The first thing popping up in the Twitter feed this morning was this monologue from the Color of Change’s Rahsad Robinson. He is exasperated that President Biden’s response to pleas to engage on passage of voting rights legislation is to praise people of color for overcoming historic obstacles to voting in 2020 and to urge them to organize harder.
“We climbed up the hill with rocks on our backs and then they keep making the hill steeper,” Robinson began. “They keep making the rocks bigger. And then we keep getting told, ‘Keep climbing, y’all. Black folks, just keep climbing.'” Democrats asked to be put in power and then tell us there’s nothing they can do, Robinson said.
Watch the nods from Zerlina Maxwell and Juanita Toliver.
“[Biden] is dropping the ball,” said Jaunita Toliver when he won’t engage on voting rights. She was just getting warmed up:
What I still can’t wrap my head around is while the same advocates, the same organizers, the same progressive groups that turned out historic numbers of voters in 2020 are literally begging for President Biden to act, these are the same people that Biden got on stage and thanked directly — black women and people of color — for turning out and getting him across the finish line.
And now, he really has to evaluate his position on the filibuster. He’s saying that it would create chaos in the Senate, and then Congress. It makes no sense, Zerlina. And so what I think right now we’re seeing from advocates and activists is that they’re not buying it. They’re not buying the White House line that it would create chaos. They’re also not buying the White House line that Biden can’t get it done. Especially after seeing him put in hours and hours of meetings to get this bipartisan infrastructure deal.
Essentially, folks are saying keep that same energy, but for my basic right to vote. Keep that same energy to preserve our democracy. Keep that same energy to make sure that we don’t have elections that are going to be essentially shams that could be decided at the state and local level based on the voter suppression bills and election laws we’re seeing passed in Republican-held state legislatures.
And so, it’s extremely frustrating to hear Biden say on stage last night that it would create chaos. What we have now is chaos, and he is dropping the ball. And what I think the other thing is that he doesn’t realize that his hesitation, his inaction, is essentially going to create yet another pillar that upholds systemic biases, systemic racism, systemic disenfranchisement that’ll have a negative impact not only on future elections, and on black and brown voters, but on our democracy writ large.
Biden spent decades as a senator. But he is not a legislator anymore. He is a chief executive. He must unlearn some of what he learned in the Senate to do the job he has now. He has convinced himself his reelection and Democrats’ fortunes in 2022 depend on enacting a massive infrastructure bill. But he has to engage on voting rights before his lack of attention loses him the support of the base that won him election in 2020 and enables lasting damage to the republic. His new job requires more than bringing home the bacon.
Democrats lost 948 state legislative seats during the last Democratic presidency after Obama abandoned both Dean’s 50-state strategy and dismantled his own juggernaut of a campaign organization, as some believe, to keep organized lefties from interfering with his personal legislative priorities. Biden seems not to have learned from that.
What you think you know is keeping you from accomplishing what you must, Mr. President.
