Saturday, July 24, 2021

7/14/21 Biden's Speech was an Epic, But…

President Biden got plenty of praise for his oratory on Tuesday in Philadelphia. He did a spectacular job of trashing the Big Lie and of adding wings to the importance of an American's right to vote.

“There’s an unfolding assault taking place in America today, an attempt to suppress and subvert the right to vote and fair and free elections. An assault on democracy. An assault on liberty. An assault on who we are, an assault on who we are as Americans. For make no mistake: Bullies and merchants of fear and peddlers of lies are threatening the very foundations of our country,” Biden said.
When it was all over, civil rights groups were standing there looking at each other and saying, "So what about the filibuster?" Fact is, Senate Republicans are still holding up the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. Joe Biden loves bipartisanship. But so do the Democrats' two spoilers, Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrstan Sinema (D-AZ).
"This is the moment. There is no more time,"said Sherrilyn Ifill, the president of the NAACP Legal Defense Fund. "We must have legislation. We must have the President use his voice, use his influence, use his power, and use what he clearly understands about this moment."
"Good speech, so what's the strategy? #EndTheFilibusterNow," tweeted Black Voters Matter co-founder LaTosha Brown.
To 50-some Texas Democratic legislators who are hunkering down in Washington, DC in a last-ditch effort to block the state's "Jim Crow 2.0" voting bill, it had to be a deep disappointment. They're all but begging the federal legislators to take action. Meanwhile, they're being threatened with arrest by the state's Trump-mimicking governor, who has actually sent the Texas Rangers -- law enforcement, not a southern hockey team -- to track them down.
“What we hope we’ll hear is an even stronger commitment and a clear plan of action for how we can break the gridlock in the Senate and pass voting rights legislation,” the Texas Democratic Caucus leader said, before a Tuesday slate of speaking with federal lawmakers.
Let's hope they made progress there, because in Biden's speech, they heard anything but.

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What should Biden do to push through changes in the filibuster? Why hasn't he done them already? What will it take to get the majority party, who represent the majority of the country, to grasp the power they need from stonewalling GOP legislators?



https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/13/politics/biden-voting-rights-speech-black-leaders/index.html

https://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/562785-acknowledging-few-options-at-home-texas-democrats-urge-congressional-action

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/biden-trump-big-lie_n_60edd223e4b01ba8eed00b52

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