EDITORIAL: Pelosi and Democrats move to rig the House rules

The Georgia U.S. Senate races will determine whether Democrats have a GOP backstop in the upper chamber to temper their worst instincts. Just take a look at what happened in the House on Monday.

During the November election, Nancy Pelosi &Co. woefully underperformed, losing 10 seats when they had hoped to gain at least that many. Nevertheless, Democrats maintain a slim majority, 222-212, with one seat still being contested. With a new session of Congress beginning, the majority party prepared and passed the rules on Monday that will govern the chamber for the next two years. The exercise was highly revealing.

Among the top Democratic priorities — of all the issues confronting the nation at the start of 2021 — was to ensure that the text of the new House rules is free of any gender-based language. Thus, “parent’s sibling” will replace “aunt” and “uncle,” and “sibling-in-law” will override “brother-in-law.” And there’s more. Any reference to “son-in-law” or “daughter-in-law” will be stricken for “child-in-law,” while “father” and “mother” are now verboten and will become “parent.”

The work of the hyper-woke is never done.

Once Democrats were finished sanitizing the language of the House regulations, they turned to their real objective: making it easier for them to spend other people’s money and neutering Republicans in an effort to avoid a party wipeout in the 2022 midterms.

On the latter, Democrats eliminated a long-standing rule that allows the minority party to alter legislation on the floor before a vote. Speaker Pelosi and her caucus feared that continuing a practice known as a “motion to recommit” would allow the GOP to force Democrats to cast votes on controversial issues that may hurt them politically in the next election. This fear is even more acute for many moderate members given the rise of the party’s radical progressive wing.

Notably, Republicans never made a similar move when they held the majority. “This is a right that has been guaranteed to the minority for well over a century,” said Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla. “With today’s changes, the majority is seeking to silence views they are afraid of.”

Next up, Democrats essentially scuttled a requirement that legislation which increases the deficit be offset with cuts elsewhere. With deficits soaring regardless of which party controls what, the mandate was clearly ineffective. Yet the symbolism here is obvious and will allow Democrats to offer budget-busting legislation on a wide array of dangerous progressive priorities without concern for the long-term fiscal ramifications.

All eyes were on Georgia Tuesday evening as they counted the votes. Given Speaker Pelosi’s increasing willingness to appease her vocal hard-left members, the stakes couldn’t be higher.