What do Stacey Abrams (D) of Fair Fight Action, Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT), and President Barack Obama have in common? Certainly, they are all intense powerhouses with a passion for democratic politics. These dynamos make things happen, but at this moment, they are focused on America’s young people. Why the interest in the younger generation?
The reason is simple. The older generations are not managing to save our democracy. A couple of Democrats, Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Krysten Sinema (D-AZ) have decided to unplug any ability the Democrats have to rescue our government from well-financed, highly organized autocratic organizations. We do not know why these two have put their bodies in front of the big ideas that will bring back fair voting, create millions of jobs through clean energy and infrastructure repair, and oh, yes, save our big blue marble.
These two senators tell us that they want to save the filibuster. Here is the deal though. The Republican leaders are hell-bent upon denying President Joe Biden any of his vital changes. Clearly, the GOP is fine with letting the bridges rot and our rivers run with flammable fluids. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, the self-described Grim Reaper stands in front of all of the Republicans, so Manchin’s dream of bipartisanship is dead right there.
Okay, he might get one, or two, or even seven senators to break rank, but in order to override the filibuster, the Senate currently requires 60 votes. Whereas, the filibuster that old movies showed with a politician standing for hour after hour are long gone. Now, they can phone it in. So either Manchin and his group vote to get rid of the filibuster, or the Democrats will lose their unique advantage of holding the House, the Senate, and the White House.
A filibuster requires 60 senators’ votes. The Democrats have 50 plus Vice President Kamala Harris’ vote. Even with Manchin’s seven Republican friends, the gears of the great American experience grind to a halt. Even as President Biden mightily struggles to convince Republicans to join his effort, they have fundamental differences. Right now, the GOP is just wasting POTUS’ valuable first-year advantage.
In walks Stacey Abrams and unveils her new campaign. She is going to mobilize high school and college-age kids to put their considerable enthusiasm behind the For the People Act. This bill will keep state Republicans from implementing draconian voting measures that guarantee fewer voters of color and low-income voters. Her campaign is called Hot Call Summer.
President Biden knows that the Republicans sucked all of the money out of our middle class and handed it to the biggest businesses and the one-percenters on a golden platter. He also understands that it will take big, really big legislation to wrench back a good life for regular Americans of all parties, races, and religions.
Abrams is going on a “three-stop regional virtual tour” throughout June. We will see her, election workers, elected officials, and many other public figures from sea to shining sea of this great nation.
Abrams sent an email to her supporters, CBS News reported:
‘With voting rights under attack in 48 out of 50 state legislatures across the country, the moment has never been more urgent, and it will take all of us to ensure that Congress passes the voting rights protections our country and democracy desperately need.’
Fair Fight Action just sent a press release explaining what Hot Call Summer is all about:
‘[T]o drive daily phone calls to U.S. Senators from every state in the weeks leading up to the Senate vote on the For the People Act.’
Activist, author, and former state representative Abrams may run for governor of Alabama. But in the meantime, she is going for a “national digital media buy” and a texting campaign to reach “over 10 million voters in the 2022 battleground states that have seen anti-voter bills pushed in state legislatures.”
She literally brought President Biden enough votes to win him Georgia.
Donald Trump has conned, manipulated, and tried to overthrow our government to get back in the White House. In a heads-I-win tails-you-lose move, he said if he lost, the election was rigged. He continues that mantra as, Arizona, Florida, Iowa, Georgia, and Montana passed broad bills to narrow voters’ accessibility to vote.
The two voting bills are For the People Act, also known as S. 1 or H.R. 1, and the revered John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. H.R. 1 would:
- implement a laundry list of federal oversights
- mandate states’ mail-in ballots option
- provide early voting periods
- offer same-day voter registration
- create automatic voter registration and
- make Election Day a national holiday for federal workers.
Three White Lions podcast, Gloria Christie reads her week’s most important news/ commentary stories in the liberal online newspaper The Bipartisan Report. Gloria Christie Report her newsletter for people on the go. Written in her own unique style with a twist of humor in a briefer version of Bipartisan Report. Christie’s Mueller Report Adventures In Bite-Sizes a real-life compelling spy mystery. Find her here on Facebook.
