General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: I'm concerned about the trending [View all]NullTuples
(6,017 posts)Perhaps I did not express it well; for that I apologize.
We need to find ways to put a real fire under the feet of our Democratic Party leaders in Washington, D.C.. to stop Senators Kyrsten Sinema & Joe Manchin. They've both proved repeatedly that our leadership no longer has anything to lose by playing hardball. Yet time after time, our leaders capitulate instead.
We really did already lose that battle over voting rights. Even if the filibuster is abolished by next January, there won't be time to put protective laws in place before the 2022 elections. And it's not likely the filibuster will be abolished, as Congressional Dems did not even capitalize on January 6th, instead choosing to wait a month for Trump's impeachment trial at McConnell's request to "let everyone cool down". That was a golden moment, strategy-wise. At this point there seems to be even less appetite for such fights.
We dropped the ball with Trump, too; another chance to shift public opinion & thus Congressional reactions. The big threat of a second term was that time limits would run out on his federal crimes. That's happening anyway b/c we're letting them go to focus on January 6th. But pretty much everyone knows he won't be taken down for it.
Even now, subpoenas regarding January 6th are going ignored and not enforced.
We've lost control of the ball & that does not bode well for the game, as the clock really is running out.
Insofar as fighting voter suppression laws in court, Republicans know that with only 12 months left, they can easily run out the clock. It's part of their brand. And the McConnell-packed Supreme Court has made it clear they want nothing to do with protecting elections, claiming it's not their jurisdiction.
So no, I don't believe it's "all or nothing". But I also don't believe in promoting the fantasy that we can still secure the elections and even if we don't, just by getting out the vote we can - once again - overwhelm Republican manipulation of our elections with greater numbers. They've been fine tuning their gaming of election results for the last two decades & now control enough states to do a proper job of it.