What a difference a presidential election makes.

Particularly when the runaway winner of the election is no-nonsense Republican President-elect Donald Trump, and you're the lame-duck Democrat House Majority Leader, Chuck Schumer (NY).

With Republicans having captured a decisive country-wide win in the 2024 election — including a trifecta, stunningly sending Trump back to the White House and securing majorities in the House and Senate — Schumer is suddenly singing a different tune than he sang pre-election. 

Yep, prior to arguably the most important presidential election since Republican Ronald Reagan ousted Democrat Jimmy "Malaise" Carter in 1980, Schumer repeatedly boasted about ending the filibuster and other radical proposals. 

A filibuster is a political procedure in which one or more members of a legislative body can prolong debate on proposed legislation so as to delay or entirely prevent a vote. Ending the filibuster rule — which requires 60 votes to pass bills — would have made it easier for Schumer's Democrats to potentially ramrod their agenda through Congress by railroading Republican opposition. 

Schumer and the Democrats last tried to kill the filibuster in 2022 when they held 50 seats. Vice President Kamala Harris could have broken a tie, but renegade Democrat Senators Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema decided not to play nice and toe the Democrat line. Both eventually became Independents.

Despite the defection of Manchin and Sinema, Schumer was still confident that the Democrats would win 50 seats in 2024 and that Kamala Harris would win the presidency, allowing Tim Walz, as vice president — shudder the thought — to break a tie on a filibuster vote.

The above scenario would have virtually meant one-party rule in the Senate, which Schumer assumed would allow the Democrats to expand voting rights nationwide by passing the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. 

But alas, for Schumer and the Democrat Party, it was not to be.

Schumer went to the Senate floor this week and sang a different tune, telling (pleading with) the Republicans to go easy on their Democrat colleagues since Republicans will have a 53-to-47 majority (emphasis, mine). 

To my Republican colleagues, I offer a word of caution in good faith. Take care not to misread the will of the people, and do not abandon the need for bipartisanship. 

After winning an election, the temptation may be to go to the extreme. We’ve seen that happen over the decades, and it has consistently backfired on the party in power.

So, instead of going to the extremes, I remind my colleagues that this body is most effective when it’s bipartisan. If we want the next four years in the Senate to be as productive as the last four, the only way that will happen is through bipartisan cooperation.

Oh, c'mon, Chuck! 

Barely two weeks ago, Schumer was talking about filibusters and warning about the threat to America if Trump won and spewing all other sorts of divisive rhetoric. Now, he talks about the need for bipartisanship? With a straight face, no less? 

Chuck, your blatant hypocrisy is showing, dude.

RELATED: Sorry, Chuck Schumer, I'm Not in the Mood for Bipartisanship

Everyone reading this article knows full well that Schumer would be singing the same tune he sang before the election if the unthinkable had happened to America — President-elect Kamala Harris and Vice-President-elect Tim Walz waiting in the wings.

Byron York, Fox News contributor and chief political correspondent for the Washington Examiner, summed up Schumer's pretend epiphany perfectly. In an article titled "Schumer to Republicans: Please don’t do to us what we were going to do to you," York wrote:

When the Democratic convention took place in August, with new nominee Kamala Harris rising in the polls, Democrats were giddy with a sense of impending victory. In Chicago for the convention, Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-NY) visited with party officials and reporters to outline his plans for a glorious new age in Washington with Democrats in control of the White House, Senate, and House of Representatives.

[...]

But it didn't happen. ... So this week, Schumer went to the well of the Senate and addressed some remarks to his Republican colleagues. ...

The short version of that is: Please don’t do to us what we were going to do to you. Schumer is obviously concerned that Republicans might embrace a scheme to eliminate the filibuster and pass all sorts of consequential legislation with no Democratic input at all. That wouldn’t be bipartisan! 

Fortunately for Schumer, Republicans have been more principled than Democrats when it comes to the legislative filibuster, and to the filibuster in general. Republicans realize that even though they will have the majority for the next two years, they might be back in the minority at any time after that. So Schumer will not get it good and hard the way he planned to give it to Republicans.

Well written and so true.

I'm reminded of an old joke, which I'll paraphrase thusly: While Republicans think Democrats are wrong, Democrats think Republicans are evil. We were reminded of that truism throughout the 2024 presidential election campaign.

The Democrats now have the ball — in the sense that it will be up to them to either play nice with President Trump and Republicans in both chambers of Congress or continue their vile attacks and lies. If they do play nice, they might be surprised by Republican reciprocation. 

If they don't? Let's just wait and see.