Biden takes the gloves off, finally. Did he just kill off bi-partisanship?

 On January 6, 2022, Joe Biden took off his gloves and called out Trump's lies for what they were:" a dagger at the throat of democracy."  Trump, as Biden called him, was a loser. His lies about the results of the 2020 election were just that, lies, designed to soothe Trump's narcissistic ego to paint himself as a winner. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MGUptvDAVQI

 This January 6 Biden speech approach was not aimed at winning friends in the Trump camp and the message and delivery were direct, raw, and aggressive.. Why Joe Biden's intense Jan. 6 riot anniversary speech was stunning TV (usatoday.com) So why?  Did he just kill off bi-partisanship?

Making the defense of democracy a motivation for those not in the Trump camp to turn out in the midterms had not gained much traction in the polls. Depending on painfully long bipartisan negotiation was making him look weak and old and hardly inspiring.  This speech was aimed to turn this malaise around.  My favorite childhood story was Ferdinand the Bull who preferred to smell the flowers until he was stung by a bee.  This was Biden's awakened fighting bull speech. His sinking polls stung and the 2022 midterms were just too close.

There is another childhood favorite tale. CallingTrump a loser and the salesman of  The Big Lie, that there was widespread fraud in November. 2020 was also Biden's  "the Emperor has no clothes"/moment.  It is about time Biden stopped pussy footing around, making vague and political science arguments on behalf of democracy,  and name the Emperor's nakedness as what it was. Trump was out to defy the Constitution and the rule of law in order to get a second term. 

The only olive branch of bipartisanship Biden extended to the Trump camp was he would still work with them on legislation in Congress and would "reach across the aisle".  In any case, this approach is a gamble, and assumes the GOP block will not budge anyway. without more effective pressure, if ever.   On one hand, Biden's attack on Trump himself would serve to harden the  Trump core legislators representing already Trump territory. But in purple states, the swing voters would be made more aware of their general election candidate positions and to whom those running for office pledged allegiance. This nod to bi-partisanship was mostly just fine words because the Democrat's strategy has already become hardball,   naming a date by which votes will be taken on Biden's agenda,  up or down,  win or lose.  It was a veiled threat to those opposing voting rights,  child tax credits,  and other popular provisions of the Build Back Better bills. It would get "no" votes on the record and make it easier for opposing  Democrat candidates to attack them in sound bite ads in the general election. The purpose of this hardball approach was also more likely geared to put pressure on the two Democrat Senators in Name Only, Machin, and Sinema, to stop their stonewalling any degree of filibuster reform.  This reform is necessary to enable the passage of pro-democracy voting rights legislation in the Senate with a simple majority vote and not by a super majority of 60.  Killing voter rights legislation is in the interest of the GOP party loyalists who are trying to rig the system so they as a minority party can continue their rule over the majority wherever they can by gerrymandering, putting their partisans in charge of vote administration, passing laws that let the state legislature overturn popular will, and making it more difficult for certain blocks of voters with a record of favoring Democrats to vote.  Bipartisanship was probably long dead on this issue, anyway. 

The 5-Minute Fix: What does ‘voting rights’ mean anyway? - feliciamuftic@gmail.com - Gmail (google.com)

Update January 14, 2022 Lhttps://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/589462-ohio-supreme-court-strikes-down-gop-drawn-state-house-senate-maps

Colorado's vote by mail...antidote to voter suppression legislation

 The antidote to the racist-inspired poison of voter suppression law being enacted by GOP-dominated state legislatures is to put the issue on the next state-wide election by petition, permitting universal vote by mail using the fraud-free Colorado system. The reason it could pass is that: even the white vote is also being inconvenienced. Making it harder for them to vote is not a popular move, either. The attempt is based on a lie: there was widespread fraud in 2020. 60 court cases with the last Supreme Court ruling in February 2020, Supreme Court rejects final Trump bid to nullify 2020 election results | TheHill exposed the lie with rulings and the opportunity of Trump partisan lawyers to present their evidence of fraud. They could not because there was none that would have changed the outcome of the November 2020 election. The lie lived on in spite of this providing the January 6 capitol attackers with a rationale and the battle cry of "stop the steal". Those attackers were both fools and fooled though the Big Lie was not the motivation driving the violence. As we learn more about the attack, we learn the bad actors were mostly an armed militia group called domestic terrorists by the FBI and in particular, the Oath Keepers. https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/oattkeepers-capitol-riots-conspiracy/2021/03/11/03c26114-8291-11eb-9ca6-54e187ee4939_story.html . Their motivation was "stop the steal". The participation in the riot also involved a number of white nationalists. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/several-well-known-hate-groups-identified-at-capitol-riot/ https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/13/video/extremist-signs-symbols-capitol-riot.html

Another antidote to state-based voter suppression laws is for Congress to pass HR1 which would expand protection of voters' rights and nullify much of what the GOP-dominated state legislatures are proposing and passing into legislation.. The GOP state legislators are using the "Big Lie", the Democrat's shorthand tag for the GOP's false claims of widespread fraud, to justify their voter suppression legislation attempts anyway. Never mind the evidence and court decisions. Even if it "ain't broke", they still want to "fix it". The real reason for their attempts to make it inconvenient for citizens to vote is not fraud. The evidence for such accusations is how their proposals would keep especially African American voters from voting using their custom of voting on Sundays (after church "souls to the polls") and by mail. If the GOP cannot win on their merits and demographics to expand their appeal, then their answer is to keep the opposition from voting.

HR1 passed the House on March 4 with a menu of what Democrats would like to do to combat voter suppression...probably the most important piece of legislation concerning voting rights since 1965. Even with Democrats having the White House and with marginal control of the Senate, the filibuster may have to be blown up. The alternative strategy is passing Senate rules with a simple majority that would exempt all issues concerning voters' rights from filibusters . This is a carveout strategy that would not destroy the filibuster on other issues. That approach has been implemented, in exempting Supreme Court appointments from the filibuster 60 vote threshold.

Within the voting rights reforms in the voting rights bill HR 1 now in the Senate is a way to address the distortion of voter voices is ending political gerrymandering by having independent commissions draw federal district boundaries. Colorado is ahead of the nation on this one, too. Voters approved this and the state has begun implementing it in 2021. https://www.denverpost.com/2020/12/22/colorado-redistricting-2021-process/

The GOP's current line is that HR1 would destroy the GOP. If the only way the GOP thinks it can win is to discourage people from voting, especially those they think will vote for their opponents, there is something wrong with their message. This kind of attitude from the GOP is an admission of their failure to attract enough voters to their cause. In Colorado since 2018 over 40 thousand registered as Republicans changed their affiliation to independent or Democrat. 4600 alone left the GOP after January 6.

For those wondering about the hows and whys of the filibuster issue in the Senate rules, the definition per the senate.gov website is: "The Senate tradition of unlimited debate has allowed for the use of the filibuster, a loosely defined term for action designed to prolong debate and delay or prevent a vote on a bill, resolution, amendment, or other debatable question. Prior to 1917, the Senate rules did not provide for a way to end debate and force a vote on a measure. That year, the Senate adopted a rule to allow a two-thirds majority to end a filibuster, a procedure known as "cloture." In 1975 the Senate reduced the number of votes required for cloture from two-thirds (67) to three-fifths (60) of the 100-member Senate."

House Democrats pass HR 1, their massive voting rights bill - Vox

Registered Republicans Ditch Party After Capitol Riot : NPR

What 9 Extremely Detailed Maps Tell Us About Colorado’s 2020 Election | Colorado Public Radio (cpr.org)

"I don't think 2022 is going to be competitive": GOP voter registration tumbles in Colorado (yahoo.com)

FactCheck.org's Weekly Update (mailchi.mp)

Colorado’s Trump-appointed U.S. Attorney was alarmed by falsehoods about Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems (coloradosun.com)

Tens of thousands of voters drop Republican affiliation after Capitol riot | TheHill

Supreme Court Seems Ready to Sustain Arizona Voting Limits - The New York Times (nytimes.com)

In Supreme Court, GOP attorney defends voting restrictions by saying they help Republicans win (nbcnews.com)

Colorado Mail-in Voting Is Secure, Increases Voter Turnout (5280.com)

How to automatically track your Colorado mail-in ballot | Colorado Public Radio (cpr.org)

,The Confederacy will rise again....or at least a similar mentality is still trying...and voter suppression and charging the left with cancel culture  are the 2021 version on their menu featured in the CPAC meeting.   Comments about this  have been moved to a separate posting: Save your Confederate money, boys, the South is rising again with cancel culture and voter suppression 

The 5 biggest takeaways from FBI Director Christopher Wray's testimony about the Capitol insurrection | Business Insider India