“But the overwhelming attention Manchin (and to a lesser degree Sen. Kyrsten Sinema) is receiving really is undeserved. The people who should be getting more attention are the 50 members of the Republican caucus who have sold their American birthright for a mess of Trumpism.”
I wrote that here last Saturday regarding the Democrat-led push to shore up voting rights systematically being undermined by Republican state legislatures, by the U.S. Supreme Court, and by a “defeated former president” relentlessly undermining public faith in American elections.
All 50 Senate Republicans oppose renewing the Voting Rights Act. All 50 Senate Republicans refuse to repair its preclearance provisions eviscerated by the Supreme Court’s Shelby decision in 2013. All 50 Senate Republicans will not prevent actions by the states to allow legislatures to overrule the majority of voters in presidential elections. Forty-eight Senate Democrats will. Two Democrats are holdouts.
On Wednesday. Vice President Kamala Harris prosecuted that case in an interview with NBC. (Preview of the Thursday broadcast below.)
“When we have the discussion about who’s responsible, I will not absolve the 50 Republicans in the United States Senate from responsibility for upholding one of the most basic and important tenets of our democracy, which is free and fair elections and access to the ballot for all eligible voters,” the former San Francisco district attorney insisted.
NBC’s Craig Melvin tried to whatabout the issue, asking about the stance taken by Manchin. Harris wasn’t having it.
“I don’t think anyone should be absolved from the resonsibility of preserving and protecting our democracy, especially when they took an oath to protect and defend our constitutions” she said.
On Tuesday, President Biden pressed his case for voting rights in a speech in Atlanta on the grounds of Clark Atlanta University and Morehouse College:
“The vice president and I have supported voting rights bills since day one of this administration, but each and every time Senate Republicans have blocked the way,” he said. “Republicans oppose even debating the issue. You hear me? I have been around the Senate a long time. I was vice president for eight years. I’ve never seen a circumstance where not one single Republican has a voice that’s ready to speak for justice now.”
The President recalled working with the segregationist Sen. Strom Thurmond, who he said eventually came around to supporting voting rights bills.”
Not a single Republican has displayed the courage to stand up to a defeated president to protect America’s right to vote. Not one. Not one,” Biden said.
In 2006, 98 of 100 senators voted to renew the Voting Rights Act. There were no votes opposed. Two Republicans were not present.
What changed between then and now? The country in 2008 elected a Black president with record turnout and a surge of voting by young people and non-white voters. “Black turnout exceeded white turnout — 69.1 percent to 65.2 percent — for the first time in history,” the Washington Post reported. “By 2012, when Obama sought reelection, the gap was even larger, even though turnout among both groups decreased slightly.” That’s what.