D-Day For ‘Democracy’ In The U.S. Senate

On one side is the pro-democracy party that wants to expand voter participation and voter access, and to make our democracy work again.

On the other side are “Republicans who now represent one of the largest, in terms of numbers, anti-democratic movements in the world.” – Nicolle Wallace. She is correct.

As I have posted about previously, there is political science to back this up. Republicans closely resemble autocratic parties in Hungary and Turkey (excerpt):

The Republican party has become dramatically more illiberal in the past two decades and now more closely resembles ruling parties in autocratic societies than its former centre-right equivalents in Europe, according to a new international study.

The new study, the largest ever of its kind, was carried out by the V-Dem Institute at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, using newly developed methods to measure and quantify the health of the world’s democracies at a time when authoritarianism is on the rise.

Anna Lührmann, V-Dem’s deputy director, said the Republican transformation had been “certainly the most dramatic shift in an established democracy”.

V-Dem’s “illiberalism index” gauges the extent of commitment to democratic norms a party exhibits before an election. The institute calls it “the first comparative measure of the ‘litmus test’ for the loyalty to democracy”.

The Hill reports Senate poised for all-day brawl over sweeping elections bill:

Senators are set for a high-stakes battle over one of Democrats’ biggest priorities that could have repercussions not only for the 2022 midterm elections but the Senate itself.

The Senate Rules Committee will meet on Tuesday to debate and vote on a sweeping elections bill that progressives view as crucial to the future of democracy and Republicans see as a federal takeover of the voting process.

The bill comes as GOP-led states around the country are proposing and enacting laws to rein in ballot box access, fueling pressure for Democrats to use their razor-thin congressional majorities to step in. Underscoring how important it is to the party, Democrats reserved their first legislative slot — S. 1 in the Senate and H.R. 1 in the House — for the legislation, known as the For the People Act.

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) are expected to take part in Tuesday’s committee meeting, lending their heft and headline-grabbing prowess to what’s expected to be a contentious hours-long hearing divided along party lines. Though they are both members of the panel, and former chairmen, they rarely attend the committee hearings.

Republicans have filed roughly 150 amendments to the bill as they pull out all the stops to weaken or even sink it. [“Messaging” amendments from which to cut campaign ads].

The “Enemy of The People, the “Grim Reaper of Democracy” himself, Mitch McConnell is planning to offer the amendments during Tuesday’s debate, according to his office. McConnell poised for starring role in voting bill fight:

Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell is so determined to stop a sweeping elections overhaul pushed by congressional Democrats that he will personally argue against it, armed with a stack of amendments at a Senate hearing this week as Democrats advance the bill toward a vote.

McConnell is expected to be an “active” participant in Tuesday’s session to debate and amend the voting bill, his office said. Stopping the bill is his “priority,” as Republicans argue the legislation represents a Democratic power grab and federal overreach into state administration of elections.

It’s a rare role for a party leader but shows the extent to which Republicans are prepared to fight the Democratic priority. The legislation would be the largest overhaul of U.S. elections in a generation and touches on almost every aspect of the electoral process, changes that Democrats argue are even more important now as states impose new voting restrictions after the divisive 2020 election.

What’s typically an hourslong legislative slog could drag into a dayslong showdown starting Tuesday at the Senate Rules Committee, a surprising new venue in the nation’s broader debate over voting rules.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., is also expected to stop in at the Rules panel meeting to add his weight to the debate.

On Monday, Schumer asked whether Republicans would act in good faith or further the spread of Trump’s “big lie” about the 2020 election.

“Will they participate in improving our democracy, or in helping, aiding and abetting the big lie and a giant step backward?” he said during a speech on the Senate floor.

For Democrats, in order to save American democracy, this is ‘Do or die’: Democrats plan revisions to sweeping voting rights bill in Senate committee:

The bill, the For The People Act, goes before the Democratic-controlled Rules Committee when Congress returns from recess. Chairwoman Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., and the lead sponsor, Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., plan a “manager’s amendment” with a series of changes to the bill from the House-passed version.

The Democrats’ revisions would mostly extend deadlines, ease some rules and add flexibility for states to implement parts of the bill. Democrats don’t expect Republican support for the final version, but they won’t need it to send the bill out of committee to the full Senate.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., has promised floor consideration of the bill, known on Capitol Hill as S.1, after it goes through committee.

Democrats as well as Republicans are expected to offer other amendments, and aides are bracing for what could be days of markup.

* * *

Klobuchar’s office, which gave NBC News a summary of the manager’s amendment, said the modifications are based on feedback from local election officials. Election experts are concerned about whether many states would be able to realistically implement the bill by the tight deadlines in the current version.

Separately, Sen. Jon Ossoff, D-Ga., plans to offer an amendment to ban states from restricting volunteers from giving food or water to Americans waiting in line to vote, as long as it’s offered to all voters and that the individuals aren’t engaging in political activity, his office said. His plan, the Voters’ Access To Water Act, comes after Georgia [and Florida] made that practice illegal.

Democrats may have a majority in the Senate, but Republicans have the upper hand on the bill. Forty-nine of the 50 Democratic members are cosponsoring it; Joe Manchin of West Virginia is the lone holdout. Even if Manchin comes aboard, they would have to find a way around the 60-vote filibuster rule, which he and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., say they won’t vote to abolish.

“We’ll [soon] see how the bipartisan talks go that some Democrats are working on,” said a senior Democratic aide. “Regardless, there’s several options Dems have to get the legislation to the floor and they’ll continue to discuss the best path forward to get it done.”

Manchin said April 30 on WV MetroNews’ “Talkline,” a statewide radio show, that he would “vote no” on the bill “as it exists today.” But he added that voting should be “accessible” and “secured,” and that Congress should “put guardrails” if states are subverting that.

On Monday, Manchin told NBC News he hadn’t seen the changes proposed by Klobuchar. When asked if giving states flexibility would be a step in the right direction to winning his vote, he said he’s open to hearing more and is “looking at everything.”

“I hope there’s a pathway forward. I hope there is,” Manchin said.

Democrats anxiously hope so, too.

* * *

A Pew Research Center poll last month found that some parts of the Democratic bill are popular, including provisions to automatically register eligible citizens to vote, guarantee two weeks of early voting and make Election Day a national holiday. It found that most Americans support some Republican-backed ideas, too, including requiring voters to show government-issued identification to vote.

* * *

If the bill passes the Senate, the new version would have to be passed by the House before it could go to Biden’s desk. The revisions are backed by John Sarbanes, D-Md., the lead House sponsor, who said in a statement: “I look forward to next week’s Senate Rules Committee markup and hope that Senate Republicans approve Chairwoman Klobuchar’s Manager’s Amendment.”

Tyler Law, a Democratic consultant and former aide to the party’s House election arm, said “the future of the country is at stake” with the H.R. 1 and S.1 bills.

“This is do or die,” he said. “We as a party need to put everything we can into this, because if we don’t, over time our representative democracy is going to be much less representative. It’s going to be [a tyranny of the minority of] much more conservative, much whiter and much more rural. And that’s going to create a constitutional crisis.”

Back to The Hill:

Vowing to fight the bill “at every step,” amendments filed by Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.) would strike a provision on same-day registration at polling locations, change language supportive of D.C. statehood to language opposing it and try to delay implementation of the entire bill until 2027.

Blunt will use his opening remarks to paint the Democratic measure as a “one-size-fits all approach” being dictated by Washington that will “cause chaos on election day and erode trust in our election system.“

[T]he bill passed the House earlier this year for a second time after it went nowhere last year in the GOP-controlled Senate. The legislation, which received no Republican support in the House during the March vote, requires states to offer mail-in ballots and a minimum of 15 days of early voting, while calling for online and same-day voter registration. The measure also calls for the creation of independent commissions to draw congressional districts in an effort to put an end to partisan gerrymandering.

Amid talks with election officials and among Senate Democrats, Klobuchar has offered a substitute amendment that keeps the bill largely intact but gives states more time to comply with some provisions.

“We are all united behind this bill,” Klobuchar said about Democrats on the panel during an Our Revolution organizing event on Monday night.

The changes include giving states until 2026 to update their voting systems, with the option of requesting a waiver to delay that further into 2030. It keeps the requirement from the original bill for state motor vehicle departments to implement automatic voter registration by 2023, but they can also request a waiver until 2025.

Other changes under Klobuchar’s amendment would give polling locations more time to offer same-day registration and more flexibility on areas like early voting and drop boxes.

A Democratic source predicted that their party’s amendments would largely reflect things already in the updated bill spearheaded by Klobuchar and Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.).

“This takes care of some of the biggest challenges, you know, some of the reasonable requests for small jurisdictions to be considered,” said Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.), a member of the panel, about the changes put forward by Klobuchar and Merkley.

[T]he Senate standoff comes as numerous state legislatures across the country have introduced legislation to place new restrictions on voting in the wake of the 2020 election, which former President Trump and his allies have falsely claimed was stolen. Dozens of challenges from Trump’s legal team were dismissed by the courts, and election experts have said there is no evidence of widespread fraud.

The Brennan Center for Justice found that as of March 24, legislatures have introduced 361 bills with “restrictive provisions” in 47 states.

A Washington Post analysis found that the state-level changes could amount to the biggest shift in access to the ballot since Reconstruction, placing limits on the ability to vote for tens of millions of Americans.

That’s led Democrats and outside groups to argue that the For the People Act is crucial to stem any efforts to try to limit voting.

Schumer, speaking from the Senate floor on Monday, called the bill a “very top priority” and vowed to give it a vote in the full Senate.

“Our Republican colleagues face a critical choice between working with Democrats in good faith to pass a law to protect our democracy or siding with Republican state legislatures that are orchestrating the largest contraction of voting rights in decades,” he said.

“We know our Republican colleagues don’t like every aspect of S. 1, but will they work in good faith to improve it?” he added.

Outside groups view the bill, and the likelihood that Republicans filibuster it, as a make-or-break moment for the Senate’s filibuster rule change debate.

Democrats at the moment do not have the 50 votes needed to get rid of the legislative filibuster and its 60-vote threshold for advancing most bills. In addition to on-the-record opposition from Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), several others have suggested they are wary of nixing or weakening the longstanding rule.

And while Schumer has floated that a GOP filibuster of the bill could force the Senate to “evolve,” Manchin has signaled that he doesn’t support the House-passed bill, though he hasn’t taken a stance yet on the revised version.

“We’re looking at everything,” he said.

Other Democrats stopped short of predicting whether the elections bill could be what breaks the stalemate in the caucus over the legislative filibuster. Senate Democrats will meet as a caucus on Thursday to discuss the legislation, a Democratic source familiar confirmed to The Hill.

“I’m not the person to ask. The two or three people who are most concerned about the future of the filibuster are the ones you ask,” said Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) when asked if Republicans blocking the bill would move the conversation among Democrats about the filibuster.

Asked if there was a path for S. 1 with the filibuster still in place, Warner responded: “I’ll let you guys make those judgments.”

Democrats need to choose to be on the right side of history, and to save our American democracy from the tyranny of the minority of Trumpism, the new American fascism.

Call your senators today and tell them you support S. 1, the For The People Act, and ridding the Senate of the Jim Crow relic of the Senate filibuster rule that enables the tyranny of the minority.