Ditch Mitch

[On Friday] the House voted 234-to-193 — along straight party lines — to pass the For the People Act, a sweeping package of proposals aimed at rooting out political corruption and shoring up the integrity of the electoral system.

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H.R. 1, as it is officially known, seeks, among other reforms, to strengthen ethics laws for lawmakers and lobbyists, increase voting access, improve voting security, tighten campaign finance laws and create an alternative campaign-finance system geared toward small donors.


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To advance the bill, Democratic leaders had to work through more than 70 proposed amendments. Some were embraced, including several aimed at spotlighting questionable behavior in the Trump administration. One, for instance, bars federal money from being spent at businesses owned or controlled by the president or other top administration officials. Others were rejected, including a plan to lower the voting age to 16.
  NYT

Thank god for that. Sorry, kids.

As a practical legislative matter, it’s a bit of a hollow victory. As fired up as Democrats are to shake up the system, Republicans are perhaps even more fired up to stop them.

The Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell, has been openly hostile to the anticorruption package since its inception. This week he made clear that he would refuse even to bring it up for a vote.

Afraid it will pass.

McConnell called the bill the “Democrat Politician Protection Act” (and a “turkey”) and predicted that lawmakers who back it will suffer come re-election time.

Bullshit. Lawmakers who don't back it will suffer. Ditch Mitch.

If the Republican leader really thought the package was a loser, he would absolutely bring it to the floor to force Democratic lawmakers to own it — which is, notably, the path he has pledged to pursue with the Green New Deal, which is supported by many Democrats. [...] McConnell is panting to have members vote on it.

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Asked this week why the two measures were being handled so differently, the Republican leader didn’t bother making up excuses. He said simply, “Because I get to decide what we vote on.”

What a disgusting puke. And that's another change that needs to be made. If a bill passes either branch, the other must take it up for a vote. Who the fuck made that rule that the Senate leader gets to decide anyway?

This grade-school taunt masks a deep current of fear and loathing. Loathing, because Mr. McConnell is a longtime enemy of campaign finance reform. Killing such efforts can seem like his singular legislative passion.

McConnell is a grade-school bully. He's a disgusting, loathsome man. Ditch Mitch.

The fear is less targeted, but even more existential. Ever the shrewd political animal, Mr. McConnell is well aware that a majority of Americans favor overhauling a system they see as broken and unfair.

A great defender of democracy, Mitch.

At the same time, he and prominent House Republicans have been loudly assailing H.R. 1, cranking the fear-mongering demagogy to the max. Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy went so far as to star in an overwrought attack video. Mr. McCarthy asserts that the provision restoring voting rights to felons is not only “dangerous, it’s unconstitutional;” he goes on to say that under the optional matching-fund system, in which political donations up to $200 would be matched 6-to-1 with public funds, the Democrats would send your tax dollars to pay for campaigns; and he warns that the bill would facilitate voter fraud by providing for automatic voter registration, which would make it more difficult to strike ineligible voters from the rolls. “So future voters might be underage, dead or illegal immigrants, or maybe even registered one, two or three times!”

No, no and no. There is nothing unconstitutional or inherently dangerous about re-enfranchising former prisoners. The new matching-funds system would be financed through fines levied on companies caught violating federal law. And the Brennan Center for Justice has found that automatic voter registration, already working swimmingly in several states, increases registration rates and improves the accuracy of voting rolls.

That's what McConnell and McCarthy don't like. Because if they don't cheat, they can't win.

Republicans made the calculation that, with demographics trending against them, their best strategy was to make voting harder rather than easier, particularly for certain nonwhite segments of the electorate. Across the nation, they have pursued voter restriction tactics with vigor. Any effort to expand access to the ballot box sets off alarm bells within the party.

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H.R. 1 would put an end to at least some of the vile voter suppression practices that Republicans have embraced in recent years. Which goes to the heart of the party’s opposition.

Bingo.

This leaves Republicans in the peculiar position of arguing that weeding out corruption, reducing the influence of special interests and protecting voting rights are inherently Democratic values.

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Not even its most fervent supporters expect it to go anywhere without considerable adjustment. But McConnell and Co. aren’t interested in debating or improving the package. They want it dead.

Remember when someone tried to start a petition to have the bill stopped?





Nine supporters.

Ditch Mitch.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.