I know that Joe Manchin feels like he needs to play it moderate and look like the ultimate Democratic holdout, but voting rights shouldn’t be part of this act. They’re too sacred and urgent and Manchin’s approach has been truly damaging thus far. Let me explain.
Today, Manchin released a long statement on the For the People Act and voting rights generally, and while it’s not entirely egregious, some of what he says — and all of what he leaves out — is more proof that he’s either astoundingly ignorant or so driven by ego that he’d rather watch American democracy burn than make minor concessions.
Here’s a sampling:
Even though our democratic institutions have survived foreign interference and a violent attempt to enter the United States Capitol during the counting of Electoral College votes, America’s declining trust in the government and each other makes it harder to solve key problems. That trust will continue to diminish unless we, as members of Congress, transcend partisanship to strengthen our democracy by protecting voting rights, implementing commonsense election security reforms, and making our campaign finance system more transparent.
The idea timing of the above statement is painfully ironic. Today, the Georgia state legislature passed a large voter suppression bill that, among other things, severely limits ballot dropboxes, curtails early voting in all-important run-off elections, allows for unlimited ballot challenges by right-wing activists, and gives the gerrymandered GOP legislature the ability to take over local county election boards.
In Michigan, meanwhile, Republicans just introduced 39 separate voter suppression bills, which would become law if it weren’t for Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s veto pen.
In short, Republicans aren’t going to compromise. And that’s not conjecture — the AP reported earlier this week that Sen. Ted Cruz is rallying the troops and is making sure there is no budging on voting rights. In fact, the entirety of the vast right-wing infrastructure is mobilizing around voter suppression in states across the country, making it their number one priority.
Here’s an excerpt from that story:
Asked if there was room to compromise, Cruz was blunt: “No.”
“H.R. 1′s only objective is to ensure that Democrats can never again lose another election, that they will win and maintain control of the House of Representatives and the Senate and of the state legislatures for the next century,” Cruz said told the group organized by the American Legislative Exchange Council, a corporate-backed, conservative group that provides model legislation to state legislators.
Clearly, bipartisanship isn’t going to happen on this. But it’s not actually the delusional calls for bipartisanship that are the most frustrating part of Manchin’s long statement. It’s this quote that has me eating my proverbial hat:
Pushing through legislation of this magnitude on a partisan basis may garner short-term benefits, but will inevitably only exacerbate the distrust that millions of Americans harbor against the U.S. government.
Manchin is repeating a cynical Republican talking point that is being used to justify voter suppression. He must know that, right? Manchin is echoing and legitimizing the BS about distrust in election systems that was born out of the GOP’s Big Lie. This is the absolute worst thing he could be doing.
The rest of his piece highlights some important elements of the For the People Act, such as expanding early voting and helping historically oppressed people gain access to the ballot. But he says nothing about gerrymandering, which is the most important part of this whole thing. Republicans have control of far more state governments than Democrats and are already beginning to stack the deck to gerrymander legislative and Congressional districts even further, as we’ve seen in states like Arizona.
A handful of other Democrats may be iffy on ending the filibuster, but they’re also firm on needing to pass the For the People Act and are increasingly making that point clear. In an op-ed published in the Washington Post yesterday, Sen. Angus King of Maine, an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, said that he considers voting rights to be so important that he would approve a special rule that removes the 60 vote threshold in order to pass protections.
“I should mention that I believe voting rights are a special case that we must address in light of the nakedly partisan voter-suppression legislation pending in many states,” Sen. King wrote. “All-out opposition to reasonable voting rights protections cannot be enabled by the filibuster; if forced to choose between a Senate rule and democracy itself, I know where I will come down.”
I hope someone can get a copy of this op-end in front of Manchin, and quick. And maybe let him know that President Biden reaffirmed his position on plowing through the filibuster to get his agenda accomplished, as well.
In his first press conference as the big dog of the White House, President Joe Biden today came out swinging on both the filibuster and voting rights. He gave his most aggressive comments on Republican obstruction yet, sounding little like the institutionalist who insisted that bipartisan comity would ensue when Democrats took over the federal government. Seemingly resigned to his party having to go it alone to enact his ambitious agenda, he ripped Republicans for their obstruction and again said that he’s come around on at least reforming the filibuster.
The filibuster, he said was being “abused in a gigantic way” and in fact, said that he was open to going even beyond “reforming” the filibuster and instituting a requirement that the opposition holds the floor by talking continuously.
“If there’s complete lockdown and chaos as a consequence of the filibuster,” he said, “then we’ll have to go beyond what I’m talking about.”
On voting rights, Biden projected a bit more idealism while still taking Republicans to task for their assaults on democracy. He called the many state bills aimed at making it more difficult for people of color to vote “un-American,” which is certainly a rosy view of American history. Biden also called the suppression bills “despicable,” which was more accurate.
P.S. I have a political newsletter called Progressives Everywhere, which focuses in depth on voting rights, state legislatures, health care, and progressive policy. Every week, you’ll get deep dives on items like progressive ballot initiatives, saving the Supreme Court, the gig economy, the economics of student debt, and Democratic legislative victories. I also spotlight groups that are helping build progressive election power and retake red states as well as offer ways for people to get involved in creating progressive change by spotlighting important grassroots groups and voter registration organizations.
It’s free! You can subscribe to the newsletter here!