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While Everyone's Babbling About Economics This Week, Entire Future of Self-Government Is at Stake
https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a37759406/senate-voting-rights-filibuster-republicans/The refusal of the Senate to respond to the assault on voting rights out in the states will not be remembered fondly.
Everybody is suited up down in Washington, D.C. for The Most Important Week in Joe Biden’s Life or at Least His Presidency or Maybe Just His Next 10 Days. The drumbeat from the elite political press that the events this week are primarily a matter of Democratic Party infighting is, as you might expect, more than a little bunkum. Certainly, the wrangling between progressive and conservative Democrats is a contributing factor to the general tangle, but there is one, massive block of dark granite at the center of everything, and this story from NBC News makes, a bit inadvertently, the only point that matters. It concerns the fact that the Democratic factions in the House seem to have come to an agreement on voting-rights legislation to bring forward.
Senate Democrats are close to an agreement on updated voting rights legislation that can get the support of all 50 Democratic-voting senators, three Democratic aides familiar with negotiations said. The For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act were introduced in Congress in 2019 and 2021, respectively. Since their introductions, both have been voted on along party lines. The member-level discussions are complete, a source said, but staff members are going through the text to fix technical issues. No further details have been shared.
One massive block of dark granite, coming up.
The legislation would require the votes of 60 senators, including 10 Republicans, and it's unlikely that Democrats will get enough Republican supporters.
The bill is part of congressional Democrats' broader campaign to strengthen voting laws at the federal level to fight restrictive voting laws passed in Republican-led states, such as Texas and Georgia.
The fundamental absurdity of that passage, and of the legislative shadow-dance it describes, is impossible to overstate. Quite frankly, there are not 10 Republican votes in the Senate for anything this president wants, no matter how popular or necessary it might be. Go ahead. Count to 10 Republicans who can be depended upon to vote for, say, paid family leave, and realize that, before you get to five, you’ve already counted Susan Collins and are therefore the sucker of the week and should return to bed until this delusion passes.
More than anything else, what concerns me about this week is that the genuine crisis involving the franchise is going to get lost in the noise about infrastructure, and the debt ceiling, and why Mitch McConnell belongs in a zoo. . . .
Senate Democrats are close to an agreement on updated voting rights legislation that can get the support of all 50 Democratic-voting senators, three Democratic aides familiar with negotiations said. The For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act were introduced in Congress in 2019 and 2021, respectively. Since their introductions, both have been voted on along party lines. The member-level discussions are complete, a source said, but staff members are going through the text to fix technical issues. No further details have been shared.
One massive block of dark granite, coming up.
The legislation would require the votes of 60 senators, including 10 Republicans, and it's unlikely that Democrats will get enough Republican supporters.
The bill is part of congressional Democrats' broader campaign to strengthen voting laws at the federal level to fight restrictive voting laws passed in Republican-led states, such as Texas and Georgia.
The fundamental absurdity of that passage, and of the legislative shadow-dance it describes, is impossible to overstate. Quite frankly, there are not 10 Republican votes in the Senate for anything this president wants, no matter how popular or necessary it might be. Go ahead. Count to 10 Republicans who can be depended upon to vote for, say, paid family leave, and realize that, before you get to five, you’ve already counted Susan Collins and are therefore the sucker of the week and should return to bed until this delusion passes.
More than anything else, what concerns me about this week is that the genuine crisis involving the franchise is going to get lost in the noise about infrastructure, and the debt ceiling, and why Mitch McConnell belongs in a zoo. . . .
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