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If you think American democracy is worth preserving, you owe Texas Democrats a shout-out. Over the Memorial Day weekend, they thwarted a Republican plot to make it harder for certain citizens of the Lone Star state to vote. These Americans, of course, tend to be Black, Latino, low-income and urban.
The Democrats’ dramatic walk-out from the Texas legislature prevented the Republican majority from ramming through a bill that would drag the state back to the bad old days of Jim Crow. But Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has vowed to bring lawmakers back into a special session for the express purpose of disenfranchising fellow Texans.
Having won a delaying action, Texas Democrats are appealing to their counterparts in Washington to stand up to what President Biden rightly called “an assault on democracy.” Congressional Democrats are more than willing to pass voting rights bills, but Senate filibuster rules stand in the way.
It would take 60 votes to shut down a GOP Senate filibuster of a national law preventing states from discriminating against certain kinds of voters. Democrats only have 50, and moderates like Sens. Joe Manchin (D-WVa.) and Krysten Sinema (D-Ariz.) so far have stood firm against left-wing pressure to kill the filibuster.
They know that “going nuclear” on the minority party’s rights would likely scuttle hopes of building bipartisan support for any part of Biden’s agenda, bring partisan enmity to fever pitch, and could come back to haunt Democrats should they lose control of both the House and the Senate in next year’s midterm elections.
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