People fill out their ballots during the midterm election at Philomont Fire Station, in Purcellville, Virginia, U.S., November 6, 2018. REUTERS/Al Drago
Last updated on July 18th, 2021 at 04:59 am
Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) said that all 50 Senate Democrats support the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and key provisions of the For The People Act.
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Sen. Kaine said on MSNBC:
The job description is battling for Virginia and development and education. After January 6th, that oath is my job description. And we have to, in order to fulfill that oath, protect people’s rights to vote. So you’re right. We have all 50 Democrats on board with the very robust set of protections that include elements of the John Lewis act and the for the people act. We don’t have a single Republican with us. That is no surprise. They’re not going to join with us. So I am talking to all of my colleagues, and I know reverend and others are too to say we’ve got to do this. 2,000 senators in our history have been in this chamber. Only 100 were here when there was an attempt to attack it to stop the peaceful transfer of power. The weight of history is on our shoulders to try to defend this democracy, and voting rights is critical to that.
Joe Manchin is not in favor of getting rid of the filibuster. There are all kinds of filibuster reforms that can be made that the senate is willing to make in the past, and we should be willing to make them now. Nothing in our oath talks about the filibuster. Our oath talks about the defending the constitution. We have an attack on it to overturn the peaceful transfer of power, and we have to respond.
The reason why the delay on voting rights legislation is so frustrating to many is that the holdup isn’t about agreeing on the policy.
The policy is a done deal. Everyone on the Democratic side wants to protect voting rights. The hangup is how the provisions will be passed.
It is a procedural argument, which likely makes Americans who just want voting rights protect want to bang their head off of the table.
The good news is there is a path to victory, and it doesn’t involve getting any Republican votes. At some point, Senate Democrats are going to have to sit down and decide how they are going to protect voting rights.
A filibuster carve out is possible, but reconciliation remains the better bet.
Democrats want to protect voting rights, and there is no good reason why it shouldn’t get done.
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