This afternoon, the Senate voted to take up the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan recently passed by the House. The vote was 51 to 50, with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tie-breaking vote. Republicans have vowed to slow the passage of the bill. As soon as it passed, Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) insisted on having all 628 pages of the bill read aloud, which the Senate clerks are currently doing at a rapid clip to a chamber that emptied of everyone but the presiding Senator (a Democrat), and one Republican (to insist on the process), almost immediately after the clerks began to read.
It should be stipulated that a ranking Republican should read the 600+ pages of the H. R. 1 bill, not the clerk. It is their idea; they should implement it.
It is amazing. How many people get paid for ordering a clerk to read 600 pages to the senate and there is no one in the Senate? The senate needs to change. I can’t imagine any other organization, business or school being allowed to operate like this. Start acting like responsible adults. Show up and do the work you were elected to do. Playing these games in a middle of a crisis is obscene.
Heather's Letter tonight is not sounding an alarm as some of her other Letters have. But the message is still there: Voting rights are the foundation of our democratic process, and they are in jeopardy, particularly by a wave of voter suppression laws making their way through state legislatures. That wave is 253 bills in 43 states. What can we do?
Heather frequently reminds us that we are the ones with the power, as by making our voices heard. Learn the basics of S.1 For the People Act. What resonates with you the most? Talk about it to friends and family, contact the politicians, post on social media, "take up oxygen!"
Connect with an organization that is already mobilized. Get the most bang for your buck. Places to start:
I find it mind-boggling that all of this state legislative activity to suppress voting rights is based on the myth of a stolen election (and the reality that the R's can't win elections without suppressing the vote). Do the Republicans actually believe the election was stolen? It seems to me that until we can convince enough people of the truth of the matter, American democracy is at grave risk. I am looking for a source that spells out the specific arguments that Republicans are making for calling the election stolen. In other words, I am looking for a list of the instances in which they believe that specific states changed voting rules illegally before and during the election. How is this list different from all of the many court challenges that were lost?
I would say that facing reality is not one of the strong points of the Republican Party!
It is firstly going to be very interesting to see which way the Supreme Court votes on the Arizona voter suppression case that they are hearing in support of which GOP lawyers brazenly stated their real purpose of insuring they alone can win elections. What ever way this goes the Senate must pass HR1.....so the filibuster must go! If the SCOTUS has allowed the Arizona restrictions.... then the Rules of the Supreme Court and doubtless its membership have to be changed to prevent such sabotage of this new national voter framework.
Not uncommonly, when the body is under severe stress from the process of dying, one can witness jerks and spasms of the musculature and even overt seizures. That process is happening to the current republican regime. Desperation is upon them. You can smell it. Which is the probable reason the republicans will not stay in the senate chamber to listen to the reading of the bill.
There are 411 mayors of cities that signed a bi-partisan letter encouraging the passage of the rescue plan. These are the women and men we need to speak up daily in their cities and states, testifying to the needs of suffering people.
Covid is a powerful scourge worldwide. Unless controlled EVERYWHERE, variants will continue to develop. Some worse than the original. Possibly much worse, extending our nightmare. So simultaneously with efforts to vaccinate America, we need to lead in helping vaccinate the rest of the 7.5 billion humans on earth. A long, difficult task.
The “conservative movement virus” is another threat. To the Constitution. Touted as intellectual, it is a cynical ploy. Big but empty words like “originalism” and “textualism” obfuscate the conversation. But time is up. The real “conservative movement” was on full, nauseating display at CPAC, complete with the golden bull. The veneer removed, revealing only obscene lust for power, wealth and suppression of the people.
Like for covid, there is a vaccine for this virus infecting republican souls. The vote.
These further examples of Republican "lawmakers" opposing legislation that even their constituents support, coupled with the blatant misrepresentation of facts over related and unrelated issues by the "conservative media," is not only demoralizing, it's just plain exhausting.
For me, that exhaustion is mostly due to the way these actions manifest a flaw in our electoral process: That GOP candidates run a bait and switch between what they purport to represent during their bid for office, and how the vote once seated. That the flaw is systemic and endemic unfortunately doesn't mean it's illegal, though I'm not sure how to make it an enforceable infraction. Sadly, it's more a reflection of voters aren't interested in a discussion of comparative facts, or who've become convinced that only candidates with an (R) by their name will truly stand up for their interests, regardless of how their actions while in office belie that assumption.
Proposed legislation that has popular appeal even to a majority of their own party's voters is belittled, berated, and opposed in advance not on the basis of factual evidence to the contrary, but.... just because. The examples are legion, so I won't detail them, but suffice it to say that it's usually around issues that would improve people's financial and social well being, or that reinforces the Constitutional protections of citizens on anything other than misinterpreted Second Amendment rights.
Until and unless the protection of "voting rights" additionally adds some emphasis to seriously address 1) candidate eligibility criteria, 2) reverses the suffocating effects of Citizens United, and 3) demands greater structure, discipline, and transparency in the "debate" process, we're doomed to be subject to electing people who have no real accountability to their constituents. Oh, sure, they COULD be primaried or voted out, but too often candidates are reelected so long as they hew to sponsors and donors and curry favor with "party leaders" despite the desires of their constituents. As a state party chair said after censuring a representative for supporting Trump's impeachment, "we didn't send them to Washington to 'do the right thing' or 'vote their conscience.'"
If HR 1 does not pass in the senate, they need to end the filibuster. A guest on Last Word tonight suggested doing it by changing the rules to male it apply to only the members actually "present and voting".
Please tell me what the process would be for the Democrats to get rid of the filibuster. What would it entail? I ask because I see no way through passing legislation if the filibuster option remains. Barack Obama couldn’t pass much because he was hemmed in for many years. If we’re going to pass the voting act, essentially assuring the most fundamental right for all folks, the Dems have to proceed with majority rules. They will not get 10 republicans ever to support new laws about voting and immigration and safeguarding our planet. It’s crazy making.
Heather mentions the strong support of the League of Women Voters of which I am an active member for the Voting Rights Act. HR1. The majority Republican Texas Legislature like many red states has introduced 225 bills on voting many of which are voter suppression or what the Republicans are euphemistically call Voter Integrity. I like the League's balanced definition of Election Integrity: "Elections with integrity mean elections that accurately reflect the will of Texans, both through security from tampering and through the participation of eligible voters. Elections with integrity mean ensuring that all voters can be heard and counted." This will depend on modifying the filibuster. One proposal is needing 60 votes to stop the debate of a bill, you would need 40 votes to continue debate. What I don't understand is how it is possible to make this happen. Won't any bill to fix the filibuster just be defeated by being filibusted. We the People, All of Us This Time.
The Democrats need to stop playing nice and play to win. Playing to win is what the Republicans have been doing for years, to great success. Look, the odds are good based on this country's history that the Republicans will take control of the House, the Senate, or both in 2022. So, realistically, there is a two year window to get things done (less time now, of course). Get rid of the filibuster. Pass the new voting rights act. Statehood for Puerto Rico and/or D.C. Do what you can to make Joe Manchin and Kristen Sinema to fall in line. But, ultimately, GET IT DONE. The time is now, and every day that goes by without these things getting done makes them less likely. After the 2022 election, the odds of any of these things passing will drop to just about zero.
Debate and discussion are important components to the democratic process but republicans have shown they are only capable of obstruction for no apparent reason except vindictiveness.
Politics may be a game to be played by some, but once elected, politicians are expected to become public servants. The millions of people in need of food, clothing and shelter will remember this Republican behavior. We pay their salaries, give them low cost excellent medical care and hefty retirement pay. In return they expect that people living paycheck to paycheck will continue to provide services to them. (Fraud 45 actually declared a meat emergency). The party is circling the drain and they don’t even get it. As for Dr Seuss, he is not being censored or canceled, but most of us have grown more respectful of others since the 1940’s. One look at the rioters tells you who lacks respect.
And Fox displays in the backgrounds the covers of the very well-known and popular Green Eggs and Ham, and Cat in the Hat, instead of the more obscure books that are the ones being discontinued.
Typical misleads/lies. Now if Horton was to go......
Republicans' assumption that their base will continue to support policies based on lies and voter suppression as opposed to clear policy initiatives is fragile at best. It does not follow that opposition to anything Democratic is the way to regain power. There's no meat in that saddle. And as HCR points out, there is overwhelming support of all Americans for the American Rescue Plan. Republican legislators will still vote against the measure despite their constituents wishes. That disconnect does not bode well for their party.
The Democratic proposal to strengthen voter rights laws should be a no-brainer. Yet Republicans in their desperation instead seek to move their party forward by cheating. The egregious voter suppression legislation in state houses across the country reflects the absence of any remaining substance in Republican philosophy or policy initiatives. The question is will voters continue to support such a fragile house of cards based on lies and deception. Unfortunately, the answer is yes. Their alternate reality is alive and well.
It should be stipulated that a ranking Republican should read the 600+ pages of the H. R. 1 bill, not the clerk. It is their idea; they should implement it.
It is amazing. How many people get paid for ordering a clerk to read 600 pages to the senate and there is no one in the Senate? The senate needs to change. I can’t imagine any other organization, business or school being allowed to operate like this. Start acting like responsible adults. Show up and do the work you were elected to do. Playing these games in a middle of a crisis is obscene.
Heather's Letter tonight is not sounding an alarm as some of her other Letters have. But the message is still there: Voting rights are the foundation of our democratic process, and they are in jeopardy, particularly by a wave of voter suppression laws making their way through state legislatures. That wave is 253 bills in 43 states. What can we do?
Heather frequently reminds us that we are the ones with the power, as by making our voices heard. Learn the basics of S.1 For the People Act. What resonates with you the most? Talk about it to friends and family, contact the politicians, post on social media, "take up oxygen!"
Connect with an organization that is already mobilized. Get the most bang for your buck. Places to start:
https://democracyreform-sarbanes.house.gov/newsroom/press-releases/leading-grassroots-advocacy-organizations-endorse-house-democrats-once-in-a
https://campaignlegal.org/democracyu
https://indivisible.org/
League of Women Voters: https://www.lwv.org/
🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸
I find it mind-boggling that all of this state legislative activity to suppress voting rights is based on the myth of a stolen election (and the reality that the R's can't win elections without suppressing the vote). Do the Republicans actually believe the election was stolen? It seems to me that until we can convince enough people of the truth of the matter, American democracy is at grave risk. I am looking for a source that spells out the specific arguments that Republicans are making for calling the election stolen. In other words, I am looking for a list of the instances in which they believe that specific states changed voting rules illegally before and during the election. How is this list different from all of the many court challenges that were lost?
I would say that facing reality is not one of the strong points of the Republican Party!
It is firstly going to be very interesting to see which way the Supreme Court votes on the Arizona voter suppression case that they are hearing in support of which GOP lawyers brazenly stated their real purpose of insuring they alone can win elections. What ever way this goes the Senate must pass HR1.....so the filibuster must go! If the SCOTUS has allowed the Arizona restrictions.... then the Rules of the Supreme Court and doubtless its membership have to be changed to prevent such sabotage of this new national voter framework.
What are Republicans hoping to gain by having the American Rescue Plan read aloud?
If their goal is to cement their role as obstructionists, then they've attained it.
If their goal is to communicate that they are uninterested in governing, then they've shouted it clearly.
If their goal is to help the American people, then they're failing miserably.
Not uncommonly, when the body is under severe stress from the process of dying, one can witness jerks and spasms of the musculature and even overt seizures. That process is happening to the current republican regime. Desperation is upon them. You can smell it. Which is the probable reason the republicans will not stay in the senate chamber to listen to the reading of the bill.
There are 411 mayors of cities that signed a bi-partisan letter encouraging the passage of the rescue plan. These are the women and men we need to speak up daily in their cities and states, testifying to the needs of suffering people.
Covid is a powerful scourge worldwide. Unless controlled EVERYWHERE, variants will continue to develop. Some worse than the original. Possibly much worse, extending our nightmare. So simultaneously with efforts to vaccinate America, we need to lead in helping vaccinate the rest of the 7.5 billion humans on earth. A long, difficult task.
The “conservative movement virus” is another threat. To the Constitution. Touted as intellectual, it is a cynical ploy. Big but empty words like “originalism” and “textualism” obfuscate the conversation. But time is up. The real “conservative movement” was on full, nauseating display at CPAC, complete with the golden bull. The veneer removed, revealing only obscene lust for power, wealth and suppression of the people.
Like for covid, there is a vaccine for this virus infecting republican souls. The vote.
These further examples of Republican "lawmakers" opposing legislation that even their constituents support, coupled with the blatant misrepresentation of facts over related and unrelated issues by the "conservative media," is not only demoralizing, it's just plain exhausting.
For me, that exhaustion is mostly due to the way these actions manifest a flaw in our electoral process: That GOP candidates run a bait and switch between what they purport to represent during their bid for office, and how the vote once seated. That the flaw is systemic and endemic unfortunately doesn't mean it's illegal, though I'm not sure how to make it an enforceable infraction. Sadly, it's more a reflection of voters aren't interested in a discussion of comparative facts, or who've become convinced that only candidates with an (R) by their name will truly stand up for their interests, regardless of how their actions while in office belie that assumption.
Proposed legislation that has popular appeal even to a majority of their own party's voters is belittled, berated, and opposed in advance not on the basis of factual evidence to the contrary, but.... just because. The examples are legion, so I won't detail them, but suffice it to say that it's usually around issues that would improve people's financial and social well being, or that reinforces the Constitutional protections of citizens on anything other than misinterpreted Second Amendment rights.
Until and unless the protection of "voting rights" additionally adds some emphasis to seriously address 1) candidate eligibility criteria, 2) reverses the suffocating effects of Citizens United, and 3) demands greater structure, discipline, and transparency in the "debate" process, we're doomed to be subject to electing people who have no real accountability to their constituents. Oh, sure, they COULD be primaried or voted out, but too often candidates are reelected so long as they hew to sponsors and donors and curry favor with "party leaders" despite the desires of their constituents. As a state party chair said after censuring a representative for supporting Trump's impeachment, "we didn't send them to Washington to 'do the right thing' or 'vote their conscience.'"
I feel like I'm beating a dead horse here.
If HR 1 does not pass in the senate, they need to end the filibuster. A guest on Last Word tonight suggested doing it by changing the rules to male it apply to only the members actually "present and voting".
Please tell me what the process would be for the Democrats to get rid of the filibuster. What would it entail? I ask because I see no way through passing legislation if the filibuster option remains. Barack Obama couldn’t pass much because he was hemmed in for many years. If we’re going to pass the voting act, essentially assuring the most fundamental right for all folks, the Dems have to proceed with majority rules. They will not get 10 republicans ever to support new laws about voting and immigration and safeguarding our planet. It’s crazy making.
Heather mentions the strong support of the League of Women Voters of which I am an active member for the Voting Rights Act. HR1. The majority Republican Texas Legislature like many red states has introduced 225 bills on voting many of which are voter suppression or what the Republicans are euphemistically call Voter Integrity. I like the League's balanced definition of Election Integrity: "Elections with integrity mean elections that accurately reflect the will of Texans, both through security from tampering and through the participation of eligible voters. Elections with integrity mean ensuring that all voters can be heard and counted." This will depend on modifying the filibuster. One proposal is needing 60 votes to stop the debate of a bill, you would need 40 votes to continue debate. What I don't understand is how it is possible to make this happen. Won't any bill to fix the filibuster just be defeated by being filibusted. We the People, All of Us This Time.
The Democrats need to stop playing nice and play to win. Playing to win is what the Republicans have been doing for years, to great success. Look, the odds are good based on this country's history that the Republicans will take control of the House, the Senate, or both in 2022. So, realistically, there is a two year window to get things done (less time now, of course). Get rid of the filibuster. Pass the new voting rights act. Statehood for Puerto Rico and/or D.C. Do what you can to make Joe Manchin and Kristen Sinema to fall in line. But, ultimately, GET IT DONE. The time is now, and every day that goes by without these things getting done makes them less likely. After the 2022 election, the odds of any of these things passing will drop to just about zero.
Debate and discussion are important components to the democratic process but republicans have shown they are only capable of obstruction for no apparent reason except vindictiveness.
Politics may be a game to be played by some, but once elected, politicians are expected to become public servants. The millions of people in need of food, clothing and shelter will remember this Republican behavior. We pay their salaries, give them low cost excellent medical care and hefty retirement pay. In return they expect that people living paycheck to paycheck will continue to provide services to them. (Fraud 45 actually declared a meat emergency). The party is circling the drain and they don’t even get it. As for Dr Seuss, he is not being censored or canceled, but most of us have grown more respectful of others since the 1940’s. One look at the rioters tells you who lacks respect.
And Fox displays in the backgrounds the covers of the very well-known and popular Green Eggs and Ham, and Cat in the Hat, instead of the more obscure books that are the ones being discontinued.
Typical misleads/lies. Now if Horton was to go......
Republicans' assumption that their base will continue to support policies based on lies and voter suppression as opposed to clear policy initiatives is fragile at best. It does not follow that opposition to anything Democratic is the way to regain power. There's no meat in that saddle. And as HCR points out, there is overwhelming support of all Americans for the American Rescue Plan. Republican legislators will still vote against the measure despite their constituents wishes. That disconnect does not bode well for their party.
The Democratic proposal to strengthen voter rights laws should be a no-brainer. Yet Republicans in their desperation instead seek to move their party forward by cheating. The egregious voter suppression legislation in state houses across the country reflects the absence of any remaining substance in Republican philosophy or policy initiatives. The question is will voters continue to support such a fragile house of cards based on lies and deception. Unfortunately, the answer is yes. Their alternate reality is alive and well.