Latest: As expected the proto-fascists in the Senate upheld the fiflbuster against voting rights reform. The bourbon McConnell had the audacity to call SB1 a bill in search of a problem when 18 state legislatures controlled by the Trump Cult have passed laws restricting access to the ballot. Ending the sixty vote barrier is increasingly necessary if the Democrats hope to hold on to tenuous control of Congress. Even the wayward Joe Manchin, before becoming subject to the Money Power, supported filibuster reform ten years ago. He co-sponsored a bill that would have modified the filibuster rule to require Senators to take the floor in support of it (the old talking filibuster familiar to fans of "Mr. Smith") Here is what he said in 2011:
“West Virginians deserve a government that works for them, and they are understandably frustrated with the way things get done – or don’t – in Washington. The new rules we adopted today will ensure that we’re operating with greater transparency, and that the views of regular Americans are better represented in the Senate. I hope that these changes – along with a renewed spirit of bipartisan cooperation – will help the 112th Congress achieve the commonsense results the American people expect and deserve.”
His bill failed, just as his compromise voting rights bill failed this time because the only policy McConnell and his cronies are following is preventing what they call Obama 2.0: any and all progressive legislation be it equitable taxation, economic stimulus or preserving the fundamental right of a democracy--the ability to choose who leads. Talk about common sense, Joe? Talk about preserving democracy? Give US a break, when the Party of Sedition wants to rig the election results in advance! Man up and get on the correct side of history.
Update: How many times does the GOP have to kick Joe Manchin in the face before he joins the rest of his colleagues in supporting SB 1, the For the People voting rights bill? His cynical instance on non-existent 'bipartisanship' is a waste of time and effort. McConnell told the press that he thinks all fifty Repugnant senators would vote against Manchin's weak compromise bill. Senate Leader Schumer told Democrats at a Thursday caucus meeting that the vote on the elections bill will be Tuesday, June 22nd It will take sixty votes to move the bill pass the filibuster barricade erected by the proto-fascists, which the Demos do not have. Manchin is against SB 1's provision for public funding of elections to remove dark money and plutocratic influence. Perhaps his attitude against changing the filibuster rule will change after the Repugnants block election reform of any kind.
{16.06.21}West Virginia's excuse for a senator got caught telling big money donors what he really thinks about the filibuster holding up any progress in this nation. Basically the arcane rule is a bargaining chip in his view, which he can use to leverage changes in his party's legislative package held hostage by a hostile minority of reactionary GOP members. The Intercept revealed the content of a Zoom meeting with members of a big money donor group founded by conservative Joe Lieberman a former DINO from Connecticut. Manchin told the group he need them to negotiate with retiring Repugnant Senator Roy Blunt of Missouri to change his vote on the 1/6 Commission because the GOPs refusal to support it was energizing support for changing the filibuster rule. Even if Manchin got Blunt to flip with the help of the Money Power, he would be three votes short of passing the commission bill.
Manchin also told the group he opposes the pending infrastructure bill because it subsidizes building charging stations for electric cars across the country, and would finance carbon sequestration systems for coal power plants. He justified his opposition to charging infrastructure by claiming that the government did not subsidize gasoline stations when Henry Ford introduced the Model T! If that statement is an example of his logic, then West Virginia needs a new senator that can think strait. That statement completely ignores the obvious fact that the petroleum industry has been subsidized for at least a century by preferential tax provisions. It also ignores the disastrous impact of climate change, something that was not a thing at the beginning of the last century.
Manchin expressed support for the idea of changing the filibuster rule to require the minority to support it with 41 votes instead of the current requirement for 60 votes to impose cloture. Considering the conservative lobby group--Madison's stockjobbers become the tyrants of government-- he was talking to enthusiastically supports maintaining the current barricade to protect their profit and privilege, it may represent a significant openness on his part to some modification. He repeatedly claims he wants to make the Senate work. Well, Joe, here is a way forward, or is it campaign donations you and your closet DINOs are really concerned about?