The \u201cplay\u201d has been clear for a long time. Senator Joe Manchin, Democrat of West Virginia, developed his own \u201cVoting Rights Act\u201d for the Senate. It\u2019s basically the lesser of two sent from the House of Representatives, the \u201cJohn Lewis Voting Rights Act\u201d, with some further modifications (the \u201cFor the People Act\u201d was the other). <\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s not that modification was needed to get the rest of Democratic Senators signed onto the bill. But Manchin believed that with his changes, he could entice ten Republicans to join in and vote to allow, for the purpose of debate, the bill to go forward. After all, it isn\u2019t really much more than an updated version of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, a law the Senate reaffirmed in 2006 by a 98-0 vote. It requires sixty votes in the Senate to overcome a filibuster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But those were the days before the advent of \u201cTrumpism\u201d and the \u201cStop the Steal\u201d lie. The former President and the leadership of the Republicans in the Senate, led by McConnell of Kentucky, have made it clear. Vote for voting rights, even a simple update of the 1965 law, and you are flying in the face of Trump\u2019s rhetoric. A huge majority of the Republican voters still support the 45th President. A wayward Republican who in any way supports Manchin\u2019s bill is likely to find a primary opponent backed with the full force of the man from Mara Lago.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We used to talk about Senators who were \u201cProfiles in Courage\u201d, willing to risk their political careers for principle.\u00a0\u00a0But those \u201cprofiles\u201d now seem to only exist in John F. Kennedy\u2019s book.\u00a0\u00a0Time and time again, today\u2019s Republican Senators are willing to accept almost any lie, any position, as long as it keeps them in good stead with the former President.\u00a0\u00a0Even the \u201ccourageous\u201d Senators; Romney, Cassidy and Sasse, are unwilling to risk the opprobrium of the masses led by Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So they don\u2019t. The Manchin bill was \u201cfilibustered\u201d, unable to even come to the floor of the Senate for debate. It was a straight party-line vote, fifty Democrats for, fifty Republicans against. And since the magic number was sixty \u2013 the motion failed and with it, Manchin\u2019s compromise. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
For Democrats, passage of the Voting Rights Act is an existential struggle.\u00a0\u00a0In twenty-six states, Republican state legislatures have already passed restrictive voting laws.\u00a0\u00a0All the nonsense about \u201csecuring elections\u201d aside, those laws make it more difficult for folks who tend to vote Democratic to actually cast their ballot.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cStop the Steal\u201d really means restrict voting access.\u00a0\u00a0If Democrats can\u2019t vote, they can\u2019t win.\u00a0\u00a0Ask Republicans in Georgia, whose 2020 elections laws made voting easier.\u00a0\u00a0Not only did Biden win the Presidential election, but two Democrats won the Senate races. The Republican Georgia legislature has fixed that – it won’t happen again if their laws stand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the \u201cSchoolhouse Rock\u201d version of America, we are a nation where every vote counts.\u00a0\u00a0The phrase \u201cone-person, one-vote\u201d is a fundamental principle.\u00a0\u00a0But in reality, that has never been true.\u00a0\u00a0The voting process was slanted against \u201cthem\u201d, whoever \u201cthey\u201d were. European immigrants in the 1800\u2019s, the formerly enslaved after the Civil War, Asian Immigrants in the 1920\u2019s, all were denied the vote.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There were overt attacks by groups like the Ku Klux Klan, and more \u201csubtle\u201d attacks through restrictions on voter registration. Today, the modern day equivalent of the poll tax or literacy test, is to make the polling place far away, or so crowded that several hours are required to cast a vote.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
More restrictive voter identification, gerrymandered electoral districts, and reduced mail in balloting all serve to disenfranchise voters. And since many of those are likely to vote for Democrats, it is a \u201clegal\u201d way of stacking the vote in the Republican favor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But \u201clegal\u201d is a subjective term. And that is the issue that the John Lewis Act would define: what is legal in terms of voter access and identification and what is punitive. So it\u2019s simple, either Democrats protect the right to vote by passing Federal law, or states will restrict the right to vote in order to for Republicans to control the outcome of elections. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Majority Leader Schumer might be fly fishing in the high meadows of the Appalachians. He gave Senator Manchin all \u201cthe line\u201d\u00a0\u00a0he could.\u00a0\u00a0Manchin believed in bipartisanship, believed he could bring ten Republicans into the fold, believed that the Senate could be 2006 instead of 2021.\u00a0 And Schumer let him run out the line. But now the man in the middle, the Democratic Senator from the most Trump supporting state in the Nation, has failed.\u00a0\u00a0What happens next?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Joe (and Kristin), it\u2019s really all up to you. It\u2019s your turn to be a Profile in Courage. The Republican \u201cstonewall\u201d is not cracking, regardless of how much \u201calmost heaven, West Virginia\u201d common sense is applied. The political courage you expect of your Republican colleagues is sorely lacking. Even Toomey, Portman, Burr, Shelby and Blunt, all retiring from the Senate, are unwilling to buck McConnell. And even if they did, that still would only be half of the ten needed to overcome the filibuster.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There is another way.\u00a0\u00a0The filibuster is just a rule of the Senate.\u00a0\u00a0It was agreed to by a simple majority vote when the Senate was organized in January, it can be removed or restricted by a simple majority vote as well.\u00a0\u00a0And the Democrats technically already have that majority, with the tie-breaking vote of Vice President Harris.\u00a0\u00a0Schumer can “reel in” Manchin; it’s a simple deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Senate doesn\u2019t have to completely give up the filibuster.\u00a0\u00a0There already are \u201ccarve outs\u201d for\u00a0\u00a0executive appointments and budget reconciliation.\u00a0\u00a0It would require one additional carve out for the most important function of American government \u2013 protecting the right to vote.\u00a0\u00a0And it would require that the \u201ctraditionalist\u201d Democratic Senators led by Manchin, the others invisible behind his back, accept that voting rights are so important the ultimate weapon must be used to protect it:\u00a0\u00a0majority rule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s what McConnell would do.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"