We are watching the same Washington swamp that spent decades preaching about norms suddenly cling to the filibuster like a life preserver while Americans suffer. President Trump publicly urged Republicans to use the so-called “nuclear option” and eliminate the filibuster to end a monthlong government shutdown and force legislative wins for voters. That call exposed the blunt truth: when you have control and you refuse to act, voters will punish you.
This shutdown did not happen in a vacuum — it began October 1 and centers on Democrats demanding a massive extension of ACA subsidies that would saddle taxpayers while rewarding dependency. The Senate’s 60-vote cloture rule has repeatedly let a unified Democratic minority block action even when Republicans run the institution, turning the majority into a paper majority. If Republicans are serious about governing, they must confront the structural obstacle they’ve allowed to become Democrats’ permanent veto.
But instead of using their narrow Senate edge, GOP leadership reflexively defended the filibuster as if the goal were to preserve the status quo rather than to deliver conservative policy. Senators like John Thune and other establishment figures publicly rejected scrapping the rule, arguing the filibuster is what makes the Senate “the Senate.” That kind of institutional piety reads as an excuse for paralysis when Americans want action on taxes, immigration, and spending.
Conservative voters are fed up, and the president was right to call out the cowardice. Trump warned that refusing to remove the filibuster will leave Republicans with three years of excuses and no legislative accomplishments to defend in 2028, and that threat is not idle. If Republican senators keep worshiping process over results, they will hand Democrats a perpetual escape hatch and lose the messaging battle that wins elections.
Let’s be honest about precedent: Washington has used rules changes before to break obstruction when the minority weaponized the Senate. Republicans have already bent the rules this year to push through confirmations and have used reconciliation to pass centerpiece policies when needed — the tools exist if leaders have the spine to use them. The “nuclear option” is not some arcane betrayal of democracy; it is the majority finally doing what voters elected them to do.
Opponents will howl about short-term political consequences and the danger of “what if we’re the minority next time,” but that argument is gaslighting. Democrats have shown they will obliterate norms the moment it suits them; preserving a rusty rule for the illusion of bipartisanship only ensures conservatives never get a real hearing. The choice is simple: accept impotence or assert the majority’s mandate and enact the reforms taxpayers elected you to deliver.
Republican senators who still clamor for compromise must explain why voters in red states should subsidize endless Democrat obstruction. If the GOP wants a return to principles — lower taxes, secure borders, judges who interpret the law — they must be willing to use every legitimate tool at their disposal. Weakness sows defeat; boldness delivers results and accountability.
Patriots who sent Republicans to Washington did not do so to watch their leaders bow to procedural fetishism while the country drifts. The time for equivocation is over: if the party wants to govern, it must stop preserving Democratic vetoes and start keeping promises. The voters will remember who fought for them and who hid behind “tradition” while America paid the price.
