Jake Johnson
January 13, 2022
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/ ... -democracy
Introduction:
From a follow-up article, also by Jake Johnson in Common Drreams:(Common Dreams) Democratic Sen. Kyrsten Sinema was met with a torrent of outrage on Thursday after she delivered a floor speech reiterating her opposition to weakening the Senate's 60-vote threshold, striking a major blow to her party's plan to finally overcome Republican obstruction of voting rights legislation.
"While I continue to support these bills, I will not support separate actions that worsen the underlying disease of division infecting our country," Sinema (D-Ariz.) said, referring to the Democratic leadership's plan to pursue changes to the 60-vote filibuster if GOP senators continue to block the Freedom to Vote Act and the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act.
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/ ... r-hell-out
Extract:
Referring to Sen. Kyrsten Sinema's (D-Ariz.) Thursday speech defending the 60-vote legislative filibuster, Martin Luther King III argued Saturday that "what she said is, 'I support voting rights, but not as much as I support the ability of someone to take those rights away.'"
"The filibuster is a meaningless Senate rule," he added. "It's a remnant of slavery used to block civil rights for generations."
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The Arizona Democrat's refusal to consider even a voting rights exception for the filibuster has infuriated Arizona residents who've watched the state's Republican-controlled legislature ram through voter suppression measures along party lines, making a mockery of Sinema's purported desire for bipartisan cooperation.
"I want the Senate to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, and the only way that will happen is if we carve out the filibuster," Tessa Williams, an Arizonan who attended Saturday's demonstrations in Phoenix, told the local Arizona Republic. "It's critical to protect the right to vote. It's under threat right now, and I think it's much more important that Senator Sinema gets behind this legislation than hold on to the filibuster."
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Sinema's speech Thursday—delivered just before President Joe Biden addressed the Senate Democratic caucus in a closed-door meeting—intensified calls for her ouster in 2024, the end of her first six-year term. A recent Data for Progress survey showed that 70% of likely Arizona Democratic primary voters disapprove of Sinema's job performance.