Manchin and Sinema make their choice: Defend the filibuster or democracy – By Amanda Marcotte (Salon) / June 22 2021
There is no such thing as 10 good Republicans. Can Manchin and Sinema give up “bipartisan” fantasies?
It’s unclear if Sen. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., is an idiot or is just pretending to be for some ulterior reason. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter, because she reminded Americans this week that there is nothing, not even destroying democracy, that Republicans can do that will convince her that it’s important to let the party that won power in the 2020 election — her own party! — govern. Worse, she refuses to take extremely basic measures to prevent the Republicans from enshrining themselves into permanent minority rule.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is making the unusual move of bringing up the For the People Act, Democrats’ marquee voting rights and campaign finance reform bill, for a vote on a motion to proceed to debate, despite knowing that Republicans are absolutely going to filibuster it. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, in a sad sign of how routine Republican obstruction has become, rarely has to bother to even have his caucus show up to block a floor debate. Merely signaling that they plan to filibuster — which Republicans do on nearly every bill the Democratic majority wants to pass — is usually enough to keep the majority from even trying to start debate.
But this is a voting rights bill just as Republicans have waged an all-out assault on democracy.
As Schumer explained on Monday, there is an emergency need to pass such legislation, because, “Donald Trump, with his despicable lies, has lit a fire beneath Republican state legislatures, and they have launched the most sweeping voter suppression efforts in at least, in at least 80 years.”
