Biden's Future is America's Future
Failure is imminent unless we put down our dumbphones, start reading about civics, and save American democracy
Star Star Pols and All Are I have been saying for about, oh, eight months: Why the actual Fuck is President Biden pushing economic issues before voting rights issues?
I had high hopes when Joe Biden won the 2020 election. I thought that he realized that Black people were responsible for his election, and he would put their issues first. And first among them would be the right to vote freely and without suppression. This man put it more eloquently than I ever could:
And this one, arguably more to the point by the same man:
Biden is light-years better than Trump; after all, who wouldn’t be? If a person was incapable of speech or thought processes, he or she would have a person with power of attorney to carry out her or his wishes. I don’t know if this would be even possible.
That isn’t my point. My point is that I thought Joe Biden would have the sense to realize that, without free, fair and unencumbered elections in all 50 states, infrastructure means nothing. Zilch. I endorse the fact that he put COVID policies first; after all, you cannot vote if you are dead or dying in a hospital. But other than that, c’mon man. You should have known better than to wait until the last month to push for a filibuster reform. Gad, he didn’t even mention “filibuster” in a speech until it was too late to matter. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema from AZ even upstaged him by voting “no” before the President’s speech, as reported by CNN:
With friends like this, who needs enemies?
What was he thinking? That the Republicans would suddenly have a spiritual awakening en masse and help him out? No. Even the two Republican senators who bravely serve on the January sixth Select Committee would not support voting rights.
The Republicans have always voted in unison.
Senator Addison Mitchell McConnell III has an iron grip on his caucus. He will allow a stray contrarian to vote against a bill he supports if he knows that said contrarian’s district supports that person’s position on a bill. He will not allow enough Senators to defect if it will force a loss. That is what was so remarkable and courageous about Senator John McCain, who had more honor in his pinkie fingernail than that of the whole Trump family. He singlehandedly saved thousands of lives by denying Addison McConnell a victory on dismantling Obamacare. I don’t give a damn if he is a conservative. I couldn’t care less. This is no longer Donkey vs. Elephant. This is democracy vs. “democracy” (one-party rule).
The Republicans are succeeding in decimating a woman’s right to her own damn body. That’s rich coming from the party of “no government interference”. Bullshit. I have more to say about this issue, but it is relevant to this newsletter because statistics have been shown, over and over, that most Americans support the right of a woman to her own body.
Maybe AG Merrick Garland has more cojones than I have given him credit for. But we don’t have the luxury of litigating the past without protecting the future of democracy in the United States.