the bill if it becomes law unconstitutional. If so then they would have eliminated the filibuster for no reason at all. So many complexities to consider in such a short time as trump wants this bill to become effective immediately for the 2026 midterm vote. To me if trump is going to survive the democratic onslaught coming his way he absolutely needs this bill to survive and become law. Otherwise he will be toast going forward!
     

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