Texas Dems to Biden, Congress: Show the Same Courage We've Shown to Protect Voting Rights

[babylonsister]

1 hour ago
Texas Dems to Biden, Congress: Show the Same Courage We’ve Shown to Protect Voting Rights
“We were quite literally forced to move and leave the state.”
Inae Oh
News and Engagement EditorBio | Follow


Texas House Democrats—who fled the state in a bold move to halt the advancement of a sweeping voter suppression bill—urged the White House and Senate Democrats on Tuesday to pass federal voting rights legislation.

At a press conference Tuesday in Washington, DC, the group of Democrats specifically called on Biden and Congress to demonstrate “the same courage” they had shown by traveling to the nation’s capital during a special legislative session that had been called by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who has since threatened to arrest the more than 50 Democrats who fled. As they did in a statement confirming their plans to boycott the session before hopping aboard two private planes on Monday, the group once again hailed both the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and the For the People Act as examples of model legislation for protecting voting rights at the federal level and implored Congress to pass them.

“We were quite literally forced to move and leave the state of Texas,” Texas Rep. Rhetta Bowers said in a press conference flanked by some of her fellow state Democrats. “We also know that we are living right now on borrowed time in Texas. And we can’t stay here indefinitely, to run out the clock, to stop Republican anti-voter bills.” Bower said that although Texas Democrats would use “everything in our power to fight back,” they ultimately needed Congress to act with the same urgency.

“We are not going to buckle to the ‘big lie’ in the state of Texas—the ‘big lie’ that has resulted in anti-democratic legislation throughout the United States,” Rep. Rafael Anchia added.

The remarks came as Abbott vowed to arrest the Democrats that had walked out on the session, thus denying the state’s House of Representatives the two-thirds quorum needed to conduct official state business. In recent weeks, Texas Republicans, led by Abbott, have aggressively pushed to enact a sweeping set of bills that seek to ban drive-through and 24-hour voting, add new ID requirements for mail voting, and prohibit election officials from proactively sending out absentee ballot request forms.

more...

https://www.motherjones.com/mojo-wire/2021/07/texas-democrats-voting-rights/

[Faux pas]

1. KnR

[lagomorph777]

2. Well? Are we gonna do whatever it takes to get Manchin, Synema, and Feinstein on board?

Or are we gonna let America come to an end?

[Budi]

4. Are those 3 the ONLY ones holding it up?

Who else is pissing around making demands that have NOTHING to do with Voting Rights, but are hung up on some part of the bill that they will personally tank the whole thing, just to grandstand.

I am fed up with the bs.

[lagomorph777]

7. Yeah, there may be others.

We need to put a stop to that crap.

[Budi]

8. Then Name every last one of them. Name them ALL.

Who are they?
We can't demand change from them unless we Name Them All.

[FBaggins]

9. There isn't any way to name them.

Manchin and Sinema are screening them from precisely the anger you're expressing.

So long as it doesn't come to a vote, they can continue to make noise about objecting to how it's being used and they can call for "filibuster reform" and that's enough to convince those "demanding change" to leave them alone... because they can't do anything without Manchin/Sinema anyway. If you tried to pin them down on whether they would vote for a "nuclear" maneuver... they would just say that they would consider it if it came to a vote.

This has caused many to think that they're just one or two votes away from ending the filibuster (or at least ending it for certain types of legislation)...

... when they're probably 6-8 votes away.

[lagomorph777]

10. Obviously, I can't. Some of them are doing it behind closed doors.

President Biden could call them out; I'm sure he won't though; he is no doubt quietly negotiating with the holdouts. I sure hope he is, anyway.

[Budi]

3. Where exactly is the Voting Rights Act in the queue right now?

What is the main obstacle to passing it?

Just asking for clarification, since we hear various press reports about the VRA with no action.

How long will these courageous legislators from Tx be able to hold out?
Honestly, with the serious situation it has become, they are begging DC for an assist.

SO can this bill be called up as an emergency & the House & Senate be called to work & not leave till it is done & passed & signed into law?

Just asking what is holding it hostage?

Thanks

[PortTack]

5. Indeed! obstructionists..you know who you are, time to step up..be a patriot

[crickets]

6. Go, Texas Dems! K&R