Democrats are accusing moderate Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) of racism after the duo rejected an effort by their party to abolish the filibuster in order to pass election legislation over the objections of all 50 GOP senators.
Just before Congress returned from its winter recess, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) made clear in a Jan. 3 tweet that federal election legislation would be the party’s primary concern upon their return.
“We can and must take strong action to stop this anti-democratic march,” Schumer wrote, referencing strengthened state election laws that many Democrats have said constitute a “new Jim Crow.”
However, despite constant efforts by the party to pass election legislation during the 117th Congress, all their efforts have hit a roadblock due to nearly-unanimous GOP opposition.
Under the rules governing the Senate filibuster, legislation can be passed by a simple majority only after two-thirds of the Senate, or 60 senators, have given their consent to end debate; If this threshold is not met, then the bill cannot move to a floor vote, effectively killing its prospects.
Democrats have put forward several proposed changes to federal election laws, but these have all been killed by GOP filibuster, and the GOP has on several occasions accused the majority party of using the legislation as a means to unfairly benefit Democrats over Republicans.
After a week of what Sinema described as “harried discussions” over removing the filibuster, she and her sometimes-ally Joe Manchin restated their long-held opposition to weakening the filibuster.
While this opposition comes as no surprise for longtime observers of the pair, some Democrats were quick to accuse the duo of racism after their announcements.
“They don’t care about minorities. They don’t care about Blacks. They don’t care about people in their own districts who they’re going to deny their voting rights,” said Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) during an MSNBC appearance.
By Joseph Lord
