This will sound like déjà vu, but Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-New York) is once again threatening to nuke the filibuster. Just like every other time before, getting rid of the Senate’s filibuster rule is a terrible, undemocratic idea.

When setting up the American government, the Founders implemented numerous tools to protect the minority from tyrannical rule of the majority. They feared a concentration of power in any one branch or in the hands of any particular set of legislators. They recognized that the majority would ultimately have the strongest say, but it was important that the minority have an important voice, particularly in legislative matters. While not in the Constitution, in the 1800s Congress began using the “filibuster” as a way to protect the minority. Ordinarily, when considering legislation, the Senate must have 60 votes to officially end debate (called the “cloture” vote) before moving to vote on the bill itself. So even though only 51 votes are needed to pass a bill, it cannot be voted on unless there are 60 votes to end debate. The filibuster then is the minority’s ability to prevent legislation from moving forward by denying cloture.

Historically, protecting the filibuster rule has been a bipartisan effort, as both parties know they’ll be in the minority at some point. In 2005, then-Senator Joe Biden said that the push to get rid of the filibuster “upsets the constitutional design and disservices the country.”

But in recent years, there has been a concentrated effort on the Left to undo the filibuster. After the 2020 election, many states implemented new reforms in order to make their elections more secure and trustworthy. The Democrats in the Senate responded by introducing a “voting rights” bill that would have undermined many of those reforms. The problem was that they did not have the necessary 60 votes to move the bill, thanks to the filibuster rule. So instead of trying to persuade legislators as to the merits of the legislation, Leader Schumer led the effort to get rid of the filibuster. Thanks to Sens. Manchin (D-West Virginia) and Sinema (I-Arizona), Schumer’s attempt was ultimately unsuccessful.

But with both Manchin and Sinema retiring, Schumer believes that after this year’s election, he will have the necessary support to nuke the filibuster rule.  At the Democratic National Convention earlier this month, he told reporters that last time, “We got it up to 48, but, of course, Sinema and Manchin voted no; that’s why we couldn’t change the rules. Well, they’re both gone.” His two priority bills, the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, already have consensus in the caucus and could be passed if the filibuster rule were changed.

Those bills attempting a federal government takeover of elections are not the only threat to our republic.  There are a slew of leftist priorities that have been blocked because of this powerful tool of the minority. Without it, the Left would start with voting rights and move to more radical agenda items, like men in women’s sports and an economic-crippling green new deal. If the filibuster is nuked, the minority party in the Senate will lose its ability to block highly controversial, radical legislation the American people do not support.

Once the filibuster rule is gone, there is no restoring it. As liberals quickly came to regret their foolish push to kill the filibuster in the case of judicial nominations, so too they will regret doing away with such an important guard for our liberties.

Americans should be aware of this troubling prospect as they enter the voting booth this November.