Coming February 6, 2024 . . .
MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE
by Michael Wolraich
Pre-order at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop
Coming February 6, 2024 . . . MURDER, POLITICS, AND THE END OF THE JAZZ AGE by Michael Wolraich Pre-order at Barnes & Noble / Amazon / Books-A-Million / Bookshop |
The right to vote is fundamental to our American democracy and protecting that right should not be about party or politics. Least of all, protecting this right, which is a value I share, should never be done in a partisan manner.
During my time as West Virginia’s secretary of state, I was determined to protect this right and ensure our elections are fair, accessible and secure. Not to benefit my party but all the people of West Virginia. For example, as secretary of state I took specific actions to establish early voting for the first time in West Virginia in order to provide expanded options for those whose work or family schedule made it difficult for them to vote on Election Day. Throughout my tenure in politics, I have been guided by this simple philosophy — our party labels can’t prevent us from doing what is right.
Unfortunately, we now are witnessing that the fundamental right to vote has itself become overtly politicized. Today’s debate about how to best protect our right to vote and to hold elections, however, is not about finding common ground, but seeking partisan advantage. Whether it is state laws that seek to needlessly restrict voting or politicians who ignore the need to secure our elections, partisan policymaking won’t instill confidence in our democracy — it will destroy it.
As such, congressional action on federal voting rights legislation must be the result of both Democrats and Republicans coming together to find a pathway forward or we risk further dividing and destroying the republic we swore to protect and defend as elected officials.
Democrats in Congress have proposed a sweeping election reform bill called the For the People Act. This more than 800-page bill has garnered zero Republican support. Why? Are the very Republican senators who voted to impeach Trump because of actions that led to an attack on our democracy unwilling to support actions to strengthen our democracy? Are these same senators, whom many in my party applauded for their courage, now threats to the very democracy we seek to protect?
The truth, I would argue, is that voting and election reform that is done in a partisan manner will all but ensure partisan divisions continue to deepen
The right to vote is fundamental to our American democracy and protecting that right should not be about party or politics. Least of all, protecting this right, which is a value I share, should never be done in a partisan manner.
During my time as West Virginia’s secretary of state, I was determined to protect this right and ensure our elections are fair, accessible and secure. Not to benefit my party but all the people of West Virginia. For example, as secretary of state I took specific actions to establish early voting for the first time in West Virginia in order to provide expanded options for those whose work or family schedule made it difficult for them to vote on Election Day. Throughout my tenure in politics, I have been guided by this simple philosophy — our party labels can’t prevent us from doing what is right.
Unfortunately, we now are witnessing that the fundamental right to vote has itself become overtly politicized. Today’s debate about how to best protect our right to vote and to hold elections, however, is not about finding common ground, but seeking partisan advantage. Whether it is state laws that seek to needlessly restrict voting or politicians who ignore the need to secure our elections, partisan policymaking won’t instill confidence in our democracy — it will destroy it.
As such, congressional action on federal voting rights legislation must be the result of both Democrats and Republicans coming together to find a pathway forward or we risk further dividing and destroying the republic we swore to protect and defend as elected officials.
Democrats in Congress have proposed a sweeping election reform bill called the For the People Act. This more than 800-page bill has garnered zero Republican support. Why? Are the very Republican senators who voted to impeach Trump because of actions that led to an attack on our democracy unwilling to support actions to strengthen our democracy? Are these same senators, whom many in my party applauded for their courage, now threats to the very democracy we seek to protect?
The truth, I would argue, is that voting and election reform that is done in a partisan manner will all but ensure partisan divisions continue to deepen
Comments
Manchin points out the lie of the position taken by Fukuyama and Appiah. Reaching across the aisle is impossible. You cannot negotiate with people who, in the name of white identity politics, say that Trump is the rightful President. Manchin, a supposed ally, is willing to let issues to combat things like voter suppression die. Fukuyama and Appiah have no real world application.
by rmrd0000 on Sun, 06/06/2021 - 2:24pm
Sen. Angus King (I-ME) said on Sunday that while he is “very reluctant” to abolish the legislative filibuster, he would side with passing voting-rights legislation over the filibuster if he had to make a choice. With moderate Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema opposing any elimination or weakening of the filibuster to pass the Biden administration’s agenda items, King—who caucuses with Democrats—was pressed by CNN anchor Jake Tapper on his stance.
“Not in general,” King replied when asked if he was ready to “get rid of the filibuster,” adding: “I’m very reluctant about it. But if it comes down to voting rights and the rights of Americans to go to the polls and select their leaders versus the filibuster, I’ll choose democracy.”
https://www.thedailybeast.com/sen-angus-king-very-reluctant-to-end-filibuster-but-will-choose-democracy-over-it?ref=home
by rmrd0000 on Sun, 06/06/2021 - 5:58pm
Mondaire Jones Says Manchin Op-Ed Might as Well Be Titled 'Why I'll Vote to Preserve Jim Crow'
https://www.newsweek.com/mondaire-jones-says-manchin-op-ed-might-well-titled-why-ill-vote-preserve-jim-crow-1597966
by rmrd0000 on Sun, 06/06/2021 - 9:16pm
retweeted by Mark Murray, senior political editor for NBC News:
by artappraiser on Mon, 06/07/2021 - 11:30pm
The 800 page Bill passed by the House is frankly ridiculous, even if there were 60 Democrat senators if would not pass, and if it did, it would be blicked by courts and litigated for years. The NYT lead editorial today :
...Democrats in Congress have crafted an election bill, H.R. 1, that is poorly matched to the moment. The legislation attempts to accomplish more than is currently feasible, while failing to address some of the clearest threats to democracy, especially the prospect that state officials will seek to overturn the will of voters.... Because there is little chance the bill will pass in its current form, Democrats face a clear choice. They can wage what might be a symbolic (and likely doomed) fight for all the changes they would like. Or they can confront the acute crisis at hand by crafting a more focused bill, perhaps more palatable for more senators, that aims squarely at ensuring that Americans can cast votes and that those votes are counted....
by NCD on Sun, 06/06/2021 - 10:11pm
Thanks, I'll check it out.
by rmrd0000 on Sun, 06/06/2021 - 11:41pm
Montellaro covers voting rights topic for Politico:
he mentions Rick Hasen, who is "Election Law Blogger" as well as Professor of Law and Political Science at UC Irvine; and most recently author of "Election Meltdown" (http://electionmeltdown.com) that many people consider the major expert on topic. Hasen's twitter feed is https://twitter.com/rickhasen and it is a good idea to follow him if you are interested in this.
I see Hasen retweeted the above and he also retweeted this:
by artappraiser on Mon, 06/07/2021 - 12:11am
another related thing Hasen just retweeted (and Kanefield is herself a law professor at UC Berkeley)
by artappraiser on Mon, 06/07/2021 - 12:16am
pile-on (of a meme I've seen a lot):
She's a Dem and a lawyer and fed up reading politically stupid people. Beyond that I don't know anything about her. She also retweeted this, a good thought-provoker
by artappraiser on Mon, 06/07/2021 - 6:25pm
You can tell the truth with enough information left out that it's a lie. While it may be true that Manchin has voted with the democrats more often than Sanders I'd bet that looked at on a case by case basis Sanders has voted with the dems more often when his vote was needed. And going forward I'll bet that Sanders votes with the dems on moderate legislation more than Manchin will.
by ocean-kat on Mon, 06/07/2021 - 6:58pm
Calling Manchin's bluff
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/06/07/time-call-manchins-bluff/
by rmrd0000 on Mon, 06/07/2021 - 10:39am
Highly unusual for CNN'S Chief Congressional Correspondent Manu Raju to make a comment like this:
Klobuchar has clarified:
by artappraiser on Mon, 06/07/2021 - 2:20pm
....The internal contradiction of Manchin’s position (on the right to vote) is summarized in the first two sentences (in his just published op-ed). The first one establishes that the right to vote is fundamental: “The right to vote is fundamental to our American democracy and protecting that right should not be about party or politics.” But in the next line, he qualifies that this right can “never” be protected in a partisan fashion: “Least of all, protecting this right, which is a value I share, should never be done in a partisan manner.”
Here we have two values in conflict: the right to vote, and the evil of partisan voting laws. Manchin claims the first to be “fundamental,” but if he is unwilling to violate the second value to secure it, then it clearly isn’t......
Jon Chait
by NCD on Mon, 06/07/2021 - 2:32pm
Manchin is either for democracy or he he is for authoritarian government.
We cannot sugarcoat what the endpoint of his position will be.
The filibuster is it in the Constitution.
Edit to add:
MLK
https://vadogwood.com/2021/06/07/rashid-dr-king-not-joe-manchin-was-right-about-the-filibuster/
by rmrd0000 on Mon, 06/07/2021 - 10:33pm
Manchin is either for democracy or he he is for authoritarian government.
His vote on the For the People bill doesn't support that conclusions. He supports a more modest bill. Since some parts of this bill support things that a majority of people don't like it makes sense he opposes it. A majority of the public supports voter ID laws. Even a majority of black people support them. Just because you and some liberals are against them isn't a reason to ban them. If a majority of the public and a majority of black people are against parts of the bill why should Manchin support it?
by ocean-kat on Tue, 06/08/2021 - 12:34am
The left hates Joe Manchin. His fellow Senate Dems are staying quiet.
Yet angst is quietly rising inside the Democratic caucus over his approach. “Of course I’m frustrated. Who isn’t frustrated?” one Democratic senator said.
By BURGESS EVERETT and MARIANNE LEVINE @ Politico.com, 06/07/2021 07:24 PM EDT
by artappraiser on Mon, 06/07/2021 - 11:18pm
also from Hanna Trudo @ TheHill.com, 06/07/21 06:50 PM EDT
by artappraiser on Mon, 06/07/2021 - 11:22pm
Speaks volumes
by rmrd0000 on Mon, 06/07/2021 - 11:47pm
I checked out his Twitter feed, turns out his last tweets came before he wrote the op-ed, and they have nothing to do with any voting act. I learned something. That he's not all talk, he just does stuff the left for some reason is not interested in. It seems he is seriously into activism that will benefit his constituents and chairs a Senate Dem group that advocates in that area, GO FIGURE, he doesn't just sit around trying to figure out how to play political games that will irritate the left but actually is trying to help his state and his country with serious projects!
first there's this retweet of a tweet by a group he CHAIRS, quoting his statement
followed by these:
by artappraiser on Tue, 06/08/2021 - 12:34am
and the day before those, he retweeted this one with his picture included and it make me think of what Trump thought about turbines and how he also liked to blather about reviving American steel:
by artappraiser on Tue, 06/08/2021 - 12:43am
Eugene Robinson WaPo
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/06/07/joe-manchin-retreats-fantasyland-sticks-america-with-consequences/
by rmrd0000 on Tue, 06/08/2021 - 9:05am
Republicans are willing to lie and cheat to win
There are not enough Congressional Republicans to support bipartisanship on major issues
The problem is not with the Woke or BLM
The problem is with the vast majority of Republicans who stand in silence as their leadership in Congress and in state legislatures plot a coup.
by rmrd0000 on Tue, 06/08/2021 - 10:55am
How do you think all those Republican Senators got there? If The problem is not with the Woke or BLM., which you often cluelessly repeat
why did Jim Clyburn tell all the Dems in Congress the he didn't want to hear the words "socialism" or "defund" until the special Georgia election for two Senators was over?
If Clyburn hadn't said STFU to "the Woke or BLM" there might be 48 Democratic Senators and not 50.
Check out what Senator Warnock said about Senator Manchin upthread, how he is handling his colleague Senator Manchin. He won a place in the Senate via the Georgia electorate and is attempting to keep it.
by artappraiser on Tue, 06/08/2021 - 3:18pm
p.s. I'll copy the Warnock cite for you from the Politico article, as I doubt you'll search the thread for it
and I'd like to emphasize his phrase
by artappraiser on Tue, 06/08/2021 - 3:26pm
do you really still believe that if everybody voted this would magically turn into Woke Country? did you read any of the analysis of the 2020 election where there was massive turnout and surprise, surprise, surprise many "p.o.c" who hadn't much voted before, if at all, voted Republican? Or did you just shut your eyes and ears to reality?
by artappraiser on Tue, 06/08/2021 - 3:38pm
The current discussion is about Manchin and his inability to produce 10 Republicans to support major legislation.
by rmrd0000 on Tue, 06/08/2021 - 3:39pm
Clyburn is currently telling Manchin to wake up.
Republicans abandoned Manchin on the January 6th Commission
If Manchin can produce 10 Republicans, he should do so..
Edit to add:
https://www.msnbc.com/ali-velshi/watch/rep-clyburn-is-having-none-of-sen-manchin-s-filibuster-defense-114400325829
by rmrd0000 on Tue, 06/08/2021 - 3:43pm
Yeah, grownup disagreement stuff and explanation for the public. Not Woke, not BLM, not stoking divisiveness further, not playing culture wars of progressives vs. the evil majority of the country.
by artappraiser on Tue, 06/08/2021 - 3:58pm
The majority of the country opposes legislation that counters voter suppression?
The culture war is a Republican creation.
McConnell says his goal is to oppose 100% of Biden's proposals.
Edit to add
As GOP Opposes H.R. 1, Poll Finds Majority of Republicans Support Election Reform Bill
The reintroduction of a sweeping election reform bill has earned the criticism of Republican lawmakers, but a new survey found that a majority of their party's voters support the legislation.
In fact, the Data for Progress poll found H.R. 1—also known as the For the People Act—has broad public support. More than two-thirds of likely voters (68 percent) said they would back the proposal. Just 16 percent said they opposed it.
The support also transcended party lines, with 70 percent of Democrats, 68 percent of independent or third-party voters and 57 percent of Republican voters expressing approval for the bill.
https://www.newsweek.com/gop-opposes-hr-1-poll-finds-majority-republicans-support-election-reform-bill-1572166
by rmrd0000 on Tue, 06/08/2021 - 4:47pm
From the WaPo
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/06/08/power-up-black-civil-rights-leaders-meet-with-manchin-today/
Edit to add:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/manchin-voting-rights-hr-1-civil-rights_n_60bf81fce4b04694aec3d95a
by rmrd0000 on Tue, 06/08/2021 - 1:33pm
Did they try to find arguments they they would persuade Manchin, or did they just repeat talking points they themselves like?
by PeraclesPlease on Tue, 06/08/2021 - 2:17pm
Manchin stated that he wasn't changing under any circumstances
I haven't seen transcripts of the meeting to see what was said.
by rmrd0000 on Tue, 06/08/2021 - 3:35pm
Ironically the "repeat talking points they themselves like" is a key to a lot of our current troubles, as many in Congress do this now not just because they necessarily believe but it is how they've been advised by their political consultants to rile up "the base" who actually does get up off the couch and vote. Like in mid-terms. Like when there's no divisive monster like Trump to inspire others to get up off the couch and vote. Again, I stressing the ironic nature of this--would it would such types a great deal if it were easier to vote everywhere? And yet again, stressing the ironic nature of this situation--if it were much easier to vote everywhere, results might not be to left Democrats liking!!!
A reminder that libruls and "woke" are elite educated people who often vote.And other diehard show-up voters inlud elite educated Republican business people anti-tax-and-spend type conservatives, and some passionate single-issue conservatives like anti-abortion wingers. And retired people who generally have become less extreme in their views with the wisdom of life experience.
This fight is about get the masses out to vote easily. Why do lefties automatically presume that will benefit them? Current studies show that's not the case, shows that the poorly informed "masses" don't happen to cotton to extremism.
It's simply amazing to me that this fight is going on as if things were still like at 1965 stage.
I may be wrong, but to me Manchin is like the type who realizes that if everybody in his state voted he might be out on his ass because idiot people easily duped by populist rhetoric of one type or another didn't vote for him and then he couldn't help a lot of people in his state that he knows what they need better than they do. And he is probably right that he knows better what they need then they do, like it or not.
by artappraiser on Tue, 06/08/2021 - 4:19pm
I actually looked at the first embedded link there, it says
then it says
My understanding is that this is how things are supposed to work in general in the Senate. It is not the House of Representatives. That is by design, an alternative to incendiary rhetoric of all kinds, stuff like hyperbole, name calling, shouting, fist fighting, riots, storming buildings...
by artappraiser on Tue, 06/08/2021 - 3:51pm
just a reminder of where Pres. Biden is on the issue of the filibuster from March 25, I just looked it up for myself and sharing it, this is by Sahlil Kapur of NBC, but most of the content is Biden's own words from his press conference
In a way, I found Sasse's statement helpful about Biden looking in the mirror and seeing FDR, as I see Biden as thinking, especially back in March, that he is the top executive in a world in a severe emergency situation, and that if ordinary rules that normally wouldn't do as much harm are blocking recovery, then fuck the rules. I think it is the things that he sees as immediately essential to keeping the country from imploding are where he would "fight", for the rest he is going to be way more patient about things working out, not going to go with the hyperbole doom-and-gloom end-of-the-republic crowd. For this very reason: he's seen it all before at one time or another in the Senate, and the world didn't end as "they" said. Just a guess on my part.
by artappraiser on Tue, 06/08/2021 - 4:59pm
FWIW i just checked Biden's average-of-all-polls approval rating at FiveThirtyEight, it's holding steady, he's still got everyone except the hard core Trumpies and ultra-conservative 1/3 : Approve 53.1% Disapprove 40.5%. So hasn't made any headway at winning over any kooks nor at winning full-throated approval from the 7% withholding it for one reason or another, but so far hasn't lost a bit of support.
by artappraiser on Tue, 06/08/2021 - 5:14pm
Voters in West Virginia supported the COVID bill.
It got zero Republican votes
Zip
Nada
Manchin voted Yea
Republicans in Congress did not support the bill
68% of all voters in WV support the infrastructure bill
79% of all voters in WV support the For The People Act
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=psyKZ9mBnTc
Manchin will allow those bills to go down in flames.
Manchin is FOS
by rmrd0000 on Tue, 06/08/2021 - 9:13pm
ran across it, noted with interest the positive attitude of the tweet, ratter than name calling and negativity. Read only the first few paragraphs, though. just posting it in case someone else cares to.
by artappraiser on Tue, 06/08/2021 - 8:54pm
Call me out as cynical if wrong, but the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, and the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act will die in the Senate, never even getting a vote. Filibustered.
RM, 90+% of Republican voters will keep voting for Republicans, regardless of what polls on voting rights etc find, they are gullible easily manipulated low information indoctrinated Q's, fools wnd bigots.
by NCD on Tue, 06/08/2021 - 9:28pm
Thanks, I have no delusions about Republican voters
Republican voters will stand by as a permanent minority government (dictatorship) is created
People who label the Woke as the big threat will also do nothing
Republicans only need one critical voting cycle to create an authoritarian government
by rmrd0000 on Tue, 06/08/2021 - 10:00pm
by artappraiser on Wed, 06/09/2021 - 1:10am
Manchin has irked his fellow Democratic colleagues over his opposition to the “For the People Act,” a package of sweeping voting and ethics reforms that Democrats have described as key to the survival of democracy. Federal voting changes, Manchin has argued, should be done on a bipartisan basis to instill confidence in elections.
Instead, Manchin wants Congress to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, another Democratic measure that is backed by Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). That legislation, named after the late civil rights legend and Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), is more narrowly tailored and would, in theory, address GOP efforts to restrict voting access at the state level.
Specifically, the bill would restore the provision of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 struck down by the Supreme Court in 2013 that required states with a history of discrimination to clear any proposed voting changes at the state level with the federal government.
But as McConnell demonstrated on Tuesday, Republicans aren’t likely to support restoring that provision, meaning Manchin’s preferred alternative on voting rights is also dead on arrival in the Senate.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/voting-joe-manchin-mcconnell_n_60bfbc8ee4b0db85704eb36d
by rmrd0000 on Wed, 06/09/2021 - 9:04am
“Bipartisanship” is a weird, malleable word in the context of Senate legislation. Does it mean a bill that earned votes from a number of senators from each party? At least one vote from each? A bill that most Americans support? A bill that was drafted with input from members of each party? Everyone seems to agree that bipartisanship is ideal but, because of that, everyone also seems to reorient it in a way that’s particularly useful at a particular moment.
So we have Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) firmly proclaiming on Tuesday that “the era of bipartisanship is over.” The occasion was apparently another collapse in conversations between the White House and Republicans over an infrastructure package, legislation that both President Biden and Democratic senators such as Joe Manchin III (W.Va.) hoped would be in some form bipartisan. Again, what standard needed to be met was never clear. It’s like the old “know it when you see it” standard about porn, except for the polar opposite of porn, which is a congressional funding bill for highways.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/06/09/saying-era-bipartisanship-is-over-is-bit-like-saying-that-myspace-is-over/
by rmrd0000 on Wed, 06/09/2021 - 10:07pm
Three dozen Arizona Democrats are pleading with Arizona Sen. Kyrsten Sinema to do everything in her power to pass a sweeping voting rights protection bill as Republicans in the state plod along with their audit of the 2020 election results.
In a letter to the Democratic senator, members of the state House and Senate point to hundreds of voter suppression bills Republicans have introduced in states since President Joe Biden’s 2020 victory that add new barriers to the voting process.
“The 2020 general election saw record-breaking levels of voter participation across the country,” the letter reads. “But instead of celebrating this historic achievement, our freedom to vote is being threatened in state legislatures across the country.”
Legislation enacted in Arizona “will disproportionately impact young voters, low-income voters, and voters of color,” the group told Sinema. Further, Arizona’s GOP-led state Senate has hired a company for a 2020 recount that may fuel further voter suppression efforts.
Together, the letter’s signers represent about three-quarters of Arizona’s state Democratic caucus.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/arizona-democrats-sinema-for-the-people_n_60c2166ce4b0af343e9ce58e
by rmrd0000 on Thu, 06/10/2021 - 11:53am
analysis from May about how Democrats should be careful what they wish for as far as promoting easier voting for everyone:
by artappraiser on Thu, 06/10/2021 - 4:31pm
My guess: it's going to be something along the lines of "we're taking care of it" implying "forget the shitstorm about that bill, the President would like us all to move on..."
by artappraiser on Thu, 06/10/2021 - 5:17pm
The Democratic Senators Hiding Behind Joe Manchin; Manchin has long been a “heat shield” for fellow moderates on the thorniest topics, including the filibuster. He still is, but cracks are beginning to show.
So much for blaming him alone for: whatever.
It's more like: he has the luxury of being able to be truthful.
Can we stop plotting to kill Joe Manchin now? He's not the only one.
by artappraiser on Thu, 06/10/2021 - 8:08pm
Apparently the Attorney General doesn't feel an 800 page bill is absolutely necessary?
AG Garland Vows To Defend Voting Rights As The 'Cornerstone' Of American Democracy
The attorney general said his department would rededicate crucial resources to ensuring all eligible Americans have the ability to vote.
5 hours ago
Attorney General Garland vows to fight GOP efforts to curb voting access
Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the Justice Department will aggressively fight efforts to restrict voting rights nationwide following a blitz of new ...
7 hours ago
Garland announces expansion of Justice Department’s voting rights unit, vowing to scrutinize GOP-backed voting restrictions and ballot reviews
The attorney general's announcement comes as the Biden administration faces growing pressure from civil rights groups and state Democrats to more forcefully ...
3 hours ago
Garland declares voting rights expansion 'central' to democracy
Attorney General Merrick Garland affirmed Friday the expansion of voting rights as a “central pillar” to American democracy, building upon the Biden ...
10 hours ago
by artappraiser on Sat, 06/12/2021 - 1:02am
by artappraiser on Sat, 06/12/2021 - 6:40pm
by artappraiser on Wed, 06/16/2021 - 2:50pm
among many other things to note he does have specific requirements on the "For the People Act", he just didn't put them in the op-ed
from the Intercept article
I take it as the op-ed basically being written as campaign-type spin for constituents
by artappraiser on Wed, 06/16/2021 - 2:58pm