This afternoon, Senate Republicans blocked a discussion of the Freedom to Vote Act. The measure is the compromise bill put together by seven Democrats and one Independent after Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) said he could not support the more sweeping For the People Act passed by the House of Representatives. Manchin maintained that a carefully crafted bill could attract the ten Republican senators it needed to break a filibuster.
This is enough and more than enough. Pass a rules change now to allow measures dealing with voting rights to bypass the filibuster. Also reform the filibuster for all other legislation not already exempted to restore the talking filibuster and require 41 votes at any time requested by a member to continue debate. This forces the minority to be in attendance and holding the floor with reasonable debate to block legislation.
One thing that's clear to me that I don't think is getting enough (any?) press is the idea of moderate Republicans. Susan Collins and Mitt Romney sure reaped a lot of press when the former president was around, but where are they now? Voting in lock-step with Mitch and his minions. Where is the character? Who in that cult will stand up at a 90-degree angle and show us their profile in courage? You know the answer.
As a constituent, I phoned the Bangor office of Sen. Susan Collins (R, Maine) about her opposition to the voting bill. As expected, the young GOP automaton, rattled off a hash of half truths. The message was 'Be afraid, be very afraid, Democrats are going to destroy Maine's voting laws.' He didn't even know Maine's voting laws.
Here is the irony. Or the height of Collins' hypocrisy. The proposed legislation has low bar national minimum requirements. Maine has some of the most progressive voting laws in the nation - weeks of early voting, same day registration, no voter ID, absentee ballots, mail in ballots, drop boxes, ballots counted after election day, clean election campaign options, voting while in prison *and* Ranked Choice Voting. We also split our Electoral College votes. We have just joined a consortium of states sharing electronic records to keep the registration data up to date. In fact, it's said that our state motto DIRIGO (we lead) refers to our progressive voting laws. We also lead in voter participation.(I think often 3rd in the nation.)
Republicans claim that voters' rights protections and high voter turnout means Republican candidates won't ever get elected. Sadly, Collins disproves their assertions.
One person commenting on current events yesterday spoke of what she called "human nature" (and I'd call the built-in flaws of human nature). Things like ignorance, cruelty, selfish greed, the lust for money and power.
I countered that the relative proportions of these things vary, in persons, countries, historical periods.
Some, for instance, focus exclusively on amassing wealth (and the cruelty this may entail, the political power too, are secondary) while for others, power is the prime motivation.
We tend to neglect motives that were of central importance to our predecessors until very recently and still are important in other cultures. One cause of incompetence in our management of foreign affairs.
A crucial factor in 17th and 18th century European societies was honor, and consequently, one's word of honor. At the very least, appearances of honorability... The drafters of the Constitution could not have conceived of a society like ours, in which there's no longer even honor among thieves (omertà depending only on terror).
Consequently, the constitutional compact has become meaningless in a society that no longer has any idea of what honor means and in which truth itself has been undermined, both deliberately, by abusers of power, and as a consequence of the sudden upsurge of "virtual reality", a new cuckoo in our nest.
I am struck -- thunderstruck -- by the blindness of Americans to what is upon them NOW -- and therefore about to fall on all heads everywhere. Either too busy on the treadmill to be able to think anything through or passive-aggressive ruminants with colic, tethered to a telescreen...
Zuckerberg's plans are potentially more disastrous even than McConnell's. Fbook needs to be taken down -- but above all Z and his archetypal "mad scientists" with their "Metaverse" must be stopped Urgently.
What an obscene mess.
It feels as though our civilization has died -- as every civilization must -- but hasn't yet understood that it is dead and in chaotic transition to... something else...
Supposing this were so -- hard for us to get our minds around around the agony and passing of what's so much more long-lasting than ourselves -- ours is a time when bold determination must transcend fear. Our responsibility as human beings could hardly be greater than it is now.
I read this and am struck once again, Heather, by your calm and measured writing voice. I am so put out with the elected federal level GOP's shenanigans that I cannot see straight. Your tone, Heather, helps me keep from screaming in outrage and scaring the dog.
Republicans - as a herd - continue to put party power over country. I’ve rarely been so spitting mad at my country. Refusing to even deliberate is NOT governing. I write to Reps and Senators, but basically feel helpless. Democrats in Congress need to stop being Charlie Brown and letting Republicans play Lucy with the football. 😡😢
Early tonight for you, Dr. R. Thank you! I hope you get some good rest tonight!
Thank you for more insight and history, Dr. R. It looks to me as if almost all the Republicans in the House and the Senate want only to follow rules they will make up. They all took an oath to support and defend the Constitution. And they are all breaking their oaths. Some of them could be rightly accused of sedition. They are disgusting and dangerous.
Jamie Raskin did a marvelous job on Gaetz and Jordan. It was quite a pleasure to watch. It's a shame his mother, who I knew, is not around to see how far he's come.
So, Manchin was stalling, deliberately running out the clock? I believe in the rule of law, and in Procedure, but when one group is using every cheat anybody ever thought of, & the other is scrupulously playing by the rules something is going to break somewhere, and I worry that it’s going to be our democracy.
I am very confused. I might be off base in my thinking. Could someone or a few someones help me out here?
From what I understand, we're stuck with the filibuster because certain Democrats don't want to do away with it since democrats may want to use it when Republicans are the majority. Can Democrats vote to alter or do away with the filibuster with no support from Republicans? If the Dems. can, then Republicans will be able to do it once they are the majority. I'm pretty sure that as soon as they get the opportunity, they will vote to do away with it, so the Democrats are unable to take advantage of it.
Do I not understand something? Am I way off base? If I am correct, why do the few Dems. who are against any changes in the filibuster not see the logic of eliminating it now before it bites us in the butt.
It is far worse than you are stating -- if the filibuster rule isn't modified for voting rights it's because of two senators who had 1,484,510 votes COMBINED to earn their positions, which is fewer than 1% of the number of 2020 voters. The combined populations of West Virgina (1.8 million) and Arizona (7.9 million) is less than that of Los Angeles County. So it is NOT Senators representing 21% of the country that will block voting rights and turn this into one party rule, it's two Senators representing less than 3% of the country.
I've been reading Caro's LBJ biographies. (I was born in 1980, so it is all new to me.) The similarities are distressing; we have made so little progress on voting in 50 years. And the filibuster was at the heart of it then, too. What on earth is it going to take?
There is no bill more important than the "Freedom to Vote Act". None. With minority GQP rule every positive step to fight the Climate Crisis will be crushed. The rich will get richer. The poor will get poorer. There will be too much water and not enough to drink (unless you are rich and sipping your Fiji water on your yacht).
1) I wonder if Joe Manchin is "surprised" that the Republicans are blocking the voting rights legislation that he deliberately watered down because he insisted that he could find 10 Republican Senators to support it? I somehow doubt it.
2) The House Republicans are simply attempting to run out the clock on this congressional investigation of the 1/6 insurrection. In that goal, they are actually succeeding. Things are moving much too slowly and we all know that once the new Congress is sworn in, this inquiry will be halted immediately because the Republicans will then control the House.
Say their names. Not “the Republicans.” Name them.
Senator Richard Shelby of ALABAMA is blocking the right to vote.
Senator Tommy Tuberville of ALABAMA is blocking the right to vote.
Senator Dan Sullivan of ALASKA is blocking the right to vote.
Senator Lisa Murkowski of ALASKA is blocking the right to vote.
Senator John Boozman of ARKANSAS is blocking the right to vote.
Senator Tom Cotton of ARKANSAS is blocking the right to vote.
Senator Marco Rubio of FLORIDA is blocking the right to vote.
Senator Rick Scott of FLORIDA is blocking the right to vote.
Senator Jim Risch of IDAHO is blocking the right to vote.
Senator Mike Crapo of IDAHO is blocking the right to vote.
Senator Mike Braun of INDIANA is blocking the right to vote.
Senator Todd Young of INDIANA is blocking the right to vote.
Senator Chuck Grassley of IOWA is blocking the right to vote.
Senator Joni Ernst of IOWA is blocking the right to vote.
Senator Jerry Moran of KANSAS is blocking the right to vote.
Senator Roger Marshall of KANSAS is blocking the right to vote.
Senator Mitch McConnell of KENTUCKY is blocking the right to vote.
Senator Rand Paul of KENTUCKY is blocking the right to vote.
Senator Bill Cassidy of LOUISIANA is blocking the right to vote.
Senator John Kennedy of LOUISIANA is blocking the right to vote.
Senator Susan Collins of MAINE is blocking the right to vote.
Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith of MISSISSIPPI is blocking the right to vote.
Senator Roger Wicker of MISSISSIPPI is blocking the right to vote.
Senator Josh Hawley of MISSOURI is blocking the right to vote.
Senator Roy Blunt of MISSOURI is blocking the right to vote.
Senator Steve Daines of MONTANA is blocking the right to vote.
Senator Ben Sasse of NEBRASKA is blocking the right to vote.
Senator Deb Fischer of NEBRASKA is blocking the right to vote.
Senator Richard Burr of NORTH CAROLINA is blocking the right to vote.
Senator Thom Tillis of NORTH CAROLINA is blocking the right to vote.
Senator John Hoeven of NORTH DAKOTA is blocking the right to vote.
Senator Kevin Cramer of NORTH DAKOTA is blocking the right to vote.
Senator Rob Portman of OHIO is blocking the right to vote.
Senator James Lankford of OKLAHOMA is blocking the right to vote.
Senator Jim Inhofe of OKLAHOMA is blocking the right to vote.
Senator Pat Toomey of PENNSYLVANIA is blocking the right to vote.
Senator Lindsey Graham of SOUTH CAROLINA is blocking the right to vote.
Senator Tim Scott of SOUTH CAROLINA is blocking the right to vote.
Senator John Thune of SOUTH DAKOTA is blocking the right to vote.
Senator Mike Rounds of SOUTH DAKOTA is blocking the right to vote.
Senator Bill Hagerty of TENNESSEE is blocking the right to vote.
Senator Marsha Blackburn of TENNESSEE is blocking the right to vote.
Senator John Cornyn of TEXAS is blocking the right to vote.
Senator Ted Cruz of TEXAS is blocking the right to vote.
Senator Mike Lee of UTAH is blocking the right to vote.
Senator Mitt Romney of UTAH is blocking the right to vote.
Senator Shelley Moore Capito of WEST VIRGINIA is blocking the right to vote.
Senator Ron Johnson of WISCONSIN is blocking the right to vote.
Senator Cynthia Lummis of WYOMING is blocking the right to vote.
Senator John Barrasso of WYOMING is blocking the right to vote.
#namethevillain
#SayTheirName
This is enough and more than enough. Pass a rules change now to allow measures dealing with voting rights to bypass the filibuster. Also reform the filibuster for all other legislation not already exempted to restore the talking filibuster and require 41 votes at any time requested by a member to continue debate. This forces the minority to be in attendance and holding the floor with reasonable debate to block legislation.
No more minority rule for American democracy.
At some point the legal system has to start putting these people in actual prison instead of just making it look like they might
One thing that's clear to me that I don't think is getting enough (any?) press is the idea of moderate Republicans. Susan Collins and Mitt Romney sure reaped a lot of press when the former president was around, but where are they now? Voting in lock-step with Mitch and his minions. Where is the character? Who in that cult will stand up at a 90-degree angle and show us their profile in courage? You know the answer.
As a constituent, I phoned the Bangor office of Sen. Susan Collins (R, Maine) about her opposition to the voting bill. As expected, the young GOP automaton, rattled off a hash of half truths. The message was 'Be afraid, be very afraid, Democrats are going to destroy Maine's voting laws.' He didn't even know Maine's voting laws.
Here is the irony. Or the height of Collins' hypocrisy. The proposed legislation has low bar national minimum requirements. Maine has some of the most progressive voting laws in the nation - weeks of early voting, same day registration, no voter ID, absentee ballots, mail in ballots, drop boxes, ballots counted after election day, clean election campaign options, voting while in prison *and* Ranked Choice Voting. We also split our Electoral College votes. We have just joined a consortium of states sharing electronic records to keep the registration data up to date. In fact, it's said that our state motto DIRIGO (we lead) refers to our progressive voting laws. We also lead in voter participation.(I think often 3rd in the nation.)
Republicans claim that voters' rights protections and high voter turnout means Republican candidates won't ever get elected. Sadly, Collins disproves their assertions.
One person commenting on current events yesterday spoke of what she called "human nature" (and I'd call the built-in flaws of human nature). Things like ignorance, cruelty, selfish greed, the lust for money and power.
I countered that the relative proportions of these things vary, in persons, countries, historical periods.
Some, for instance, focus exclusively on amassing wealth (and the cruelty this may entail, the political power too, are secondary) while for others, power is the prime motivation.
We tend to neglect motives that were of central importance to our predecessors until very recently and still are important in other cultures. One cause of incompetence in our management of foreign affairs.
A crucial factor in 17th and 18th century European societies was honor, and consequently, one's word of honor. At the very least, appearances of honorability... The drafters of the Constitution could not have conceived of a society like ours, in which there's no longer even honor among thieves (omertà depending only on terror).
Consequently, the constitutional compact has become meaningless in a society that no longer has any idea of what honor means and in which truth itself has been undermined, both deliberately, by abusers of power, and as a consequence of the sudden upsurge of "virtual reality", a new cuckoo in our nest.
I am struck -- thunderstruck -- by the blindness of Americans to what is upon them NOW -- and therefore about to fall on all heads everywhere. Either too busy on the treadmill to be able to think anything through or passive-aggressive ruminants with colic, tethered to a telescreen...
Zuckerberg's plans are potentially more disastrous even than McConnell's. Fbook needs to be taken down -- but above all Z and his archetypal "mad scientists" with their "Metaverse" must be stopped Urgently.
What an obscene mess.
It feels as though our civilization has died -- as every civilization must -- but hasn't yet understood that it is dead and in chaotic transition to... something else...
Supposing this were so -- hard for us to get our minds around around the agony and passing of what's so much more long-lasting than ourselves -- ours is a time when bold determination must transcend fear. Our responsibility as human beings could hardly be greater than it is now.
I read this and am struck once again, Heather, by your calm and measured writing voice. I am so put out with the elected federal level GOP's shenanigans that I cannot see straight. Your tone, Heather, helps me keep from screaming in outrage and scaring the dog.
Republicans - as a herd - continue to put party power over country. I’ve rarely been so spitting mad at my country. Refusing to even deliberate is NOT governing. I write to Reps and Senators, but basically feel helpless. Democrats in Congress need to stop being Charlie Brown and letting Republicans play Lucy with the football. 😡😢
Early tonight for you, Dr. R. Thank you! I hope you get some good rest tonight!
Thank you for more insight and history, Dr. R. It looks to me as if almost all the Republicans in the House and the Senate want only to follow rules they will make up. They all took an oath to support and defend the Constitution. And they are all breaking their oaths. Some of them could be rightly accused of sedition. They are disgusting and dangerous.
Jamie Raskin did a marvelous job on Gaetz and Jordan. It was quite a pleasure to watch. It's a shame his mother, who I knew, is not around to see how far he's come.
So, Manchin was stalling, deliberately running out the clock? I believe in the rule of law, and in Procedure, but when one group is using every cheat anybody ever thought of, & the other is scrupulously playing by the rules something is going to break somewhere, and I worry that it’s going to be our democracy.
I am very confused. I might be off base in my thinking. Could someone or a few someones help me out here?
From what I understand, we're stuck with the filibuster because certain Democrats don't want to do away with it since democrats may want to use it when Republicans are the majority. Can Democrats vote to alter or do away with the filibuster with no support from Republicans? If the Dems. can, then Republicans will be able to do it once they are the majority. I'm pretty sure that as soon as they get the opportunity, they will vote to do away with it, so the Democrats are unable to take advantage of it.
Do I not understand something? Am I way off base? If I am correct, why do the few Dems. who are against any changes in the filibuster not see the logic of eliminating it now before it bites us in the butt.
It is far worse than you are stating -- if the filibuster rule isn't modified for voting rights it's because of two senators who had 1,484,510 votes COMBINED to earn their positions, which is fewer than 1% of the number of 2020 voters. The combined populations of West Virgina (1.8 million) and Arizona (7.9 million) is less than that of Los Angeles County. So it is NOT Senators representing 21% of the country that will block voting rights and turn this into one party rule, it's two Senators representing less than 3% of the country.
I've been reading Caro's LBJ biographies. (I was born in 1980, so it is all new to me.) The similarities are distressing; we have made so little progress on voting in 50 years. And the filibuster was at the heart of it then, too. What on earth is it going to take?
There is no bill more important than the "Freedom to Vote Act". None. With minority GQP rule every positive step to fight the Climate Crisis will be crushed. The rich will get richer. The poor will get poorer. There will be too much water and not enough to drink (unless you are rich and sipping your Fiji water on your yacht).
Carve this out of the filibuster rule. Do it now!
1) I wonder if Joe Manchin is "surprised" that the Republicans are blocking the voting rights legislation that he deliberately watered down because he insisted that he could find 10 Republican Senators to support it? I somehow doubt it.
2) The House Republicans are simply attempting to run out the clock on this congressional investigation of the 1/6 insurrection. In that goal, they are actually succeeding. Things are moving much too slowly and we all know that once the new Congress is sworn in, this inquiry will be halted immediately because the Republicans will then control the House.