This is the final essay for this guest post series.
Reminder: all 10 of the guest posts will be up in the sidebar for a few days.
OzarkHillbilly:
No great thoughts here, no words of wisdom, no expanding on history, just one simple statement: Pass a new voting rights act.
Because if we can’t do that, we are fucked.
the OzarkHillbilly
Thank you, Ozark, for sending this in! (WG)
Albatrossity
Excellent!
Nicole
You and I have the same big hope for legislation, but you said it a lot more succinctly than I did. Bravo and beautifully stated.
?BillinGlendaleCA
Yup.
Baud
H.R. 1 and S. 1.
eclare
So true.
Josie
Thank you. Everything boils down to this.
rikyrah
Simple, but true ??
These essays have been great ???
Immanentize
This thread:
Now I gotta go.
?BillinGlendaleCA
@Immanentize:
Bathroom is the door on the left.
JPL
@Immanentize: How many of them own a Rolex and/or a Pelotin.
cope
I didn’t have time to read the whole guest post but the first sentence is spot-on.
citizen dave
Along with voting rights, tack on popular vote for President.
“Rocheport Missouri…HELLO!” (A Larry King tribute)
Barbara
@Immanentize: And yet, those who voted to impeach are the ones being hounded by their Republican constituents. This is who they are. I honestly have no idea where or how this ends.
Edmund Dantes
https://twitter.com/repwexton/status/1352807404346486786?s=21
I expected something like this to come out but I am still kind of stunned by it.
Incompetence is the only reason we didn’t have a real bloodbath on our hands. I definitely don’t want any of my colleague congress people or staff armed in the Capitol grounds if I knew this.
rikyrah
TRUTH ?
rikyrah
@rikyrah:
rikyrah
@rikyrah:
J.
Also, make gerrymandering illegal — and have independent commissions define districts.
mali muso
@Edmund Dantes: Wexton is my Rep, and she has been fantastic. Going to call her office on Monday and encourage her to keep up the fight for answers and accountability.
Ksmiami
@Barbara: dividing the country or violence
Benw
Fuck yeah a new VRA to make voting fair and easy for all.
But I don’t want to play nice either: statehood for DC and remove the EC!
phdesmond
amen.
JPL
Ozark is right that we need a voting rights act. GA republican congressional members are already working hard to strip rights from minorities.
rikyrah
Jane Mayer on Moscow Mitch and his convenient dumping of Dolt45 ??
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2021/02/01/why-mcconnell-dumped-trump
Mai Naem mobile
I was waiting for somebody to mention the VRA. This needs to be bill number one or two before somebody gets sick and the Dems lose their majority .
OzarkHillbilly
After the new VRA is passed and signed into law, all we need is 49 more Stacy Abrams. Unfortunately I don’t think Biden can sign an executive order creating them so I guess it will be up to us to make sure all our neighbors vote.
rikyrah
It’s a funny interview
OzarkHillbilly
When she wakes up, I’m gonna tell my wife what all of you guys have said. You can expect an argument.
taumaturgo
I wish the Democrats will clearly explain to the voters what their socialist agenda is. Fascist neoconservative like Mitch, lying Ted and little Rubio continues to pound Democrats with what they consider an insult. I don’t hear a beep from the Democrats denying or accepting the moniker. Will someone in leadership explain instead of admission by silence?
Baud
@OzarkHillbilly:
Stopped clock.
Josie
@JPL:
Same in Texas
zhena gogolia
Short and sweet, Ozark! Thank you!
arrieve
@OzarkHillbilly: Thanks for this contribution. This is critical, and I’m so glad that this administration appears to be capable of addressing more than one issue at a time.
Also, I’d like to thank John for giving us this opportunity to share our thoughts. I really enjoyed reading what the Jackals had to say. I don’t comment that often, but I enjoy being part of a group of such intelligent, interesting, thoughtful people.
OzarkHillbilly
@Baud: According to my wife my clock is always running a minute or 2 slow, so I’m never quite right.
gene108
@rikyrah:
During the Clinton years a “Rolex story” would’ve been a scandal, like “Bill’s $400 haircut” on Air Force One while on the ground at LAX.
Time change, but parts of the media can’t accept it.
WaterGirl
@rikyrah: The tagline from the top of your linked article:
I haven’t read the article yet, but…
I know, I know! Pick me!
debbie
At last, a guest post even I can dig up the time to read! ;)
Very good point. Stop the bullshit of voter suppression. Period.
debbie
@Immanentize:
? that entire thread, thanks!
Benw
@WaterGirl: LOL yes, Watergirl? You have an answer?
Bart
RIP Larry King.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
Short, sweet and to the point. My name is Jim, and I approve this message.
Trapped Lurker
@arrieve: I agree—I love reading this site, with such an interesting mix of knowledgeable, experienced people and such good writers! Thank you, John, WaterGirl, and all those who comment!
WaterGirl
@Benw:
It’s one more act of political self-interest! I’m sure that’s it! Did I get it right???
Cermet
Very well put but we desperately need a national voting Holiday every two years as well (well, it’d have to be every year to work smoothly but it can’t be for just Presidental years.)
raven
From a newsletter I get
Benw
@WaterGirl: ding ding ding! We have a winner!
WaterGirl
@Benw: Yay!
Well, yay (!) except for the part where this ruthless, self-serving piece of shit holds one of the levers of power in the Senate.
Citizen Alan
@Cermet: I don’t see why they can’t just pass a law moving Veterans Day from November 11th to the 1st Tuesday in November I don’t see why they can’t just pass a law moving Veterans Day from November 11th to election day. Veteran stay is only on the 11th because that’s the day the Armistice was signed.
Omnes Omnibus
@Citizen Alan: The 4th of July is only Independence Day because that’s when they approved the Declaration of Independence. Sometimes the dates matter.
dexwood
TL;DR
Chetan Murthy
@Omnes Omnibus: Must concur: undoing the Armistice Day holiday (and, sure, Veterans Day) would be a non-starter for me. And I was born in 1965. It’s too soon. Check back in 2120.
Geminid
@JPL: Later this year Georgia Republicans will also try to gerrymander Reps. McBath and Bordeaux out of their seats in the north Atlanta suburbs. Kansas Republicans will try to do the same to Congresswoman Sharice Davids.
Benw
@WaterGirl: sure, that’s true and we would have accepted, “eff that piece of shit McConnel,” as a correct answer as well!
Jim, Foolish Literalist
I think a federal voting holiday would do little or nothing to encourage people who choose not to vote, and make marginal voters less likely to vote (four day weekend!), and do little for people who genuinely don’t vote because of work/life issues– retail, hospitality, and on top of that, schools would close and a lot of those people would have to deal with childcare. Vote by mail and extended voting/drop-off periods would work much better, IMHO.
patrick II
@Mai Naem mobile:
Speaking of Dems getting sick, has anyone heard anything about how the there Democratic reps are doing after having contracted COVID during the Capitol riot? I have been particularly worried about 75 year-old Bonnie Watson Coleman. I can’t find anything after the initial stories.
Subsole
@rikyrah: You really do love to see it.
Michael Cain
I would simply point out that HB1 as introduced in previous sessions would be unlikely to pass the Senate, even if the filibuster is toast. The last section of the bill is the problem — it essentially defines a voting system that must be used. 17 of the 50 Democratic Senators are from the 13-state West. All of their states used vote by mail for at least 65% of ballots in 2020. (Regionally, well over 90% of ballots.) Two of them just finished spending significant money to redo their systems. To my reading, none of them comply with the requirements in HB1. If there are any readers from Oregon, I would like to hear their thoughts on the state being required to implement an in-person voting system to operate in parallel to their existing vote by mail system.
patrick II
I agree and hope the Democrats can write a law that gets past the Supreme Court, members of whom will be looking for an excuse to find it unconstitutional. A VRA and an anti-Citizens United are as important as any law that can be passed right now, barring emergency bills for COVID and the economy. But I would also say D.C. statehood (for a little margin for error) and pack the court, otherwise any VRA with teeth will be tough to get done. States rights you know.
Cheryl from Maryland
This past election has proved early voting and voting by mail are more important and effective than a national voting holiday. Unless all three options are supported and, in the case of early voting and voting by mail expanded and guaranteed, this country will continue to block voters, such as those who have to work (many people do not get MLK Day off) or who need the flexibility to counter cheating local authorities who try to stifle voters with insufficient voting stations or poorly located stations.
Omnes Omnibus
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: This!
Geminid
@patrick II: Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman has been tweeting. Two days ago a follower asked her how she was doing and Coleman replied that she was better, not yet 100% but getting there.
Steeplejack
@Cheryl from Maryland:
Agreed.
@Jim, Foolish Literalist:
Also agreed.
Feathers
@Omnes Omnibus: On my If I Were In Charge bucket list is turning Veterans Day back into Armistice Day. Remembering the horrors of war, solemnly honoring those who survived it and those who did not. Not this thing we have now.
patrick II
@Geminid:
Thank you. I am glad to hear it.
Mike in NC
I spent half of 1984 stuck on a dreadful deployment to the Persian Gulf. One of my sailors tried to hang himself. On the cruise home to Norfolk we stopped in Rota, Spain to refuel. I walked into the Navy Exchange and came out wearing a Rolex since I hadn’t been able to spend money in close to six months.
I still wear it so I must be a coastal elitist like Joe Biden. Or so I’d hear from Republican neighbors.
Elizabelle
@Cheryl from Maryland: I agree.
Voting by mail and voting early are the best. The holiday: meh.
Another Scott
@rikyrah: A good piece. Thanks for the pointer.
Cheers,
Scott.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@rikyrah: hehe Turtle is as big of an idiot as I thought. For a guy who services himself over his }the long game” he really screwed that by supporting Trump. It’s very likely if Turtle didn’t block the first impeachment Trump would be forgotten by now, Pence would have lost the presidential election but the GoP would have kept the senate majority.
Also, how does Turtle the dumb ass not get if Trump had succeeded is making himself dictator Trump would have had Turtle killed as potential enemy?
Benw
Captain Picard got the vaccine!!
sdhays
@Omnes Omnibus: We could also just move Election Day to always be Nov. 11. On top of it being a holiday (for some – when working for private companies, I’ve never had Veteran’s Day off), there would no longer be any confusion about the date of the election that could be exploited by ratfuckers.
sdhays
@Jim, Foolish Literalist: Why not just flood the zone? Do you think having it on a holiday would be detrimental?
Ceci n est pas mon nym
@patrick II: She wrote an Op-Ed in the Washington Post on Jan 12.
At least on that date, it sounds like her symptoms were mild.
Her website has press releases after that date. Nothing explicitly on her health.
Another Scott
@Michael Cain: IIRC, we had a little discussion about this before.
S 949 had 46 total original (44 D + 2 I) sponsors. (There were 45 D + 2I at the time, according to Wikipedia.) Yes, it doesn’t mean that they support every single bit of it, but it indicates that they want the legislation passed.
FWIW.
Cheers,
Scott.
patrick II
Reposted here after accidently posting on the previoius thread:
I would like to see the guest posts from commentators here become a biannual or quarterly event. There were different voices and some very good posts. My review of OzarkHillbilly — eloquent and to the point.
WaterGirl
@dexwood: ha!
WaterGirl
@Benw: Your answer is better!
sdhays
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: The Republicans in the Senate didn’t vote to acquit Dump in his first impeachment because Moscow Mitch told them to. They voted to acquit because they feared their voters, both at the ballot box and physically.
They knew that if they took down Dump, it would start a civil war in their party just as they were heading into a Presidential election year. Don’t forget that by this time, the RNC and state Republican Parties had set up the nominating process as a coronation of Dump – they were already whole owned by him. Dense never had that kind of support.
If they had convicted him at the beginning of 2020, the Republican Party would have imploded and probably lost a lot more seats in the Senate and Dense or whoever got the nomination would have lost in an even bigger landslide as Dump voters would have been incensed, and Dump himself would have been lashing out at all of them on Twitter.
They’re still afraid of triggering that civil war in the party, and that’s why they’re not going to convict him this time either. For a while, I thought it was starting to look possible, but I think that window has closed, unless some game changing news comes out.
Jim, Foolish Literalist
@sdhays: I actually do, because then it becomes more about the holiday than voting, but that’s debatable. On more pragmatic grounds, it’s a question of picking your battles. Do we really need a third federal holiday in the month of November? and in the middle of the week? People with kids under twelve vote first.
cain
@Mai Naem mobile:
It should include national vote by mail.
Maybe then we might get a chance to start making even states like Mississippi and Alabama competitive. Those two states have had overt voter suppression for awhile.
Brachiator
@Omnes Omnibus:
Of course, Veterans Day used to be Armistice Day, and the meaning of the holiday was revised after World War II.
There was also a brief period when Veterans Day was moved to the fourth Monday of October, in the 1970s.
dexwood
@WaterGirl: All the guest posts have been good and I’d like to echo patrick’s suggestion it becomes an occasional feature.
sdhays
Why did that happen? Was it metric for Nov. 11?
cain
Absolutely – as a state that has it – it’s a pleasure to vote – because I have the time to go through the issues and understand them and then vote based on the information I have.
cain
@Michael Cain:
This would be a nonstarter – you don’t need to a parallel system – once mail is in – nobody is going to want to show up to do in person voting – when they can just drop it in the mail.
Brachiator
Great post on the need for a renewed Voting Rights Act.
This might also discourage mischief from the Supreme Court with respect to voting.
Brachiator
@sdhays:
There was also a brief period when Veterans Day was moved to the fourth Monday of October, in the 1970s.
According to Wikipedia, it was done to conform to the Uniform Monday Holiday Act.
Nobody was happy with the change.
Humanities Prof
@sdhays: I suspect you’re most likely correct about that. But there’s one point that might prompt even a few of the die-hard Trumpers in the Senate to vote to convict, and that’s that convicting would bar Trump from ever seeking federal office again.
Cruz and Hawley have Presidential ambitions. But I don’t think either of them is stupid enough to believe he could prevail over Trump for the 2024 nomination, if Trump runs (Hawley might just be stupid enough to believe this; I’m pretty sure Cruz isn’t). So why shouldn’t they do what it takes to remove him from the board now, while he’s vulnerable, and his influence is at a low ebb?
Of course, then they have to deal with MAGATs mad that they just shivved the beloved God-Emperor in the back. But a fair number of those folks are already convincing themselves that Trump is a big loser and a sellout. They’d have almost four years to convince those folks that they really were the True Leaders all along, and since when has memory-holing inconvenient truths been a problem for Republican voters?
Long story short–it’s certainly unlikely, but I don’t know if it’s impossible. And any Republican with presidential ambitions should be doing everything in his or her power to make sure Trump can’t run again.
Baud
@Brachiator:
Did they change Christmas and New Year’s?
Brachiator
@Baud:
They tried. It was part of the double secret Democrats Hate Christian Holidays Act.
//
taumatugo
Make a paid voting Holiday, but for workers and independent contractors to get the credit, they must show proof of voting. No proof, no payday.
Philbert
I’m looking forward to Biden’s picks and policies in the DOJ voting rights area. Lots can done with enforcement of current laws. Getting new laws passed is going to be hard.
Citizen Alan
@Omnes Omnibus:
And sometimes they don’t. There are no living WW1 veterans. While I believe we should commemorate all our war dead, I don’t believe that the date of the WW1 armistice is so important that it needs to be preserved as the date we do so, particularly since more American soldiers died in other conflicts.
Michael Cain
@cain:
You think that, and I mostly think that, but the previous versions of HB1 required both.
Ken
I thought it was “there’s a bathroom on the right“?
Geminid
@sdhays: I’ll be interested to see how Republican Senators vote when the impeachment trial ends. A few are talking, but most seem to be wary of commenting. McConnell has been knocking trump, but this could just be a head fake. But McConnell may judge that the Republican civil war is on. It’s been brewing for years, and trump’s defeat left a lot of his supporters believing that he had been let down if not betrayed by leading Republican politicians. If it’s going to be war, McConnell and like minded Senators might see conviction as a preemptive strike on trumpism as well as their civic duty. McConnell and his caucus have a few days to sound each other out. McConnell is ruthless, and if he thinks convicting trump is best for his party, he’ll get twenty votes for conviction.
eclare
@Michael Cain: I get a neighbor’s mail probably once a month, early voting for me.
CaseyL
I love the post, OzarkHillbilly! Short and to the point. Also, dead-on accurate.
I think/hope there will indeed be a big move towards getting VBM in all states. Not sure how much energy Stacey Abrams will have for a national movement, but her methods should work anywhere. Marc Elias is spearheading one voting rights organization – I’m aware of that one as a newsletter subscriber.
I really want Schumer to dump the filibuster so we can get some serious legislation passed, with a VRA being at the top of the list. It does seem that he’s aware of the stakes; here’s hoping he can wrangle his caucus into a unified bloc for an vote to end it.
Another Scott
@Geminid: Cynic about Moscow Mitch that I am, I’m watching the big GOP donors. If they continue to withhold money from him and their PACs on the condition that Donnie and the Insurrectionists must be punished, then he’ll vote to convict and urge the rest of the GOP Senators to do likewise. If the big donors come back without that, then Moscow Mitch will want to weasel out of it and attack Democrats for being mean and wasting time.
Watch his donors.
Cheers,
Scott.
Ruckus
@gene108:
Newspapers have to produce something to fill space every day. Just like 24 hr news stations. Finding and filling are two different aspects of broadcasting the “news.” It’s cheaper and fast to just make up crap. So if you are in the business of printing x amount of square inches of newsprint every day, at the lowest possible cost, some/all of your product is going to be filler/crap. I give you the FTFNYT. Among others. Now add in a political bent to everything published and.. I give you the FTFNYT. Do remember there are 4 pages to every sheet of newsprint, unless you use singles, which have 2 pages. Square area to fill. Money to be made.
Aziz, light!
2024 is a long way off. By then, I think Trump will be dead or in much further mental decline. If there is any justice, his business holdings will be in tatters and he will be exhausted by legal battles. He can keep grifting off his cult but the proceeds will diminish and won’t cover his nut. Pledging to run again is a scam; actually running again would be work that he won’t want to do. He can’t stir up his cult without Twitter.
More than anything he craves attention. Starting his Patriot Party — or pretending to for cash that he can skim — would keep him in the news.
There’s no way the Senate will vote to convict, but Trump running again for real is an unlikely prospect.
Ruckus
@gene108:
Newspapers have to produce something to fill space every day. Just like 24 hr news stations. Finding and filling are two different aspects of broadcasting the “news.” It’s cheaper and fast to just make up crap. So if you are in the business of printing x amount of square inches of newsprint every day, at the lowest possible cost, some/all of your product is going to be filler/crap. I give you the FTFNYT. Among others. Now add in a political bent to everything published and.. I give you the FTFNYT. Do remember there are 4 pages to every sheet of newsprint, unless you use singles, which have 2 pages. Square area to fill. Money to be made.
@gene108:
The 400th person on the Forbes 400 is Peter Thiel, 2.1 BILLION. all 399 people above him are worth more, according to Forbes. I’d bet that the majority of them are interested in where they fall on this list. Who did they beat out of a spot this year.
People worth only a billion didn’t come close to making the list.
They aren’t worthy.
Think about that, your net worth is a billion fucking dollars and you aren’t worth enough to be on this list. I know people worth a few hundred to maybe a couple million. And a lot less. We, as a group of supposedly sentient beings, celebrate those who value money over humanity. And what happens when we do that? FTFNYT, Forbes magazine, the current republican party/conservatives…..
Geminid
@Another Scott: I think there either will be either 3-5 Republican votes to convict, or there will be 17-20. And we may not know until fairly close to the vote.
Brachiator
@Aziz, light!:
Trump may not be convicted, but he should be. It is absurd that Congress, representing the people, should let a president make war against the other branches of government.
The GOP may hunker down and make a crass political calculation to save Trump and appease his supporters, but failure to convict will embolden future autocrats.
It is also foolish to leave Trump in a position where he can continue to do political fundraising or have any possible influence on midterm elections.
Trump has probably never had to pay the consequences for his bad actions. People died because he thought it fun to lie about voter fraud.
He needs to be slapped down hard.
But as I note, Republicans are fools and only care about what might help them in the next election.
Brachiator
@Ruckus:
I don’t think the people on this list care. The vast majority of them are notorious for not co-operating with Forbes writers looking to confirm information.
The list is good for idle chit chat, and some conversations about income inequality, but it has about the same level of deeper importance as the Top 10 Best Dressed List.
Uncle Cosmo
You may not want to “play nice” but you sure sound like you want to “play stupid.” How in the everloving fuck do you propose to pass a Constitutional amendment (for that’s what “removing the EC” would take**) with the thinnest of majorities in Congress and at least 31 of the 50 state legislatures*** are controlled by the GOP??
Nitwit.
** I am aware of the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact – first passed by my home state of MD and signed into law by my good friend then-Gov. O’Malley. It’s 74 EVs short of taking effect. Where do you propose to find them? Should you be so fortunate as to find them, what makes you think the 6-3 majority on the Extreme Court would not declare it unconstitutional as soon as it’s challenged?
*** Could end up 32 depending on how Alaska shakes out.
Omnes Omnibus
@Citizen Alan: Everyone who voted for independence is dead. Maybe not coming unmoored from history has its own value.
Vote by mail and a wide window of opportunity to cast ballots is a better solution to the problem.
Just Chuck
@Uncle Cosmo: SCOTUS already heard a case in 2020 challenging the National Popular Vote Compact. They upheld it unanimously.
Uncle Cosmo
@Citizen Alan: Veterans Day commemorates all those who served under the colors. (And since a whole passle more served from
Great War ReloadedWorld War 2.0 onward, stapling it to the effective end date** of The War That Was Supposed To End All Wars And Damn Well Didn’t doesn’t make a lot of sense, at least Over Here.)We already have a holiday to commemorate those who died in the course of serving: Memorial Day. (It’s not just, or even mainly, the Start of Summer.)
** Armistice, not surrender. The Germans could theoretically have resumed hostilities at any time, but the continuing British naval blockade that imposed mass malnutrition to the point of starvation convinced them to sign the Versailles Diktat and fight one another in the streets instead.
Uncle Cosmo
@Ken: Brings to mind that scene in The American President when Sydney (Annette Benning) is storming out of the Oval Office and as she reaches for the doorknob POTUS (Michael Douglas) says gently, That’s the door to the bathroom. (Paraphrased, from memory.)
OzarkHillbilly
@Omnes Omnibus: @Chetan Murthy:
And Xmas is on Dec 25th, 4 days after the original solstice that the Christians repurposed for their own heretical reasons. Sometimes a particular date doesn’t matter.
OzarkHillbilly
@patrick II: Eloquent??? First time I ever saw that word in relation to me. Thanx anyway.
WaterGirl
@OzarkHillbilly: I would use that word for your writing, too! Why do you think I asked you to write about your pets? :-)