In all of the speeches on the floor of Senate this week about the filibuster, I think we're not singing the right tune to convince the Republicans to change their mind. If there's one thing the Republicans understand, it's fear; and we need to play to their basest fear: The fear of being ruled by Liberals.
If I had my fifteen minutes on the floor to address the Senate, I might say something like this:
You can have your "nuclear option". Go ahead. I dare you. You may get your appellate judges. You may get your Supreme Court judges. But in the end, there's only two possible outcomes.
The first possibility is that one day, the tables will turn, and the Republicans will be in the minority, with a Democratic administration, and, my, won't you regret this day when that happens. When you have no say over who we, the liberal, the progressives, the enemy, appoint to lifetime judgeships. The people we appoint to prominent roles in foreign policy. The legislation we will pass.
It must happen. The pendulum always swings the other way. No party has ever held onto power in this country, because we live in a democracy. And one day, the America people will hold you accountable for your actions here, and elsewhere.
You see, the only other possibility is that, in a desperate act to hold onto this power, you are willing to subvert this democracy. You are willing to destroy this democracy to ensure that the Republican party never has to relinquish their majority rule to Democrats, or liberals, or progressives. Because that is the only way, the only way that you can guarantee that you will never find yourself faced with a Democratic majority. Faced with liberal judges and liberal appointees and liberal legislation with your hands tied, with no recourse to protect the conservative citizens you were elected to represent. All because you rushed to grab onto as much power as you could, with no thought to the future.
So as you sit here, on your throne of power, I ask you: Are you so short-sighted that you cannot see the future that you are building for yourself? A future of being condemned to a minority role with no way to protect your ideals. A future with no way to block a Democratic majority from overrunning this country.
So I say, if you cannot see the future you are building for yourself, go ahead. Have your nuclear option. Because I know, that one day, your party will look back in anguish of what you have created for yourselves.
Or are you voting to destroy our democracy?
But that's just my opinion.