Don’t make voters read betwen the lines
Democrats on Capitol Hill have gotten religion. The Supreme Court’s decision in Dobbs to overturn half a century of women’s reproductive rights, and Justice Clarence Thomas’ concurring opinion prodding the court to roll back even more individual liberties, has shaken Democrats’ constituencies. Congressional Democrats hope to get ahead of what the Federalist court does next while giving voters a reason to go to the polls in 2022.
The House on Tuesday voted to pass the Respect for Marriage Act, a bill codifying legal recognition for interracial and same-sex marriages and repealing the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA). Forty-seven Republicans joined all Democrats in support:
Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other backers argued that the language of the abortion ruling also endangers a Supreme Court decision in 2015 that legalized same-sex marriage nationwide. The Supreme Court struck down DOMA as unconstitutional in 2012.
Passage of the Respect for Marriage Act by the House follows passage of two bills on Friday to restore a federal right to abortion and a woman’s right to travel acrosss state lines to access aborion services. It was the second time Democrats passed the bill restoring abortion rights.
Scheduled for a vote Wednesday in the House is a bill guaranteeing a right to contraception, also among rulings Thomas said the court should reconsider.
The bills have little chance of passage in the Senate. Unless, of course, Democrats add to their numbers in the upper chamber sufficient to overcome a filibuster. They must also hold their majority in the House in the midterm elections.
The Dobbs ruling and the Thomas opinion illuminates just where the SCOTUS extremists hope to take the country. Democrats have drawn criticism for not doing more sooner to codify these rights in federal law. And with this court, challenges would surely follow. But with the midterms looming, Democrats are scrambling now to give constituents a reason not just to vote against Republicans but things to vote for.
“Give us the House and two more senators, and we will make Roe law in January 2023,” is the 2022 message TPM’s Josh Marshall advised. Democrats are demonstrating what protections they hope to pass when they have the leverage. But a series of show votes on popular bills is not enough if Democrats expect voters to get the message.
Don’t make voters read between the lines.
For God’s sake, tell the voters that’s what you are doing!
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