Capito begins her op-ed:

We are at a critical moment in history.

With the slimmest of majorities, Democrats haven't been able to pass their wildly unpopular and dangerous agenda. As a result, they are considering using the nuclear option to eliminate the Senate's 60-vote threshold for legislation. And, they are doing it under the guise of "protecting voting rights."

Me thinks the senator doth protest too much. Capito then outlines a highly partisan view of the filibuster in which it is the Democrats, and in particular, President Biden who have

done a complete 180 when it comes to the filibuster.

Sorry, Senator, but you and your party are just as guilty and hypocritical. Last week, Eugene Robinson in the Washington Post wrote an excellent analysis on the recent Republican outrage over the filibuster:

And if consistency on the filibuster is your standard, good luck in finding many purists. The loudest critic of changing filibuster rules now, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), was happy to junk the filibuster in 2017 in his quest to pack the Supreme Court with conservatives. Seems pretty hypocritical to me.

2017? Yes, those were the days:

Remember when Mitch McConnell did this? pic.twitter.com/4x6ewdgKQP

— Stephen Spaulding (@SteveESpaulding) January 20, 2022

But of course, the senator knows that most West Virginia media sources will publish anything with her name on it. (And if it’s Ogden, there will not be an opposing point of view.) So why is Capito talking about the filibuster instead of the voting rights legislation? Most likely, to change the subject. As E.J. Dionne recently wrote in The Washington Post:

Their desire to change the subject is understandable. Opponents of the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act prefer not to explain why a Republican Party that once embraced voting rights bills now echoes segregationist Democrats of old in defending “states’ rights” over federal voting guarantees.

And they would rather not be pressed on why they want to roll back the advances that made voting easier in 2020. More mail and early voting, drop boxes, less cumbersome registration and a slew of other changes led to record-breaking turnout.

The Freedom to Vote Act is all about such access. No political consultant would advise a client to explain opposition to it with a “Let’s Make Voting Harder Again” speech.

Sliding down that slippery slope

If Democrats pass voting rights, Capito worries about what is next:

Policies harmful to Americans across the country could be enacted immediately. Policies like the Green New Deal, court packing, federalizing our elections, packing the Senate with new states, defunding the police, attacking the Second Amendment for law-abiding Americans, and more.
Rest assured, those willing to change the rules to benefit themselves will do it again and again and again. Today, it's supposedly about "voting rights." Tomorrow, it will be about gun control.

And the next day, it will be about open borders.

(Senator, you forgot critical race theory! Won’t Democrats force every school in the country to teach it?)

Fear-monger much, Senator?