Voting Rights

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Best Housekeeping

by Anne Laurie| September 20, 20229:27 am| 178 Comments

This post is in: Biden Administration in Action, Republican Venality, Show Us on the Doll Where the Invisible Hand Touched You, Vote Like Your Country Depends On It, Voting Rights

When Papa *becomes* transportation… pic.twitter.com/GH1MDirSYc

— Chasten Buttigieg (@Chasten) September 18, 2022

Vice President Kamala Harris is visiting two historically Black colleges in South Carolina to push for voter registration. She’s focusing on places and demographics that will be key to Democrats’ chances to hold on to Congress in midterm elections. https://t.co/ekfEbYAUK1

— AP Politics (@AP_Politics) September 20, 2022

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Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Best HousekeepingPost + Comments (178)

Saturday Morning Open Thread: When Dems Are In Charge, Good Things Happen

by Anne Laurie| April 23, 20229:15 am| 160 Comments

This post is in: Biden Administration in Action, Dog Blogging, Open Threads, Voting Rights

Trolley problem solved:pic.twitter.com/SZKF9ngMvP

— hardmaru (@hardmaru) April 15, 2022

Blast this shit from the rooftops, a thing that Biden has done that's so good, the replies are just full of people salty about how good this is.

This is what happens when you elect Democrats. https://t.co/uPGEO3SP1a

— Michael Paulauski (@mike10010100) April 22, 2022

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Saturday Morning Open Thread: When Dems Are In Charge, Good Things HappenPost + Comments (160)

GOP / SC(R)OTUS Venality Open Thread: The Southern Strategy, Redux

by Anne Laurie| February 8, 202210:15 am| 138 Comments

This post is in: Civil Rights, Republican Venality, Voting Rights

Roberts Court uses shadow docket to do more neoconfederacies https://t.co/0xR1CV5A8O

— Scott Lemieux (@LemieuxLGM) February 8, 2022

U.S. Supreme Court lets Alabama use electoral map faulted for racial bias https://t.co/79xsaFd8jp pic.twitter.com/Zua2yMgCgo

— Reuters (@Reuters) February 8, 2022

BREAKING: The Supreme Court has put on hold a lower court ruling that Alabama must draw new congressional districts before the 2022 elections, boosting Republican chances to hold six of the state’s seven seats in the House of Representatives. https://t.co/nA0JJ5CEPu

— The Associated Press (@AP) February 7, 2022

"Things have changed in the South."

— Roberts, C.J., Shelby County v. Holder, 570 U.S. 529 (2013) https://t.co/zHS0Uyiyet

— Jeffrey Vagle (@jvagle) February 7, 2022

Chief Just-Us Roberts is reportedly outraged, nay, heartbroken, over his Repub colleagues’ willingness to soil the threadbare ‘balls and strikes’ figleaf of the Roberts Court impartiality.

He wants to get some media attention to demonstrate his good faith, I say he should announce he’s leaving the court at the end of this session, along with Justice Breyer. But I’m not gonna bet as much as a store-bought cookie on him doing so, mind you…

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GOP / SC(R)OTUS Venality Open Thread: The Southern Strategy, ReduxPost + Comments (138)

Monday Morning Open Thread: Moving Forward, Regardless of the Haters

by Anne Laurie| January 10, 20227:59 am| 94 Comments

This post is in: Biden Administration in Action, Open Threads, Proud to Be A Democrat, Voting Rights

I mean, insofar as both are mission-critical, yes. https://t.co/nGcgndyLPz

— Jeff Fecke (@jkfecke) January 8, 2022

NEW: President Biden and VP Kamala Harris will travel to Atlanta on TUESDAY to deliver remarks about the "urgent need" to pass voting rights legislation and stop "corrupt" attempts to restrict ballot access, WH says. https://t.co/pq6Ls5JwGq

— Katie Rogers (@katierogers) January 5, 2022

Analysis: Biden escalates the stakes for next week’s voting rights speech https://t.co/BInf79hLip

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) January 7, 2022

… “Right now, in state after state, new laws are being written — not to protect the vote, but to deny it; not only to suppress the vote, but to subvert it; not to strengthen or protect our democracy, but because the former president lost,” the president said from the Capitol’s Statuary Hall Thursday.

“It’s wrong. It’s undemocratic. And frankly, it’s un-American,” Biden said in his speech, which neither called Trump out by name nor suggested any remedies to a Republican endeavor he has regularly described in apocalyptic terms…

Biden has revisited the theme of voting rights since taking office, but began a fresh push on the issue last month as his Build Back Better legislation stalled, one of several progressive priorities he wasn’t able to deliver in the past year. His speech on Thursday harked back to his rhetoric about Trump during the 2020 campaign, urging voters to see the election as a stark choice, not a referendum, something some Democrats says could help them in the midterms.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki later made clear Tuesday’s remarks would center on calling for passage of the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, both stalled in the Senate because of GOP opposition and the filibuster, which requires 60 votes to overcome. To date, Biden has not had enough Democratic support to change Senate rules, which requires all 50 members of his party to band together…

WATCH: As Senate Democrats continue to press holdouts in their party to embrace the voting rights bills, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said the Senate would vote to change chamber's rule known as the filibuster by January 17 https://t.co/RWa5Way27h pic.twitter.com/4gRQgSyYeK

— Reuters (@Reuters) January 10, 2022

Sen. @amyklobuchar on the Senate filibuster: "I would argue that maybe the people in this country — the hundreds of millions of people in this country — that their voting rules might be just a little, tiny more important than our voting rules in this chamber." pic.twitter.com/UvnXQn0B8l

— The Hill (@thehill) January 8, 2022

Monday Morning Open Thread: Moving Forward, Regardless of the HatersPost + Comments (94)

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Sometimes the Future Is Better Than We Imagined

by Anne Laurie| December 28, 20217:32 am| 183 Comments

This post is in: Popular Culture, Proud to Be A Democrat, Voting Rights

When kids say to me how much better the 1970s must have been, I remind them that the 70s were so awesome that we extrapolated our future to being "Soylent Green" https://t.co/WxZ5kdI8gP

— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) December 27, 2021

It’s a long & winding road, though…

When it comes to voter suppression, it’s no longer just about making it easy for eligible people to vote—it's about whether or not those votes will count at all.

It's simple: voter suppression is un-American, un-democratic, and unpatriotic.

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) December 27, 2021

The first thing the United States Senate should do in 2022? Protect voting rights. It’s time to pass the Freedom to Vote Act.

— Amy Klobuchar (@amyklobuchar) December 27, 2021

How to steal an election: by making it easier for people to vote legally and convincing them to do so. Wow.
OK, genius. https://t.co/HEG08D37Xg

— Slava Malamud (@SlavaMalamud) December 28, 2021

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Sometimes the Future Is Better Than We ImaginedPost + Comments (183)

Saturday Morning Open Thread: Season of Giving

by Anne Laurie| December 18, 20218:42 am| 108 Comments

This post is in: Open Threads, President Biden, Proud to Be A Democrat, Voting Rights

(Ozy & Millie via GoComics.com)

“Let’s go, Joe,” someone yells when Biden takes mic at @SCSTATE1896 pic.twitter.com/nC05i3YNOF

— Jennifer Jacobs (@JenniferJJacobs) December 17, 2021

Biden decries “unrelenting assault” on voting rights in S.C. graduation address at Clyburn alma mater https://t.co/slyiiqFLPF

— The Washington Post (@washingtonpost) December 17, 2021

Wish they’d assigned this story to somebody other than Anklebiter Annie Linskey, but still:

… “I thought we had some of those major victories. We finally crossed the threshold,” Biden told the students and their families gathered inside a gymnasium for the event. “But what I didn’t realize is you can defeat hate, but you can’t eliminate it.”

Raising his voice, Biden said: “And when given oxygen by political leaders it comes out, ugly and mean as it was before. We can’t give it any oxygen. We have to step on it. We have to respond to it.”

The mostly Black crowd gave Biden his biggest applause as he continued: “It’s not who we are. It’s a minority, but if the majority doesn’t speak up it has a profound impact, as we’ve seen in the last few years.”…

The president came at the request of Rep. James E. Clyburn (D-S.C.), who graduated from the university 60 years ago but did not have the chance to walk and receive his diploma in person…

“People give me credit for his resounding victory here in South Carolina, but he deserved it,” Clyburn said. “And I said to him way back before the election that I didn’t want him to forget South Carolina, and he’s demonstrating with this visit that he’s not going to forget South Carolina.”

Clyburn said Friday that he arranged for Biden to give the address after the university’s president originally offered him the slot. During Friday’s ceremony Biden handed Clyburn a diploma…

Biden has said that he’s open to a last-minute push on a voting rights bill this year — he said Friday that a new “sinister” combination of voter suppression and election subversion is “un-American.”

“It’s undemocratic and sadly, it is unprecedented since Reconstruction,” Biden said.

In his most partisan remarks, he blamed Republicans for using the filibuster to block a voting rights bill. “Each and every time it gets to be brought up that other team blocks the ability even to start to discuss it,” Biden said. “The team used to be called the Republican Party.”…

Speaking of giving, if you still need a stocking stuffer…

$10 for a whole year of supporting @washingtonpost journalists, reading fascinating stories and not hitting a paywall. You're worth it! Or buy it for your mom. The gift of always having something smart to think and talk about: https://t.co/iEBG9K4sKm

— Drew Harwell (@drewharwell) December 17, 2021

Saturday Morning Open Thread: Season of GivingPost + Comments (108)

For the Record Open Thread: No Voting Fraud

by Anne Laurie| December 16, 202110:35 am| 82 Comments

This post is in: Past Elections, Republican Venality, Voting Rights

“The cases could not throw the outcome into question even if all those votes were for Biden, which they were not, and even if those ballots were actually counted, which in most cases they were not.” https://t.co/oSIosDdLAi

— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) December 14, 2021

Apart, of course, from the persistent Repub claim of ‘massive voter fraud’…

An @AP review of six battleground states found fewer than 475 cases of potential voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election, a number so small it would have had no effect on the results.

Here are the details of @AP's review in each of those states: https://t.co/WSLkfTnUQ6

— The Associated Press (@AP) December 15, 2021

In Wisconsin, five people have been charged with fraud out of nearly 3.3 million ballots cast.

“I would have to venture a guess that’s about the same odds as getting hit by lightning,” said George Christenson, an election clerk in the state. https://t.co/PF3kf1Brfa pic.twitter.com/fKOcZAdmTm

— The Associated Press (@AP) December 14, 2021

For the Record Open Thread: *No* Voting FraudPost + Comments (82)

The words do not have to be perfect.

Black Jesus loves a paper trail.

Some judge needs to shut this circus down soon.

Historically it was a little unusual for the president to be an incoherent babbling moron.

Sadly, there is no cure for stupid.

The worst democrat is better than the best republican.

Russian mouthpiece, go fuck yourself.

fuckem (in honor of the late great efgoldman)

Let me eat cake. The rest of you could stand to lose some weight, frankly.

Battle won, war still ongoing.

My years-long effort to drive family and friends away has really paid off this year.

We are aware of all internet traditions.

Nancy smash is sick of your bullshit.

It’s the corruption, stupid.

I’ve spoken to my cat about this, but it doesn’t seem to do any good.

All your base are belong to Tunch.

And we’re all out of bubblegum.

Do not shrug your shoulders and accept the normalization of untruths.

I’d try pessimism, but it probably wouldn’t work.

Fuck these fucking interesting times.

Their freedom requires your slavery.

This blog will pay for itself.

Usually wrong but never in doubt

Whoever he was, that guy was nuts.

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Best Housekeeping

Saturday Morning Open Thread: When Dems Are In Charge, Good Things Happen

GOP / SC(R)OTUS Venality Open Thread: The Southern Strategy, Redux

Monday Morning Open Thread: Moving Forward, Regardless of the Haters

Tuesday Morning Open Thread: Sometimes the Future Is Better Than We Imagined

Saturday Morning Open Thread: Season of Giving

For the Record Open Thread: No Voting Fraud