Democrats vowed to pass the voting rights act by Martin Luther King’s day; however, they have once again failed to do it as Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin refuse to eliminate the only roadblock, a filibuster from the Senate.
The two landmark voting rights bills, including John Lewis Act and HR 1, were dead on the very first day they were introduced in Congress.
In fact, Democrats kept on depending on false optimism while beating a dead horse, thinking that they would be able to persuade two senators who belong to conservative states and are highly dependent on Republican donors for their re-elections.
Thus, considering them even an option was a false sense of optimism at the end of the day for the Democrats.
Biden Axed his Own Feet by Going Hyper-Aggressive
Kyrsten Sinema’s announcement came at a time when Joe Biden was about to present his case to both Manchin and Sinema in person. This declaration of Sinema puts the Democrats back to square one.
Joe Biden recently became a little too aggressive in dealing with voting rights issues and compared Republicans with famous voter suppressors and racists of American history.
During his Atlanta speech, Biden compared the GOP with racist figures of the civil rights era and segregationists that were at the epicenter of promoting slavery in America.
However, his speech was considered a suicidal tactic for many, and even liberal civil rights activists and commentators blamed him for destroying his own narrative.
Reportedly his speech acted as a catalyst to further offend the likes of Manchin and Sinema.
Ranging from civil rights activists including Al Sharpton to leftist media channels, political pundits blamed that the timing of the extraordinary aggressive speech was flawed.
They felt the only motive at that time for him should have been adopting a policy of appeasement for Manchin and Sinema and not increasing his distances with them.
For a person like Biden, who has the experience of serving as a Senator, the latest crucial blow is an utter disappointment.
Now, for the time being, the Senate seems to go into the hibernate mode once again, with Democratic strategists going back to their rooms to find a way to pass the much-needed bill required to stop Republicans’ voter suppression.
Some elements are still envisioning that the experience of Joe Biden can help him change the minds of the warring Senators to end the filibuster.
Biden Must Think Out of Box to Pass Voting Right Bills
For Joe Biden, one of the ways to convince Manchin is to allow him as much modification in the social spending bill as possible.
This surely is not a popular measure and may generate a backlash from progressives, but voting rights issues are an equally important bill for the United States.
If they convince Manchin by scaling down the social spending bill to his envisioned value, Krysten Sinema is likely to follow suit. And this is important for the fact that Democrats need voting rights legislation before the midterm elections to regain the Senate majority.
Thus they can reintroduce the bigger social spending bill by regaining the Senate in the 2022 midterm elections when their dependence on Manchin and Sinema can reduce if they win big.
However, if they do not follow this path, losing the Senate in the midterm is imminent, as neither the electoral reforms bill nor the social spending bill is likely to pass.
The other option for Democrats is to find alternate options to fund the Manchin and Sinema re-election campaign and give them a guarantee that all of them would stand by their side in their re-elections.
This would reduce their dependence on Republican donors who currently hold the ropes to control these senators. In the current scenario, if both of these senators oppose the filibuster, their campaign finances would be in danger, which is likely to choke their campaign operations.
Seeing the pervasive gerrymandering and the violent Jim Crow laws of Republicans, the only option for Democrats is to bring the two senators on board by hook or crook.
Final Thoughts
Biden has repeatedly followed the same path but to no avail, and doing the same thing again would also lead them to further failure.
Manchin and Sinema have no incentive to end the filibuster, so the White House has to make sure that they provide them with these incentives.
Eli is a Political Data Scientist with over thirty years of experience in Data Engineering, Analytics, and Digital Marketing. Eli uses his expertise to give the latest information and distinctive analysis on US Political News, US Foreign Affairs, Human Rights, and Racial Justice equipping readers with the inequivalent knowledge.