The Senate must pass voting rights legislation. Now.
Republicans already enacted new laws severely limiting the number of votes Democrats can get in future elections—including Electoral Votes in 2024—making it difficult if not impossible to get fair elections. It is likely that without a new federal law, Democrats will be permanently locked out of power. Given the fascist tendencies of the Republican Party, it’s hard to see how we will get democracy back. Ever.
There is one person who could change this right now, and that is Sen. Joe Manchin. He could do that by changing his position on the filibuster enough for a voting rights bill to pass the Senate. Once signed into law, that would restore much of the balance between the parties.
Time is long up for Sen. Manchin. Until substantive voting rights passes the Senate, I will continue my campaign to drive him out of the Democratic Party. I’m calling on you, and every other Democrat, to unfriend Joe Manchin.
Last week, I looked at what Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer could do to fix this problem. I called on Sen. Schumer to remove Joe Manchin from Senate committees.
Of course, Schumer is just a relatively minor part of the problem. The big problem is the Republican Party.
The Republicans Must Change
So, this week, I turn to another class of Joe Manchin’s friends: Senate Republicans.
Joe Manchin only has power because the entire Republican Party is trying to destroy the country.
But Sen. Chuck Schumer and the Democratic leadership are letting them off the hook. They could get rid of most of the Republicans in the Senate if they just ejected them as a body.
To understand why, we should look at the Constitution, which says:
Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members…
Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its Members for disorderly Behaviour, and, with the Concurrence of two thirds, expel a Member.
[Article I, Section 5, Paragraphs 1 and 2]
It’s time to call to account the Senators who sided with Donald Trump in his insurrection against the United States. Forty-three of the current Senators gave Trump a pass during his second impeachment trial. Those Senators should be expelled from the Senate.
To do that, the Senate leadership should put through a resolution to expel them based on their failure to support the Constitution, as they swore when they took office. They refused to remove a person who mounted an insurrection against the United States.
I might let them off if they repudiate their vote, on the basis that they now know that Donald Trump did not win re-election last November and that his actions supported the insurrection, and therefore he should have been removed. But I doubt any of them are willing to make this full-throated break with Trump.
Since these 43 Senators stand accused, they cannot vote in their own trials. That means the full Senate will consist of 57 Senators, and two thirds of that number is 38. Thus it takes only 38 Senators to vote their conviction and expel them from the Senate, and there are 48 Democratic Senators and two independents, who should be willing to vote to expel them.
I suppose we can’t count on Joe Manchin or Kyrsten Sinema, but that still leaves a sizable margin for error.
Once the Republicans are out of the Senate, and before they can be replaced, it will be time to fix the filibuster rule. That is, it will be time to eliminate it.
And, at that point, it would be prudent to pass some other urgent business, such as passing voting rights. The original voting rights acts could easily pass on a simple majority. For that matter, why not the reconciliation package? Without the need for Manchin’s vote, that bill could probably pass in its original form.
It’s, of course, unlikely that the Democratic leadership would be so bold as to just get rid of their opposition in the Senate by expelling the bulk of it. But, look. We know that the previous administration tried to rig the rules to keep their guy in office. They launched a violent attack on the Capitol to accomplish their aims. And we know Republicans are in the states, rigging the rules, to put their guy (or someone worse) back in office.
In that light, what’s so radical about using the actual text of the Constitution to preserve democracy?
The beauty of this action is that it makes Joe Manchin irrelevant. If Manchin won’t change, then the mountain must move.
This article is part of a series urging members of the Democratic Party to push Joe Manchin out of the party unless he takes the actions necessary for a substantive voting rights bill to pass Congress and get signed into law. Previous articles can be found here:
Part I: Explored why Manchin is wrong to oppose the reconciliation bill and announced the 15 September deadline for him to get voting rights passed. Poll shows the vast majority of voters on Daily Kos believe Manchin is helping the Republicans more than the Democrats.
Part II: Postponed the deadline until 22 September because Manchin reached agreement with Democratic leadership on a voting rights bill.
Part III: No voting rights bill passed. Urged Democrats in the West Virginia Senate to unfriend Manchin.
Part IV: No voting rights bill passed. Urged Democrats in the West Virginia House of Delegates to unfriend Manchin.
Part V: No voting rights bill passed. Looked at where Manchin gets his money—Enersystems, which provides waste coal to be burned for electrical power. Is it appropriate for a coal baron to be a critical part of the Democratic Party?
Part VI: No voting rights bill passed. Looked at Joe Biden’s role in enabling Manchin and listed action items for Biden to take to correct this—and items we need to press the President on.
Part VII: No voting rights bill passed. Called on Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to take Manchin and Sinema off committees.
Next week, I plan to look at more of Manchin’s friends and call on them to unfriend him.
There are many groups of people Sen. Manchin needs to consider. I’m going to go through these groups one at a time and urge them to unfriend Manchin until he has no friends left.
Or he gets voting rights through the Senate.