Voting Rights and the Filibuster

Because all Republican senators will vote against it, there’s no way Congress can pass desperately needed voting rights protection legislation without elimination or targeted reform of the filibuster. Two Democratic senators, Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona and Joe Manchin of West Virginia, though presumably they would vote to pass voting rights bills, appear to be intransigent about preserving the filibuster. They evidently feel that if they don’t vote to preserve the filibuster, they will lose the votes of centrists and independents they need to hang on to if they are to keep their seats in the senate. Passage of voting rights protection is critically important. Neither of these senators appears to have the courage or conviction to do the right thing.