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Civil rights activists and voting rights groups this week are intensifying pressure on Congress to advance federal voting rights legislation as a bulwark against an array of new laws in Republican-controlled states that make it harder to vote.
Activists say they also are growing increasingly impatient with President Joe Biden and his reluctance to demand an end to the Senate's filibuster rule that establishes a 60-vote threshold to advance most legislation in the chamber. They want Biden to exert pressure on Democratic holdouts on the filibuster to allow a pair of federal voting bills to pass the Senate by a simple majority vote. The bills, activists say, will counteract efforts by Republicans to restrict voting access as former President Donald Trump and his allies persist with false claims of a rigged election.
Accountability is one of the hallmarks of a democracy, along with education, and representation. President Biden must be held accountable for his promises and step up!
I'm not advocating for keeping the filibuster rule as it currently stands. I'm merely saying that I think Pres. Biden has a good reason for hesitating to call for the rule's complete removal right away, without giving thought to what the new rules will be.
The activists are demanding two things from the President:
1) Call for an end to the filibuster rule in the Senate.
2) Pressure holdouts within the Senate Democrats to support ending the filibuster and allowing the voting bills to pass by a simply majority vote
The filibuster rule was intended to allow every member of the Senate to speak freely about the bills being reviewed, so that the Senate could give each bill all the discussion, debate, and review necessary to vote objectivly on them. However, this rule can be easily exploited, as we see from the Republicans right now. I understand the activists frustration with the rule, but we still need to consider how new rules will be written for how long Senate members are allowed to speak for. If the filibuster ended today, and the Senate could vote by a simnple majority, there's a decent chance the Democrats would win. But what about the next major civil rights bill that they have to review? Will the new rules on speaking length be fair and defined enough to give it the discussion and consideration it deserves?
With the Senate Democrats already facing enough opposition from Senate Republicans over the voting rights bills, perhaps Pres. Biden is hoping that he won't have to directly intervene against the GOP filibuster. He may not want to further the concept of an 'us vs. them' relationship between Democrats and Republicans.