Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D) of Arizona supports both the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. But not enough to make an exception to the filibuster rule so she can vote to pass them. Yet she approved an exemption to that rule one week ago to allow a vote to raise the debt ceiling.
But doing that again to defend the Constitution against the systematic violations of democracy being passed in the states stretches her oath too far.
Of late, there has been apparent movement towards passage of voting rights legislation by a majority vote, Steve Benen reports:
As of yesterday afternoon, there was enough kinetic political activity to give the appearance of momentum. Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock had made a compelling pitch in support of the idea of a carve-out to the filibuster rule, pointing to other recent exceptions from the last two weeks. The Georgian’s argument found favor with some of his more progressive colleagues, including Hawaii’s Brian Schatz, and some of his moderate colleagues, including Virginia’s Mark Warner.
Soon after, Democratic Sen. John Hickenlooper of Colorado also came out in support of changing the filibuster to protect voting rights, reasoning that “if we can change the process on the debt ceiling, then surely we can do the same to protect our democracy.”
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer met Wednesday with Joe Macnhin of West Virginia, plus Maine’s Angus King, Tim Kaine of Virginia and and Montana’s Jon Tester. Delaware’s Tom Carper and Maine’s Angus King are on board. But not Sinema.
Politico reported:
Kyrsten Sinema supports the elections reform bill that Democrats are considering a year-end push to pass. She doesn’t support a shortcut around the filibuster to get it done. The Arizona moderate is making clear that she intends to keep protecting the Senate’s 60-vote requirement on most legislation and she isn’t ready to entertain changing rules to pass sweeping elections or voting legislation with a simple majority.
Benen is as incredulous as the rest of us:
So why not create an exception to the filibuster in order to protect democracy? Sinema’s office said in a statement to Politico that if Democrats were to take such a course, their voting rights protections legislation could be “rescinded in a few years and replaced by a nationwide voter-ID law, nationwide restrictions on vote-by-mail, or other voting restrictions currently passing in some states extended nationwide.”
The logic here is truly amazing: Democrats can’t pass voting rights protections on their own, because if they do, Republicans might try to undermine voting rights at some future date. And that’s why Sinema intends to do nothing as Republicans undermine voting rights right now.
One of the most frustrating situations for children of the Enlightenment is trying to make sense of unreason using reason. It is pointless. At some point, you train yourself not try. The inevitable headache is not worth it and it gets you nowhere. But it is not as if what’s going with Sinema represents something ineffable as in a work of art or piece of music.
Still, does she play the fiddle?