This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things: The Senate Goes To The Dogs
M.D. Kittle
As the republic hangs in the balance, all the GOP-led Senate seems to be able to accomplish is dressing up dogs in funny costumes.
American voters have overwhelmingly spoken: They want integrity in their elections — even if integrity infrequently comes in their politicians.
The do-nothing U.S. Senate has heard their pleas and is giving them … dog parades.
That’s right. As The Federalist’s Brianna Lyman reported Thursday, North Carolina’s retiring senator, Thom Tillis, earlier this month put forward a resolution seeking to use the atrium in the Philip A. Hart Senate office building for a “Bipawtisan Doggi Gras Pawrade.” The resolution passed by unanimous consent. The pooches were paraded on Wednesday.
How obtuse is that? As the republic hangs in the balance, all the upper house seems to be able to accomplish is dressing up dogs in funny costumes. But who doesn’t love a costumed canine?
You know what else people love? Having faith in their elections. That’s why voters overwhelmingly support the core provisions in the SAVE America Act, a bill that requires documentary proof to register to vote in federal elections and voter identification at the polls.
But that’s too hard for a slow-moving body that’s grown quite fond of hitting the “easy” button. The Republican majority could try, but why bother, leadership moans. Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D. claims there’s no consensus in his conference to fight for the election-integrity reform package.
Clearly, the 45 Democrats (and two Independents who vote like Democrats) in the minority despise the bill because it would go a long way in preventing noncitizens from registering and voting in U.S. elections. But there are more than a few Republican senators who like to talk a big game about the critical importance of voter verification but who don’t want to put in the sweat equity to bring the SAVE America Act to the president’s desk.