While Others Argue Over Role Of Filibuster In Voting Rights, Fmr Senator Wants People To Remember 'Awful' Supreme Court
Texas Dems pop up in nation's capital, once again fighting a voting-limitations bill
Tuesday was a busy day for Democrats, and other Americans interested in the fight over the future of voting rights in the United States.
President Biden, as scheduled, delivered a passionate speech in Philadelphia, Pa., defending voting rights — and excoriating those who would seek to suppress or limit those rights.
“They want to make it so hard and inconvenient that they hope people don’t vote at all. That’s what this is about. This year, alone, 17 states have enacted, not just proposed but enacted, 28 new laws to make it harder for Americans to vote,” Biden said. “Not to mention — and catch this — nearly 400 additional bills Republican members of the state legislature have trying to pass. The 21st century Jim Crow assault is real. It’s unrelenting. And we’re going to challenge it vigorously.”
Meanwhile, Democratic members of the Texas state House of Representatives — who last month walked out to deny Lone Star Republicans the quorum that they needed to pass their own voter-restriction bill in Texas — did it again.
This time, the Democrats from the Texas House left the state altogether — and appeared in Washington DC — again to deny a quorum for the special session called to pass the voting-repression bill Republicans tried to approve in June.
With Texas Democrats once again on the run, Texas Republican Gov Greg Abbott called for their arrest.
This flurry of activity generated renewed focus on voting rights, including the efforts of Democrats in the US Senate to pass voting rights legislation — which have, this far, been stymied by Republicans and their use of the filibuster.
“In my view voting rights are a lot more important than preserving some arcane procedure that frankly the founding fathers would not create in the first place,” Rep Brendan Boyle (D-Pa), said of the Senate filibuster. “So I would urge my colleagues to do everything that they can to make sure we protect the right to vote before it’s too late.”
“We’ve got a bunch of folks on the Supreme Court that are no longer friendly to voting rights enforcement in this country.”
— Former Sen Claire McCaskill
Ahead of the president's speech in Philadelphia, civil rights activist and TV commentator Rev Al Sharpton said that he wanted Biden specifically to address filibuster reform — although the president ultimately did not do so.
“I certainly support, and have been saying this for some time, that we must have a way that we raise the issue of voting around the filibuster. Filibuster should not stand in the way of democracy, should not stand in the way of our constitutional rights,” Sharpton said. “I said to the president, along with my seven colleagues that lead national civil rights organizations, that he ought to take that position. I do not know what he will say today, but we certainly encourage him to speak forcefully.
“If he talks history, if he talks about we’ve been here before and what we had to do to get past that, I think that’s a good thing. If he also deals with the fact we need to have a workaround a filibuster, I think that will be a great thing,” Sharpton added. “I intend to be there to hear what he has to say. I’m glad he’s speaking up, though.”
While many are looking at the filibuster as the barrier to securing voting rights, the real problem lies with the US Supreme Court, which issued an opinion this month in an Arizona case which further weakened the landmark Voting Rights Act, according to Claire McCaskill, a former Democratic senator from Missouri and an MSNBC commentator.
"Well, let’s just assume it is just Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema” blocking filibuster reform, McCaskill said, referring to the Democratic senators from West Virginia and Arizona, respectively. “The question is can Joe Biden change their minds? And I guarantee you there have been conversations. I don’t think their minds have been changed.
“You know, you can look at this another way, Nicolle, and I know this is painful for people to hear, but the minority in Texas is using a procedure to block what they’re trying to do in Texas, just as the minority in the Senate is using the procedure to try to block what the Democrats are trying to do in Washington, except it’s a much closer body in Washington. It’s 50/50. So you got to have everybody on the wagon. And we don’t right now,” McCaskill told MSNBC Nicholle Wallace. “Do I wish we did for filibuster reform and particularly for protecting voting rights?
“But the other thing we’ve got to talk about, and maybe you’re planning on bringing this up next, is the Supreme Court. This decision on July 1 was awful for voting rights. The Supreme Court said loudly and clearly that the federal government really doesn’t have any ability under the Constitution to stop these laws in these individual states,” McCaskill added. “So we’ve got even a bigger problem than just Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema. We’ve got a bunch of folks on the Supreme Court that are no longer friendly to voting rights enforcement in this country."
Texas Democrats
The Texas Democrats met with Vice President Kamala Harris.
“It's good to see you all. Again. So I wanted to stop by to say hello, to say welcome, and to say thank you. You all know I’ve been traveling, and as most recently as yesterday when I was in Detroit and heard of your courageous stand and talked about exactly what I believe about the courage and the commitment and the patriotism that you all have evidenced by your actions, in addition to your work, and your words,” Harris said. “And I know what you have done comes with great sacrifice, both personal and political. And you are doing this in support and in defense of some of our nation’s highest ideals.
“Reporters ask me, ‘What do you think about this?’ I said, ‘Look, defending the right of the American people to vote is as American as apple pie,’” the vice president added.
The Texas Democrats held a press conference in Washington, where state Rep Donna Howard said that she was not afraid of Abbott's threat of arrest.
“Well, I’m not a lawyer, but my understanding is that he doesn’t have any grounds with which he can actually arrest us. I’m not concerned about that,” said Howard, a legislator representing an area in Austin, Texas. “We’re here representing our constituencies continuing to work on behalf of all Texans, as well as all Americans, to ensure that we have access to fair elections, that we have access to the ballot box, that we’re not making it harder for people to vote. We’re standing up for democracy and I’m proud to be here to do that.”
The renegade Texas Democrats sent letters to the House journal clerk directing the House to lock their voting machines and not unlock them until the Democrats provide express permission to do so upon their return.
“We’re using the tools we have in our toolbox to ensure that we’re going to protect the rights of not only Texans but Americans for the right to vote, their freedom to vote. This is happening all over the country. This isn’t happening just in Texas,” state Rep Claudia Ordaz-Perez said in an interview with CNN. “The Trump administration was not happy with the results so you’re seeing states from all across the country that are taking these drastic measures and trying to suppress the vote.
“We’re here to lobby our Democrat colleagues, Republican colleagues here in Congress, the Biden administration, that we need help. We can’t do this alone,” she added. “This'll is the second time we’ve done this. As you mentioned, we’re risking arrest. We’re risking a whole lot to be here. But we all know, we’ve come unified, this is that important.”
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