Besides, Senate Democrats don’t even have a majority ready to codify the principles of Roe. A vote in May only mustered 49 votes. Nor should Democrats take any solace that two Republican women currently in the Senate identify as pro-choice. Alaska’s Lisa Murkowski faces a tough reelection fight in November. Pro-lifers may not even need the vote of Maine’s Susan Collins.
Biden surely understands these dynamics, and he’s spoken eloquently in the past about the virtues of the filibuster. So why did he announce his support for suspending the rules? It’s the same reason he backed “going nuclear” earlier this year to expand voting rights, which also fell short.
Grassroots Democratic activists are angry and talk to each other in a deafening echo chamber called Blue Twitter. The president is insecure about his standing with his base. He is worried liberal voters will stay home this fall if he doesn’t take steps to secure reproductive freedom. And his aides know that abortion is not an issue he has always been comfortable discussing.
Nonetheless, it would be madness for Democrats to roll back the filibuster four months before midterm elections when the president’s approval rating is below 40 percent, and the Senate is split 50-50. Democrats only control the chamber because of the tiebreaking vote of Vice President Harris.
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