There are two big lumps extending across the road to progress and President Joe Biden’s Freedom to Vote Act.. They are as solid as granite boulders and as unmovable. One is Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), and Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) who both resist the Freedom to Vote Act.
College students get what the law would do if it ever reaches President Joe Biden’s desk. So they are on the move. They have decided to hold a hunger strike to pressure their Senator Sinema to vote for the Freedom to Vote Act. We need 50 senators, which is all of them, to vote for any bill to pass. Both Sinema and Manchin insist on keeping the filibuster in place even though she formerly supported it. That would let senators have a flat 50-vote success on any bill.
President Biden’s law would provide for:
- Automatic registration
- Automatic vote by mail
- A ban on state Republican voters taking over vote management
- An increase in voter accessibility.
Executive director of Un-Pac Shana Gallagher said:
‘We are very clear from that meeting that Senator Sinema understands our message – that we are hunger striking until the bill passes and we would rather make this sacrifice than suffer the consequences of inaction on federal voting rights and campaign finance reform now. We now believe it is incumbent upon President Biden to call another vote before the end of the year.’
Student organizers Brandon Ortega and Georgia Linden plus the students made their way to Washington D.C. to protest with a hunger strike to put pressure on their Senator Sinema and ask our President Biden to work harder to persuade her, according to The Guardian:
‘We are honestly confused and disappointed that President Biden hasn’t prioritized this more. We don’t understand why he’s not treating this existential issue with the urgency that we are, but we are still hopeful that he has time to change course and our sacrifice will help the administration to act.’
As of now, the students are trying to get the attention of the White House:
‘We did not originally request a meeting with Sinema but when she found out about our action, she wanted to meet with us to express her commitment to this legislation. Our remaining demand is a meeting with the Biden administration but as of now, we have not heard a response.’
Ortega said:
‘The group is well aware that their hunger strike could last longer than they hope, but they are prepared for the hardships.’
‘It’s definitely been difficult, but we do have a medical team and a support team that is taking care of all of us. We’re grateful that we have dozens of people across the country doing solidarity fasts and vigils and there has been a lot of support, most notably from a group of veterans who came to the Arizona state house to thank us and to tell us they were humbled by our actions. 84% of Arizonians support this bill, so we’re united as a generation and as a state.’
Ortega said:
‘The group is well aware that their hunger strike could last longer than they hope, but they are prepared for the hardships.’“It’s definitely been difficult, but we do have a medical team and a support team that is taking care of all of us. We’re grateful that we have dozens of people across the country doing solidarity fasts and vigils and there has been a lot of support, most notably from a group of veterans who came to the Arizona state house to thank us and to tell us they were humbled by our actions. 84% of Arizonians support this bill, so we’re united as a generation and as a state.’
Student organizers Brandon Ortega and Georgia Linden indicated:
‘I would just say, what’s far more dangerous than putting our bodies on the line is losing our democracy forever.
Kyrsten Sinema is a Clownpic.twitter.com/kXhPe2vNQk 01
— Tomthunkit™ (@TomthunkitsMind) December 10, 2021
Let us hope that the students are successful.
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 (in process). Find her here on Facebook.
