House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) warned Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) against the “catastrophic” move of letting the filibuster stand in the way of passing The For the People Act, known as HR1, that would expand voting access, especially in communities most affected by the voting restrictions being pushed by Republicans in many states.
Huh. Voting rights favor Democratic Senators from red states. Filibuster support only favors Republicans now and forever, and it ought to be done away with. Manchin and Sinema can earn a few bargaining chips here to make their futures a little bit less painful.
I also like the idea of requiring a 40 person block to even START a filibuster. $0 people have to stand in front of a camera and state they are behind the filibuster. Having one person stop the works is wrong.
The way the filibuster process operates now requires no effort and no penalty from the party that opposes any bill. The anonymous blocking of any legislation must end, preferably with the nihilists forced to stand up and out themselves as such. @rhea I agree. Make it painful for them to deny voting rights, economic relief, and a living wage. In other words, make it painful for them to announce their opposition to popular policies.
The only way Sinema comes back from her performance vote against the minimum wage is to vote against the filibuster. Otherwise she is a effectively a Republican and should be primaried. She already created the commercial for democratic primary challenger. Manchin is the Joe Lieberman of this class and I suspect this may be either be his last term or he is thinking he always has the option to switch parties if things get really bad.
“If Manchin and Sinema enjoy being in the majority, they had better figure out a way to get around the filibuster when it comes to voting and civil rights,” Clyburn said.
Well put. There’s few things worse in politics than being in the minority party in Congress. Especially as a Democrat in a McConnell-led Senate.
All this power and attention Manchin and Sinema have now disappears if they’re in the minority. They’re smart enough to know that, and as politicians, obviously believe in self-preservation.
A post of mine from another thread, in response to a great post by @ralph_vonholst
[" El Gales , thank you for acknowledging the centrality of Clyburn in these times.
Clyburn understands the concept of “standing on the shoulders of others”.
There was a sleeper film called Brother Future , in which a present-day African American was whisked back to 1820s Charleston, SC. It has a good cast of actors.
One of the things which impressed me was a dialogue with a slave (played by Moses Gunn) who marveled at the rights that the youngster told him about that African Americans had as post-slavery people, decades into the future.
I never lost sight of the fact that the older man knew that he would die a slave. "]
A dear childhood memory takes me back to the time when I went about as far from desexing potatoes as you can get. I was just trying to be funny when I put men parts and lady parts on the same potato. It was a horrific omnisexual blob.
As a young academic, I used materials what were written by people employed by the WPA…I also did site visits near the Blue Ridge Parkway…in addition to areas served by the TVA.
I also have traveled Ike’s Interstate Highway System. (like today)
I am getting fucking tired of these goddamned Republicans using racial hatred to gut this country and its people.
We need to get some Momentum and turn the American People loose.