Manchin Puts Forward His Compromise Proposal For Voting Rights Bills | Talking Points Memo

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#139

This is much better news than Manchin’s blanket refusal stated in his editorial, although it depends, of course, on what happens when the GOP opposes the bill – and what the heck is going on in Krysten Sinema’s bizarre head. I had thought Manchin was completely opposed to anything in SR1 – the fact that he supports a bill that bans partisan gerrymandering, makes Election Day a holiday (a liberal pipe dream 5 years ago), supports mandated early in person voting and, my God – automatic voter registration – with, apparently, some campaign finance – someone’s gotten through to him.

There are two main questions: Does Sinema support all of this as well? And are the two of them, plus the “quiet moderates,” willing to tweak the filibuster to get an up-or-down vote?

I can’t speak for anyone else here, but I was sure the bill was completely dead in the water. The fact that Manchin supports as much as he does – and feels comfortable saying so publicly – is extremely heartening. Now we gotta call our own Senators (he said, having been very remiss in pressuring the addled Dianne Feinstein.)

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#140

Exactly.

I’d just like Manchin to tell the GOP Senators, “I need ten votes for this, or I blow up the filibuster. Go get ten votes NOW.”

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#141

Is that the problem? I thought his structure needed some infra. But, what do I know?

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#142

i have absentee voted once, and that was when the pandemic was rampant.[Florida] the one thing i have issues with is voter registration…i show my ID everytime i go to the polls, people have 4 years between elections… i don’t see any reasons why they can’t get registered…this 'registered] on voting day is rediculous…how can an address be verified???

#143

Evidently, you didn’t actually read my post.

#144

Fine rhetorical point about whether someone elected vice president is elected or reelected president if he or she succeeds.

Very clear Johnson wouldn’t have survived a second full term, though. Barely made it five years even without the stress.

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#145

Did read it and think I got it right and agree with much of what you say. Compromise is the answer to the continuation of a civil society (and critical to us all as a species).

But ‘changes’ Republicans want to make have nothing to do with compromise. The final legislation won’t be worth the paper it’s written on by the time they’re finished getting the nod from McConnell and the rest of their party.

They have no intention in dealing in “good faith”, the starting point to compromise. That’s the issue.

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#146

It all hinged on his re-election. This ain’t '64.

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#147

I was talking about progressive activists who cannot play the long game. Getting rid of partisan gerrymandering alone will screw the Republicans for a century…then we can take te rest piece by piece. Why is this conceot so difficult for some people?

#148

Next you’re going to tell me that poll lines will get shorter, too.

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#149

How are people with money in their hands who can’t vote going to help keep Congress?

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#150

Please name ONE SINGLE FUCKING DEMOCRAT who is “holding out for everything”. Right now we are getting ZERO. Do you understand the concept of “ZERO”? (Hint: It is considerably less than “everything”.) Because that is where we are. And that is where we will remain unless and until the filibuster is trashed. Because for all of Manchin’s moaning about wanting “bipartisanship”, the fact remains that he cannot deliver 10 Republican votes for ANY Democratic proposal - including his own. In case you missed the news, McConnell just told Manchin to take his compromise offer and shove it.

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#151

And how exactly are we going to do that? Please enlighten us as to the mechanism that is going to achieve this magic trick. Since there still will not be one single Republican vote for it.

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#152

Dude, I’m on your side. Take a deep breath. Or a handful of Valium. But please calm down.

#153

Maybe you could stop spouting this tired bullshit.

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#154

You may think you are, but the fact is that you are living in a fantasy world, tilting against fantasy straw men. Every single argument you have made in this discussion has been an attack against positions that NO ONE is taking. And by doing so you are completely ignoring the very REAL problems that need to be overcome if we are going to succeed.

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#155

Y’all don’t know what is going on in Congress behind the scenes.

There is talk that Schumer has 11 GOP ready to vote for the revised bill. For all we know that is true.

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#156

Or, at least, that’s how shit got done in a democracy when Democrats controlled 2/3 of the Senate.

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#157

You seem a bit “on edge.” My point was that there are a lot of things in HR1 that are causing the pushback. Maybe we remove DC statehood for now and focus on getting long-term change, like eliminating gerrymandered districts. That alone would be a huge victory. Then, once the tables are righted and the field is level, we wipe the floor with them in election after election and vote in the rest - DC, lobbying, Puerto Rico, the whole thing. Democrats suck at poker, and that’s what we need right now.

#158

Well, except yeah, but it was segregationist Democrats who filibustered the bill that forced him to get Mike Mansfield and Republicans on board to invoke cloture against him . . .

Put 'em in a hell of a bind. African Americans were still an important Republican constituency in many northern states, but voting for it made it likely that many of those voters would move to the Democratic Party.

No one except Johnson anticipated the great migration of white segregationists to the party of Lincoln, Sherman and Grant.

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