Declaring the Democrats’ push for Senate Bill 1, the so-called For the People Act, a “fantasy of permanent power” for the Democratic Party, Senator Bill Hagerty (R-Tenn.), spoke just before the Senate vote late Tuesday that ended — for now — that Democratic fantasy. The vote was 50-50 on a motion to debate the “voting rights” bill. All 50 Democrats voted in favor of advancing the bill, while all 50 Republicans voted against it.
Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) and Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) joined their 47 Democratic colleagues and Independent Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont in voting to begin discussion on the bill. Manchin has previously stated opposition to the Democrat Party-supported bill that passed the House of Representatives (H.R. 1), but voted to begin debate so his amended version can be considered. His bill would have made voter registration automatic, created a national holiday out of Election Day, dealt with “partisan” gerrymandering, and required a minimum of 15 days of early voting for federal elections.
But Manchin’s insistence that voter-ID regulations be more strict is opposed by most of his fellow Democrats.
Predictably, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said the Republican opposition to the bill meant that the Republicans had now made voter suppression an “official part of their platform.” Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said the Democrats were showing “disdain for the American people.”
Schumer said, “Today every single Democratic senator stood together in the fight to protect the right to vote in America. Voter suppression has become part of the official platform of the Republican Party.”
McConnell countered, “Many Democrats would pass [H.R. 1] with the slimmest possible majority, even after its companion faced bipartisan opposition over in the House.”
Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said it was “the biggest power-grab in modern American history.”
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Without the support of Manchin and Sinema to end the Senate filibuster rule, this legislation, and other legislation — such as making a state out of the federal District of Columbia and packing the U.S. Supreme Court with new members more open to a liberal agenda — will not pass. The Senate filibuster has been in the Senate rules for several decades, although it has been modified over the years. Presently, senators can state their intention to use the Senate rule of unlimited debate to continue talking until legislation is withdrawn, or amended. A cloture vote can be taken to end debate, but it takes 60 senators out of 100 to terminate a filibuster. With only 50 Democratic senators, and no Republicans willing to invoke cloture, much of the Democratic Party agenda can not be passed. Even with Vice President Kamala Harris breaking a tie to end the filibuster rule, the Democrats need every single Democrat to do so, if they have no Republican support. Manchin and Sinema have insisted they will not vote to end the filibuster rule.
Sinema, writing in the Washington Post, said, “My support for retaining the 60-vote threshold is not based on the importance of any particular policy.… The filibuster compels moderation and helps protect the country from wild swings between opposing policy poles.” She noted that were the filibuster repealed, the Republicans could use it for their advantage when they regain the Senate majority.
Which is, of course, what this bill was all about — holding onto the Congress in the upcoming 2022 elections, and beyond. Speaking just before the vote was taken, Senator Hagerty of Tennessee said the legislation was intended for a “federal take-over of federal elections in one fell swoop.” He added that it would “wash away election integrity and make it easier to cheat” in an election.
Speaking rapidly, Hagerty listed several provisions of the bill to support that conclusion. It would allow the collection of thousands of ballots and dumping them into unmanned election drop-boxes in the middle of the night; it would require counting votes several days after the election; and unregistered voters could vote on election day, without an ID.
The Federal Election Commission, which Hagerty said had previously been officially bipartisan, would be transformed into a Democratic controlled body, which could “hound” Republican candidates “to the ends of the earth.” Needless to say, fear of such would result in fewer individuals desiring to be candidates on the Republican ticket.
Ominously, the unconstitutional takeover of federal elections would create a federal redistricting process, with a liberal judge hiring a political consultant to draw congressional district boundaries in every state in the country, Hagerty said.
Hagerty declared that this effort sounds more like something one would see in Venezuela, Russia, Iran, nor China — not in the United States.
He added that saying this bill is about “voting rights” is like saying eliminating security guards at banks is all about bank security.
It is expected that the Democrats will argue that opposition to their power-grabbing legislation is a throwback to “Jim Crow,” without reminding the voters that “Jim Crow,” or segregation laws and laws suppressing the black vote, were historically perpetrated by Democratic Party officials. It seems that every issue now is about race, which is about the only thing left in the Democratic Party playbook.
For now, Democrats are not going to pass their bill that would make it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for the Republicans to ever win elections again. If the Democrats are able to hold the House, and gain a seat or two in the Senate in 2022, then expect this legislation to sail through Congress, and be signed by President Joe Biden.
