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No Endless Horizons in History

Defending the Senate’s Final Brake

Trende, Harsanyi, Bishop, and Schlichter (AI Generated Image)

Folks, picture this: North Dakota Highway 46 stretches arrow-straight across the Red River Valley-121 miles from Oxbow near Fargo to Streeter and beyond. Flat as a tortilla, sky swallowing the road at the horizon. On a clear day, it looks infinite, like you could floor it forever and never hit a curve. No hills, no turns, no consequences-just open prairie and the illusion that every mile forward erases the last one.

That’s the lie history tells when we pretend changes happen in a vacuum. The road isn’t endless. Every “straight shot” decision plants seeds that sprout storms miles down the line. Breaches of solemn compacts don’t vanish; they echo back, often violently. Sam Houston saw it in 1854. We’re flirting with the same mistake today over the filibuster.

Back in February 1854, Houston-feverish, defiant, one of only two Southern senators with the spine to oppose the Kansas-Nebraska Act-took the floor for two days straight. He called the Missouri Compromise what it was: a solemn compact, hammered out after full debate, honored by North and South for over thirty years. “It has given comparative peace and tranquility,” he thundered. Repeal it? That wasn’t just tweaking a map for railroads or territories. It was shattering a pledge, inviting “sectional discord and alienation,” and shaking the foundations of the nation.

He warned of the fallout: popular sovereignty on slavery would turn Kansas into a battlefield, erode trust across sections, and invite disunion. The majority laughed it off-short-sighted partisanship, chasing western expansion like it was free money. Houston paid the price: branded a traitor to the South, booted from the Senate in 1857. But six years later, the horizon wasn’t empty. Bleeding Kansas bled real blood. Sectional trust collapsed. Civil War came roaring in 1861. No endless prairie-just consequences curving back hard.

Fast-forward to 2026. We’re staring down the same temptation in the Senate. Some Republicans itch to nuke the filibuster or let the silent version rot away, all to ram through the SAVE Act, DHS funding, or whatever the prize of the hour is. It feels like a straight shot: gain the trifecta, end the gridlock, get it done. But listen close-voices are sounding the alarm, echoing Houston’s plea to honor the compact.

David Harsanyi nails it: preserve the filibuster, maybe even bump cloture back to 67 votes like the old two-thirds rule. Short-term partisanship-even for goals we like-betrays principles and hands Democrats the blueprint to pack courts or add states when their turn comes. Sean Trende cuts deeper: the filibuster is “one of the few things holding the country together” in our polarized transcontinental empire. Scrap it, and trifectas become winner-take-all disasters-extreme swings that deepen the fractures. Kurt Schlichter? He goes full throttle: eliminate it and we edge toward Civil War. Hyperbolic? Maybe. But directionally correct-remove minority protections in a nation this divided, and watch the powder keg light.

Then there’s me. I’m no abolitionist; I’m a restorer. Bring back the talking filibuster-force senators to hold the floor, speak for hours, own their obstruction on live C-SPAN. No more zombie blocks from the shadows. Pair it with cloture at two-thirds (pre-1975 standard) so debate actually means something. And yes-repeal the 17th Amendment. Return senators to election by state legislatures, reviving the Founders’ vision of the Senate as a federalist check, not another House of national popularity contests. Post-1913 and 1975 changes eroded the structure; now we limp on fragile tradition instead of hardwired design. Iconoclastic? Sure. But institutionalist to the core-fix the architecture before the house falls.

Here’s the straight comparison-no sugarcoating:

  • Sam Houston (1854): Defend the Missouri Compromise as a sacred pact. Repeal invites sectional strife. Result? Civil War in six years.
  • David Harsanyi: Strengthen the filibuster (67-vote cloture). Short-sighted wins enable future overreach. Result? Unchecked swings, court-packing, chaos.
  • Sean Trende: Preserve it as the last brake in a polarized empire. Winner-take-all = disaster. Result? Amplified instability-no safe straight path.
  • Kurt Schlichter: Keep it, frustrations be damned. Nuke it and we’re at the edge of conflict. Result? Deepened division-history curves violently.
  • Me: Restore talking filibusters, 2/3 cloture, repeal 17th. Honor original structure over modern tradition. Result? Avoid majoritarian madness; respect compacts or face the echoes.

The prairie road looks infinite, but real history has curves. Houston saw the storm coming in 1854. We can still see ours. Honor the Senate’s safeguards-reform them wisely, don’t burn them down. Because if we keep speeding toward that vanishing point, pretending consequences don’t exist, the horizon might reveal something we can’t outrun.

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James K. Bishop

James K. Bishop is a conservative writer and raconteur hailing from Texas, known for his incisive and often provocative takes on political and cultural issues. With a staunch commitment to originalist constitutional principles, he emphasizes limited government, individual liberties, and traditional American values. Active on X under the handle @James_K_Bishop, he frequently engages his audience with sharp critiques of progressive policies, media narratives, and overreaches by the federal government. His style is direct, often laced with humor and wit, which resonates strongly with his conservative followers.