Courtesy of Bastrop Advertiser
April 1, 2021
By Joni Ashbrook
The word “filibuster” might evoke the old movie “Mr. Smith Goes to Washington” in which Jimmy Stewart portrays an idealistic freshman senator who speaks for a grueling 23 hours to expose corruption.
That romanticized act of senators pleading their case until they drop is no longer required, and the filibuster often blocks bills that a majority of Americans want.
Filibusters require 60 votes to pass anything. GOP senators would have killed President Joe Biden’s popular COVID-19 aid package with a filibuster since no Republicans voted for the bill.
That COVID-19 bill became law through a limited-use procedure called “reconciliation” that only requires a simple majority for approval.
Republicans often vote against popular bills. They don’t need to care what people want because they simply create laws to keep “certain” people from voting.
Recently, there’s been an avalanche of voter suppression bills in 43 Republican-led states that make it harder for the young, poor and people of color to vote. In other words, people who traditionally vote Democrat.
All of these Jim Crow-like bills have sprung from former President Donald Trump’s “big lie” that the election was stolen.
Georgia Republicans wanted to restrict Sunday voting which is popular among Black voters with their “Souls to the Polls.” But that suppression tactic was too obvious even for them, so it wasn’t included in the final bill that recently became law.
However, what was included in that law was making it a crime to give food and water to Georgians waiting in extraordinarily long GOP-created voter lines.
Republicans also want to, among other things, drastically curtail early voting periods, reduce or eliminate ballot drop boxes, and limit who can vote by mail.
But these suppression tactics are child’s play compared to the bills Republicans are crafting after being inspired by Trump’s failed attempts to overturn the election.
Trump didn’t stop after losing his voter fraud claims in over 60 courts. He and his allies attempted several devious strategies to overturn the election which culminated in the MAGA mob’s attempted coup at the Capitol on Jan. 6.
One notable tactic was Trump’s call to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger pressuring him to “find 11,780 votes” to overturn Biden’s win in that state.
For not buckling to Trump’s pressure, Georgia’s new law just removed Raffensperger as chair and voting member of the state board of elections and handed the GOP-controlled legislature extraordinary power over elections.
Embedded in Georgia’s new law is a slew of other measures removing the barriers that kept Trump from successfully overturning that fair election.
Trump also strong-armed the two GOP members of the Michigan board of canvassers to refuse certification of the Michigan vote.
Thankfully democracy held because one member refused to comply. That principled man has been replaced for upholding the will of the people.
Trump also summoned two Michigan GOP legislative leaders to the White House in an apparent attempt to sway the state legislature to appoint electors who would overturn Biden’s win. The election’s integrity was upheld again by their refusing Trump.
Our democracy was upheld by a handful of people. So, Republicans are creating more bills to sidestep people of conscience and allow them to overturn election results they don’t like.
For instance, Arizona GOP lawmakers introduced a bill giving the legislature the power to toss out election results.
Congress has the power to thwart these un-American tactics. The John Lewis Voting Rights Act and HR1 are bills that would advance democracy, but they will be filibustered by Senate Republicans. We must scrap that procedure to keep our government in the hands of “we the people.”
