Last Chance For A Voting Rights Bill: Call Sen. Sinema And Demand That She Support Ending The Senate Filibuster Rule

In the Seinfeld TV series, Jerry’s nemesis and sworn enemy is his neighbor, the mailman Newman. Jerry’s trademark greeting for Newman is to say “Hello, Newman” in a snide and condescending tone.

This is how I have come to view Sen. Joe Manchin. Every time I see his name in the news I reflexively say “Manchin” with disgust and contempt. He is the sworn enemy of all that is good and which could be, but for him.

Manchin believes in the mythical bipartisanship with Republicans who engaged in a seditious insurrection against American democracy just nine months ago, and he is more than willing to appease these enemies of American democracy by conceding to them whatever they demand in pursuit of this mythical bipartisanship.

So this is where things stand today: Senate Democrats have agreed to a compromise voting rights bill that is substantially weakened from the House passed For The People Act, in order to placate Manchin’s fantasy that all Republicans should be willing to vote for a weakened bill after his concessions to them – “I believe in unicorns!” This man is dangerously delusional.

Now we are going be forced to endure this fantasy as Manchin is given time to try to find ten patriotic Republicans who still believe in American democracy to support this weakened voting rights bill, so that he does not have to sacrifice his “precious,” the anti-democratic Jim Crow relic Senate filibuster rule, in his pursuit of the mythical bipartisanship.This is an enormous waste of time that we do not have. Congress needed to act on this months ago.

The Washington Post reports, Revised Democratic voting bill drops controversial provisions, tweaks others as pressure for action mounts:

A group of Democratic senators — including key centrist Joe Manchin III of West Virginia — is set to introduce a pared-down voting rights, campaign finance and government ethics bill Tuesday in hopes of building momentum for its passage through a closely divided Senate.

According to a summary obtained by The Washington Post, the new Freedom to Vote Act retains significant portions of the For the People Act, Democrats’ marquee voting legislation that passed the House this year but was blocked by a Republican filibuster in June. Those include mandating national minimum standards for early voting and vote-by-mail, establishing Election Day as a national holiday, and creating new disclosure requirements for “dark money” groups that are not now required to disclose their donors.

But it also discards significant pieces and tweaks others, largely in an effort to placate Manchin and indulge his hopes of building enough Republican support to pass the bill. Overcoming a filibuster absent a rules change would require the support of 10 Republicans in addition to the 50 members of the Democratic caucus.

For instance, a public financing system for congressional campaigns that would match small donations with federal funds on a 6-to-1 basis has been scaled back to an optional program for House campaigns only, requiring states to choose whether to participate. State and local election officials would have a freer hand to purge voter rolls than under the initial bill, and a provision to change the makeup of the Federal Election Commission, moving from an even split between the parties to an odd number of members in a bid to break partisan gridlock, has been omitted from the revised bill.

While the original bill mandated that states use nonpartisan commissions to draw congressional district lines in order to prevent gerrymandering, the revised bill does not require commissions. It instead creates federal criteria for mapmaking, gives courts the power to enforce them, and allows states to choose how to comply, whether by using a commission or another method.

The Freedom to Vote Act does not include one controversial proposal that Manchin floated in June — a national voter identification mandate. Instead, the bill would create a national standard for the states that choose to require voter ID, allowing them to accept a range of documents as proof of identification, without requiring it in other states.

There is one good addition in this bill:

The new legislation also adds provisions meant to override state-level efforts in GOP-controlled states that some are warning could allow officials to override election results. Sections aimed at so-called election subversion would create federal protections for elections officials and create standards for the handing of election equipment and records.

The revised bill comes at a precarious moment for Senate Democrats, with the party eager to make progress on President Biden’s sweeping economic agenda while facing deadlines to fund the federal government and address the approaching debt ceiling in the coming weeks.

Meanwhile, Democrats are under mounting pressure to address the series of state election laws passed in GOP-controlled states this year in an effort to cut back on early voting, vote by mail, drop boxes and other ballot access measures in response to former president Donald Trump’s false claims of a stolen 2020 election.

And states are already beginning the redistricting process without new federal standards in place to prevent partisan gerrymandering. Nonpartisan forecasters predict that would allow Republicans to net several House seats in the 2022 midterms, further imperiling the Democratic House majority.

The bill was hashed out over the summer by a group of senators that included Manchin and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), chairman of the Senate Rules and Administration Committee, as well as Sens. Tim Kaine (D- Va.), Angus King (I-Maine), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Raphael G. Warnock (D-Ga.).

Klobuchar said in a statement that the Republican state laws “demand an immediate federal response” and she thanked her fellow Democrats for arriving at a consensus product after weeks of negotiations. “Now let’s get it done,” she said.

Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) hosted several of the meetings and said Monday that he expects a procedural vote on the bill “as early as next week.” U.S. Senate to stage voting rights reform bill vote-Schumer:

A newly-crafted election reform bill will be put to a vote in the U.S. Senate as soon as next week, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said on Monday, despite strong opposition among Republicans who could block the measure.

In remarks on the Senate floor, Schumer said that over the just-ended summer recess, a revised bill was put together that he said would protect Americans’ “freedom to vote” and end partisan creation of congressional districts [not really] and that moderate Democratic Senator Joe Manchin was talking to Republicans about it.

“Let me be clear: Republicans refusing to support anything on voting rights is not an excuse for
Democrats to do nothing,” he said in a floor speech. “I applaud my colleagues for their hard work and their progress to come together with a very strong voting rights bill that all Democrats can support, while respecting the role of states and promoting greater confidence in our democracy.

Um, Chuck, when Manchin does not find ten patriotic Republicans who still believe in American democracy to vote for this revised bill, then what?

The Post continues:

Schumer said Manchin has undertaken discussions with Republicans about supporting the bill, but no Republican has emerged as even being curious about supporting new federal voting legislation of the breadth that Democrats are contemplating. Top party leaders, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), have insisted that no new national election legislation is necessary, and there is no expectation in the Democratic ranks that next week’s vote will succeed in advancing the bill.

“We don’t think there’s any rationale for the federal government taking over how we vote in this country,” McConnell said in an interview last month.

What is less clear is what will happen next: Voting rights advocates and many Democrats are hoping the sustained GOP opposition will create a put-up-or-shut-up moment for Manchin and Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), who have both vocally opposed changing the Senate rules to allow legislation to pass with a simple majority vote.

What, are Manchin and his comical sidekick Kyrsten Sinema suddenly going to have an epiphany and admit that “I’ve been wrong all along, I’m so sorry, it’s time to reform the anti-democratic Jim Crow relic Senate filibuster rule to save American democracy.” Now there’s a fantasy.

There are no obvious reasons to think that either senator is on the cusp of changing their minds, and with Biden’s economic agenda hanging in the balance, there is little incentive for top party leaders to engage in hardball tactics — at least not yet.

Merkley said in an MSNBC interview Monday night that the drama could play out for many more weeks as Democrats debate among themselves about next steps.

This is just wasting time that we do not have in order to placate these damn fools and their pursuit of the mythical bipartisanship, as the GQP is systematically dismantling American democracy in the state legislatures. Do you not understand “the fierce urgency of now“?

“The dialogue will begin,” he said. “How do we honor our responsibility to defend the fundamental rights of all Americans? . . . And that’s going to take some time to work that out. But I really believe that we have to, before the month of October is out — we have to get this voting rights legislation done.”

October? WTF are you talking about? The Senate should have had this done by the August recess. The Senate is an entirely dysfunctional institution that needs to be reimagined and reinvented. A modern democracy cannot continue to survive this way.

Rolling Stone reports, Biden Tells Top Democrats He’s Preparing Lobbying Blitz on Filibuster Reform, Voting Rights. What? You haven’t done this already? This pressure campaign should have been underway since the day you assumed office. (Too much deference to the Senate).

With a make-or-break vote looming in the Senate on a sweeping voting-rights and anti-corruption bill, President Joe Biden and his advisers have said in recent weeks that Biden will pressure wavering Democrats to support reforming the filibuster if necessary to pass the voting bill.

It’s necessary!

According to three people briefed on the White House’s position and its recent communications with outside groups, Biden assured Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that he was ready to push for filibuster reform. Biden’s pressure would aim to help Schumer convince moderate Democrats to support a carveout to the filibuster, a must for the party if it’s going to pass new voting protections without Republican votes. According to a source briefed on the White House’s position, Biden told Schumer: “Chuck, you tell me when you need me to start making phone calls.”

Yesterday, Joe, yesterday!

The Senate returns to work this upcoming week, and Majority Leader Chuck Schumer intends to call a vote on [the new Freedom to Vote Act], the most ambitious reform bill in decades and the Democrats’ best shot at countering the wave of state-level GOP voter suppression laws this year. But to get the bill out of Congress, Senate Democrats will almost certainly need to change the filibuster, the procedural tactic used by the minority party to block many types of legislation.

Publicly, there are two centrist Democrats who have stated their opposition to changing or abolishing the filibuster, Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona. Activist groups and fellow Democratic senators say Manchin and Sinema are the likely 49th and 50th votes both on any voting-rights legislation and especially any filibuster reforms. Sources say both senators are likely targets for when Biden launches his final push to pass a compromise version of the For the People Act.

“I think there’s a clear recognition the president will have a role to play in bringing this over the finish line, and if in order to do that, we need [filibuster] rules reform, then so be it,” says Rep. John Sarbanes (D-Md.), who helped write the original version of the For the People Act. “I think Joe Biden with his long history and experience in the Senate can see that.”

A White House spokesman declined to comment on any private conversations between Biden and congressional leaders. The official said that Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have been “deeply involved” with the push to pass new voting protections. “The president and vice president have been very clear that this is a crucial priority and senior White House staff across many departments are constantly working on it,” the official said.

Even with a lobbying blitz from Biden, the path to passing the For the People Act is a tricky one. A group of senators will soon release a compromise version of the For the People Act intended to satisfy Manchin’s concerns about earlier versions of the bill. [the new Freedom to Vote Act].Sources familiar with the compromise bill say it will focus on shoring up voting rights against GOP suppression laws, crack down on dark money and partisan gerrymandering, and create new policies to stop attempts at election subversion like what happened after the 2020 presidential election.

But even if the revised bill earns the support of all Democrats, it won’t be enough to overcome the filibuster. Schumer will not only need to prevent a single defection on the bill itself but also convince — with Biden’s help — all 50 Democrats to create a carveout in the filibuster for voting-rights-related legislation.

The consequences of failing to pass a new voting law are stark. Since Donald Trump’s defeat, Republican-led state legislatures have used the former president’s delusional claims about a “stolen” election as a pretext to enact a nationwide crackdown on voting rights. Eighteen states have passed more than 30 laws that restrict the right to vote. The most recent — and arguably most draconian — example was Texas, where Republican Gov. Greg Abbott just signed a law that bans 24-hour voting and drive-through voting, which helped people vote safely during a pandemic, while also giving new powers to outside poll watchers and partisan election officials.

As a presidential candidate, Biden vowed that “one of the first things” he’d do if elected president was pass new legislation to protect voting rights, including restoring the landmark Voting Rights Act of 1965. In March, Biden signed an executive order to promote expanded voting access nationwide. He nominated two civil-rights leaders, Kristen Clarke and Vanita Gupta, to serve in high-ranking positions at the Justice Department. In June, Clarke and Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that the DOJ had sued the state of Georgia over a new law that, in Garland’s words, was “enacted with the purpose of denying or abridging the right of Black Georgians” to cast their ballots.

But Democrats in Congress have gotten nowhere this year in their push to pass different versions of the For the People Act and related anti-corruption bills. Each time, Republican obstruction killed the bills. The biggest defeat happened in June, when Senate Republicans led by Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) filibustered the bill, effectively killing it for the summer.

This is only possible because Sens. Manchin and Sinema are publicly defending the anti-democratic Jim Crow relic Senate filibuster rule. Their appeasement of the Sedition Party empowers the “Grim Reaper of Democracy.” Anti-democratic Republicans are going to do what they do. The real problem is Democrats who are appeasers of the Sedition Party, when they have the means and the power to do what is necessary. This is inexcusable and unforgivable.

Some outside activist groups say Biden and his administration haven’t done enough to make the case for a new voting-rights bill in Congress. “For a long time there was no engagement,” says Fred Wertheimer, president of the government-reform group Democracy 21. Tiffany Muller, president of the anti-corruption group End Citizens United, told Rolling Stone earlier this summer that the lack of urgency from the administration felt even more acute given the energy and organizing happening outside of Washington in support of the For the People Act. “We need that same effort and help (from the Biden administration) on this,” Muller said at the time.

That frustration extended to Biden’s top allies in Congress. Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), whose timely endorsement helped rescue Biden’s flailing presidential campaign in early 2020,begged Biden to endorse a filibuster carve-out for voting rights. During a late-July meeting in the Oval Office, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pressed Biden to do more on voting rights; Democrats needed action from him, according to a person briefed on the meeting.

In that Oval Office meeting, the source says, Biden made a pledge: If Pelosi and Schumer tried every option they had to pass a voting-rights bill with Republican votes and got nowhere, Biden would get involved himself and lobby the handful of moderate Democrats to convince them to weaken the filibuster so that the For the People Act could pass without any Republican votes.

Since then, the tenor has shifted in the White House in the last month, multiple sources tell Rolling Stone. The White House has devoted more staff to the issue. More importantly, it has given assurances to outside supporters that Biden now plans to push for filibuster reform when necessary. “They have really engaged in a way that can make a difference both on substance and particularly on process as we get closer to this day of reckoning,” Rep. John Sarbanes says. “They appreciate that the electorate that showed up for Joe Biden in 2020 now wants to see Joe Biden show up for them in 2021.”

[W]inning over the two Democrats who’ve declared their opposition to filibuster reform, Sens. Manchin and Sinema, won’t be easy. In April, Manchin wrote in an op-ed that he would not support tweaking or abolishing the filibuster, which he described as a “critical tool” to protect the interests of small and rural states like his. Sinema, for her part, likes to point out how often Democrats used the filibuster when they were in the minority during Donald Trump’s presidency. The filibuster, she wrote in June, “compels moderation and helps protect the country from wild swings between opposing policy poles.”

Yet Sinema has broadly endorsed the need for voting-rights reforms, and Manchin says “inaction is not an option.” Congressional aides and anti-corruption activists who support the For the People Act say Schumer’s strategy has been to give Republicans every opportunity to work with Democrats on a compromise bill, and to allow Manchin the space to lead those negotiations, if only to show that Republicans won’t support any version of pro-democracy reform that Democrats come up with. “We continue to see that the Republicans are not willing to negotiate in good faith on these fundamental issues to protect our democracy,” says Tiffany Muller of End Citizens United.

A spokesman for End Citizens United says the group is spending $30 million this year to get the For the People Act onto Biden’s desk, most of that on more than 130 paid ads on TV, digital, and mail. But at this point in the campaign, it’s entirely up to Biden and Senate Democrats to muster the support for filibuster reform and passing a new version of the bill.

Fred Wertheimer of Democracy 21 says the For the People Act would [have been] the most ambitious law to uphold voting rights and fight corruption since the slew of post-Watergate reforms in the 1970s. Wertheimer says he expects Biden to do everything he can to make those reforms a reality, but ultimately the decision rests with the 50 Democratic senators. “This is a moment when members of the Senate are going to wind up on the right side or wrong side of history,” Wertheimer says. “The stakes for our democracy are enormous.”

As Bishop William Barber II asks, “Whose side are you on?” Will you defend American democracy against the insurrectionist Sedition Party?