OPINION | This article contains opinion. This site is licensed to publish this content.
The GOP stopped Democrats from breaking the filibuster effectively saving democracy, according to Fox News.
“For the People Act” needed at least 10 Republicans to support to act for it to be passed.
Not a single GOP member joined Democrats on the motion.
The rotten inner workings of Democrats' S.1 power grab have been thoroughly exposed to the light. Whichever label Democrats slap on their bill, the substance remains the same. https://t.co/1mU9ghcajr
— Leader McConnell (@LeaderMcConnell) June 22, 2021
“Democracy is in peril, here, in America,” The Biden administration stated earlier this week.
“The right to vote – a sacred right in this country – is under assault with an intensity and an aggressiveness we have not seen in a long time.”
“I want to be clear about what just happened on the Senate floor,” Schumer said immediately following the vote. “Every single Senate Republican just voted against starting debate … on legislation to protect Americans’ voting rights.”
“This vote, I’m ashamed to say, is further evidence that voter suppression has become part of the official platform of the Republican Party.”
From Fox News:
The voting rights legislation, if enacted, would take aim at big-dollar donors and dark money in politics by requiring additional disclosure of campaign donors and disclaimers on political advertising. Presidential candidates would also be required to release their tax returns.
It would set up a new 6-1 public matching financing system for congressional elections to encourage more grassroots donations and require states to adopt independent redistricting commissions to prevent partisan gerrymandering.
And the legislation would set basic standards for states to run elections, such as mandating at least 15 days of early voting, setting up automatic voter registration, and permitting the use of student IDs or sworn written statements in states that have voter identification requirements.
A top Democratic political adviser criticized his own party for wasting time on the S.1 legislation that won’t pass. Dmitri Mehlhorn, a key confidant to Democratic funder Reid Hoffman, argued the legislative push was setting the party up for failure and “dragging me and my country off a cliff,” according to a report in POLITICO.
Progressives are demanding that Senate Democrats get rid of the legislative filibuster so they can pass the sweeping election reforms, D.C. statehood bill, gun control and police reform bills without any GOP support. But Manchin and Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema have doubled down on their opposition to eliminating the filibuster, meaning any pathway forward on voting reforms would need GOP support.
