This week’s theater will create a fresh picture of the futility of Democratic power in Washington. Yet the obstacle to passing voting rights reform and the Build Back Better climate and spending bill were obvious long ago. But the White House and Democratic leaders chose to press ahead anyway with no clear path to success. Absent some last minute reversal by Manchin and Sinema, which is highly unlikely, the current snarl raises questions about the White House’s political strategy and decision to prepare the public for historic generational reforms without the guarantee that they could be enacted. At this point, there is a strong sense that Senate votes are being held for mostly political reasons rather than in any expectations they will deliver new laws.
When they hit the Senate wall, it’s not clear what Democrats will do next. Asked on Monday about the administration’s plans, Harris said the strategy was to “keep working on it.”
“I’m making calls and meeting with folks. We’re not going to give up. You’ve heard me say that before, and I mean it. This is too important,” the vice president told reporters.
It’s true that the story of the civil rights struggle was played out over decades, encountered worse congressional obstruction than is likely to unfold this week and ultimately rewarded dedicated political campaigning. But if Democrats cannot pass their voting rights bills soon, they may lose the opportunity to do so for years with Republicans confident of capturing control of the House of Representatives and eyeing a Senate takeover in November’s elections.
Sinema and Manchin stand firm
If the voting rights legislation fails this week, as is expected, it is not clear how Democrats will proceed. While one single Republican, Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski, has expressed support for one of the current bills, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, all of the GOP Senate conference opposes the Freedom to Vote Act. Taken together, the measures would allow all Americans the right to a mail-in vote, create Election Day as a national holiday, standardize voting rules and restore protections against racial discrimination in state voting laws stripped by the Supreme Court. Republicans brand the bills as a federal takeover of the election system and rebuff criticism of state voting laws, which are rooted in Trump’s lies the 2020 election was stolen.
The threat to democracy grows
Martin Luther King III, son of the assassinated civil rights pioneer, tapped into that sense of urgency on Monday, warning that students in 50 years would read about what happens in the Senate this week.
“No matter what happens tomorrow, we must keep the pressure on and say no more empty words. Don’t tell us what you believe in, show us with your votes,” he said. “History will be watching what happens tomorrow.”
Democracy advocates are especially concerned at measures in some states that seek to politicize the non-partisan process of collecting and tabulating election results, after some notable Republican officials stood firm in 2020 against Trump’s bid to steal an election that multiple courts and even his own Justice Department said he lost.
The threat on this score posed by the increasingly autocratic Trump is only becoming more extreme. The ex-President spewed more delusional and dangerous lies about non-existent election fraud at a rally in Arizona on Saturday night. He also pressured legislators in the state to decertify Biden’s victory in the election. In a recent video message, the twice-impeached, defeated ex-President also claimed he won Pennsylvania, a state he in fact lost by more than 80,000 votes to Biden.
“We have to be a lot sharper the next time when it comes to counting the votes,” said Trump, who has been trying to leverage supporters onto election boards and into positions responsible for running voting across the country. “Sometimes the vote counter is more important than the candidate,” he added.
So far, Trump’s efforts to subvert the 2020 election have all failed. But his tantrum after refusing to admit defeat to Biden has resulted in substantial changes to the US electoral system that arguably make it less democratic. The current President and his party may be about to squander their best, and perhaps last chance to respond.
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