In what can best be described as either a Kabuki Theater performance or perhaps a hypocritical virtual signaling exercise, Senate Majority Leader John Thune pretends to support the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act (SAVE Act) but is doing all he can to help Alaska Senator Lisa Murkowski defeat it.

Thune is doing this despite the pressure put on him by President Trump to allow a straight up-or-down vote on the bill. For that vote to happen, Senator Thune would have to eliminate the silent filibuster in the Senate. President Trump mentioned this in last Tuesday’s State of the Union speech, but Thune desperately does not want to do this.

Instead, Majority Leader Thune has announced he will bring the bill to the Senate floor to allow a vote on it. He is being hypocritical when he makes this promise. Thune knows that the Save Act will go down to defeat, because while there will be a majority of senators willing to vote for approval, they will not have the 60 votes required to end debate on the bill. You guessed it, one of the RINO Republicans who has pledged to stop this bill, no matter what it takes, is Alaska’s own princess senator, Lisa Murkowski.

The only conclusion a reasonable person can draw is that senators opposed to the SAVE Act get elected by the fraudulent votes that it prevents. Prove me wrong, Senator Murkowski.

This situation is dire. The integrity of our elections demands that only citizens be allowed to vote and that they must show photo ID to do so. To pass the SAVE Act will require the so-called silent filibuster to be eliminated. Many Americans aren’t even aware what this unconstitutional parlor trick is or how it became part of Senate rules.

The Constitution does allow the Senate to conduct unlimited debate on bills before they must be voted on. It says that if senators wished to end a long debate and vote on a bill, they were required to get a 2/3 majority of senators who would vote for cloture, ending debate, which today would be 67 votes.

For the first 185 years of our country’s history, that is how the system worked. It meant that a senator wishing to prevent a vote on legislation could speak on the floor of the Senate for an unlimited amount of time, preventing a straight up or down vote. This process was called a standing filibuster. There were some important filibusters in the past; the most noteworthy and longest was made by Democrat Senator Strom Thurmond, who spoke for 24 hours and 18 minutes in 1957 against the Civil Rights Act.

As you might expect, it was quite onerous to speak nonstop, and the process of conducting a filibuster was taxing on the senators. However, that all changed in 1972.

Democrat Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield changed the Senate rules, using the excuse that standing filibusters interfered with important Senate work. He changed the rules so that instead of being forced to stand and orate in a nonstop fashion, senators could conduct a silent filibuster, in which they are not required to speak; they just tell the majority leader that they want to quash a bill with a silent filibuster, and it would not advance. In return for this compromise, the number of senators needed to end debate was reduced from 67 to 60, which is the Senate rule we have today.

At this time, it only takes one senator to say they are conducting a silent filibuster to prevent a vote on the SAVE Act. That means for the SAVE Act to pass, it would require 60 Senators to vote to end debate, then 51 of them must vote to pass the bill. As of today, this will not happen because of the narrow Republican majority and the fact that 4 RINOs in the Senate, including Alaska’s princess senator, have vowed to prevent the Senate from reaching the 60-vote threshold.

Majority Leader Thune knows this when he promises a vote on the bill. He knows that as long as the silent filibuster remains a Senate rule, the SAVE Act will not pass. His little parlor trick of pledging to allow a vote on the Senate floor will accomplish precisely nothing. It will not reach the 60-vote threshold, but by bringing the bill to the floor and taking this vote, Thune can throw up his hands in fake despair and tell President Trump he tried everything he could, but there just weren’t enough votes to pass the legislation.

Thune will be telling a great big whopper when he says this. Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) says the obvious solution is to return to the Constitution. Senator Thune should change Senate rules to eliminate the silent filibuster. If senators want unlimited debate on this bill, they should be forced to stand on the Senate floor and tell us why. When they can no longer speak, a vote should be held. Let us see if those who oppose free and fair elections are brave enough to stand up on the Senate floor and say so.

I would love to see Princess Lisa explaining why she opposes limiting voting to US citizens and requiring a photo ID to vote, but she will never do this. She knows that her position on this bill is wildly unpopular. Over 83% of Americans, both left and right, want this bill to pass. The reason it won’t pass is that Senators like John Thune and Lisa Murkowski benefit from the current system. The only conclusion a reasonable person can draw is that senators opposed to the SAVE Act get elected by the fraudulent votes that it prevents. Prove me wrong, Senator Murkowski.

The views expressed here are those of Greg Sarber. Read more Sarber posts at his Seward’s Folly substack.

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