Tuesday's Senate Rules Committee markup of S.1, the For the People Act, featured a rare committee appearance by both leaders, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and the other one, the self-appointed Grim Reaper. "In the wake of the 2020 elections—deemed the most secure in American history by officials in the previous Administration—former President Trump told a lie, a big lie, that the election was stolen," Schumer said in his statement before the committee. "Without proof or evidence, the former president and his allies repeated this lie, over and over again, poisoning faith in our democracy and fomenting an armed insurrection at the Capitol."
"And now, in states across the country, Republican legislatures have seized on the big lie to restrict the franchise, and inevitably make it harder for African-Americans, Latinos, students and the working poor to vote," he said. "In the time since this committee met, the state of Georgia has made it a crime—a crime—for volunteers to provide food and water to voters waiting in long lines at the polls. I mean, my god. Why aren't my Republican colleagues outraged by this?" That was a rhetorical question. Because of course his Republican colleagues are the ones pushing that big lie. And his leadership counterpart, Mitch McConnell, is on what one reporter has deemed a "personal mission" to kill the voting rights bill.
McConnell was present for much of the proceedings, often teeing up the odious Sen. Ted Cruz, who insisted on calling the bill "Jim Crow 2.0," saying it "would disenfranchise millions of Americans." Which is, of course, bullshit. Cruz claims that the bill would allow undocumented people to vote, and that would disenfranchise all the other people who ... would still be able to vote. But it would mean Democrats would always win, so it would disenfranchise Republicans.
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Never mind that that’s exactly what Cruz, Missouri Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, and 145 other congressional Republicans attempted to do on Jan. 6, in reverse. They were attempting to throw out millions of votes that elected President Joe Biden. They voted to do just that mere hours after a violent mob attacked Congress and tried to overthrow the electoral process. Throughout the hearing, McConnell endorsed that position—that this legislation meant to restore voting rights and unfettered access to the polls to every eligible American is a Democratic "partisan power grab."
"Our democracy is not in crisis," McConnell insisted, "and we are not going to let one party take over our democracy under the false pretense of saving it." Which is of course the singular mission McConnell has undertaken for his entire career: ensuring that Republicans will have permanent rule even while representing a minority of the people—a whopping 41.5 million fewer people this Senate session. It's why he has gone to such great and undemocratic lengths to pack the whole judiciary, but especially the Supreme Court, with right-wing ideologues. He got the first win with Chief Justice John Roberts in 2013, when the court gutted the Voting Rights Act.
That was one facet of McConnell's push: making rampant and racist voter suppression legal again. His other course of action, again with help from the Roberts court in the Citizens United decision, has been to let corporate America take over our elections. In fact, the entirety of McConnell's political career has been on an offensive to get more money and corporate influence into politics, because that (along with cheating) is how to win.
When he was teaching political science back in the 1970s in Kentucky, he told the class there were "three things you need to succeed in politics and to build a political party—money, money, money." Why are he and his fellow Republicans so intent on getting that money? "We do it because we'd like to win—because we'd like to win. There's nothing inherently wrong with wanting to win." Winning at all costs, even by cheating. Even by throwing out valid ballots. Even by disenfranchising millions of eligible voters. Even by casting doubt on the integrity of our whole election process and allowing the Big Lie to dig in and fester.
Never mind that the whole thing was cooked up by a con man looking for the next way to make a buck out of compliant rubes. McConnell knows very well the election was not rigged. So does Ted Cruz. So does Sen. Mike Lee, who actually compared the bill to the "Alien and Sedition Acts in terms of the tyranny it imposes on the American people."
They are all smart, well-educated men. Incredibly venal and cynical, too. Who are willing to do anything to hold power. Anything, that is, except honestly assess why they are losing elections and what they can do as a party to enter the 21st century and start governing responsibly. It's much easier to lie and to cheat.
The committee deadlocked 9-9 on approving the bill and passing it out of committee, but the tie vote still gives Schumer procedural options to bring the measure to the Senate floor for consideration, a path he says he intends to pursue.