Dear Conservative,
Two months ago, Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) did the unthinkable: he used the so-called “nuclear option” to push through Obama’s political and judicial appointees.
The nuclear option is something that neither party ever dared to do. Previously, all executive and judicial nominees were forced to receive a super-majority (60 votes) in the Senate in order to be confirmed.
Senators on both sides of the aisle have historically used this filibuster power to ensure that only relatively moderate nominees were confirmed. The filibuster is a centuries-old tradition allowing the minority party to ensure that presidential administrations govern from the middle, not from the fringe of their political party.
However with a bit of crafty maneuvering, Harry Reid successfully changed the rules to allow most political and judicial nominees (except those to the Supreme Court) to be confirmed with just a simple majority (51 votes).
King Barack Obama said that it was necessary to scrap this fundamental rule in order to maintain the democratic integrity of the Senate. Well, here’s a newsflash for the so-called “constitutional law professor”… the Senate was never designed to be a democracy!
The whole purpose of giving each state two Senators, regardless of population size, was to ensure that smaller states had just as much of a say in the Senate as the larger ones. That is how today, Wyoming (pop. 582,658) has the same number of Senators as California (pop. 38,331,521). You can’t claim the Senate is democratic given the equal representation irrespective of population difference.
Harry Reid and Barack Obama didn’t conspire to change the Senate rules to make the body fairer. They got rid of the minority party’s power to filibuster appointees because they wanted to ram through as many leftist nominees as possible before the Republicans re-take the Senate.
Unfortunately, the effects of the Nuclear Option are becoming apparent, and the influx of socialist appointees and judges will be felt for years to come!
Yesterday, I told you how the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals recently ruled to allow internet service providers to block access to Conservative websites and funnel users elsewhere. This ruling serves as a reminder that every single judicial appointee is important.
The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals is routinely called the second most important court in the country. Unlike other Federal Circuits, the D.C. Circuit Court is not tied to a specific geographic area. The court’s purpose is to review and rule on new Federal government regulation and to hear lawsuits brought forward against the federal government. While the Supreme Court has the final say over whether something is constitutional, all government programs and regulations must first pass muster in the D.C. Circuit in order for them to survive.
The D.C. Circuit has been front and center in the nuclear option debate. Since Harry Reid abolished the filibuster, the Democrats have pushed three new liberal judges onto the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals bench. Republicans filibustered these three nominees because they felt that the addition of three new judges would tilt the evenly-split court in favor of the Democrats. And that’s just what Reid did.
The Net Neutrality issue was decided by a three-judge panel of Clinton and Reagan appointees, so it would be impossible to blame Obama’s nominees directly. But this is what the future holds for this country. For the foreseeable future, every question of constitutionality and legality concerning government action or policy will be decided by a panel of mostly liberal judges. Any hope of holding this administration accountable for its crimes has gone out the window. President Obama and the Democrats succeeded in packing the second-highest court in the land with liberals who despise the Constitution and our country’s founding principles.
How liberal are these new judges? Well, Judge Robert L. Wilkins has, in the past, ruled that the right to keep and bear arms is not a natural right; Judge Nina Pillard previously ruled that teaching abstinence-only education programs are unconstitutional; and Judge Patricia Ann Millett repeatedly ignores the constitution and uses her gut to decide what is “fair.” This is what we will be forced to live with. These are the judges who will ultimately decide whether this President has broken the law or instituted unconstitutional policies.
Since the Harry Reid used the nuclear option, the Senate has confirmed 18 people. These appointments, both to the executive positions or the judiciary, were noticeably more partisan than those confirmed previously in Obama’s administration.
While appointments within the Executive Branch usually only last for a limited time, judicial appointments last a lifetime. The effects of Obama’s court appointments will be felt for generations to come. If we do not reinstate filibuster power in the Senate, the next three years of Obama appointments will bring about this country’s downfall! This liberal and socialist agenda must be stopped!
This country was not founded as a Democracy… we are, and have always been, a Republic. The Senate was designed to ensure that presidential policies, treaties, and appointments would emerge from the center, not the fringe of the party.
For generations, Presidents have been forced to nominate semi-moderate candidates to ensure their confirmation. This was a last ditch safety measure to protect the American people from the tyranny of the majority. As long as the minority party held at least 41 seats in the Senate, their opinions would have to be heard. The place for democracy is in the House of Representatives, where representation is determined by a state’s population size. Except a quick look at the House shows that even in a more democratic setting, the Republicans still control the majority.
Harry Reid’s nuclear option wasn’t about democratizing the Senate, nor was it necessary to restore order to the body. This is nothing but a scheme to pack the courts with socialists as fast as possible before the Democrats lose control of the Senate!
It is time to restore the filibuster rules in the Senate before the Democrats are allowed to push any more unapologetic socialists into the executive or judicial branches!
The path to restoring minority rights in the Senate is simple: it takes a move right out of Harry Reid’s playbook. We must force every Member of Congress to vote against every single Democrat bill until Harry Reid reinstates the filibuster in the Senate. While Harry Reid may have tyrannically eliminated the right to filibuster most presidential nominees, the Senate still requires a 60-vote threshold to put any legislation up for a vote.
If the right to filibuster is not restored in the Senate, the effects of the President’s socialist appointees will destroy this country for decades! It has already started!
We must force Congress to table all Democratic-legislation until Harry Reid restores the Senate rules to how the Founding Fathers intended them to be! We must draw our line in the sand and push back against this liberal agenda trying to pack the courts and government offices with unapologetic Socialists!
Sincerely,
Joe Otto
Conservative Daily
