The Struggle for the Soul of America: Political Leaders Refuse to Face the Truth

Posted on August 1, 2021 by Author: Bruce Berlin

While Democratic senators spent precious weeks haggling with their Republican colleagues over a bipartisan infrastructure bill that should have been a no-brainer, GOP-controlled state legislatures have been undermining our democracy in broad daylight. According to the Brennan Center for Justice, “17 states have enacted 28 new laws restricting voting rights so far this year, with dozens more expected to pass in Republican-led legislatures.”[1]

If that isn’t bad enough, Democrats from President Biden to Sen. Manchin (D-WV) are complicit in this demolition of democracy by failing to provide vital support for the only measures that can prevent it. Rather than calling for abolishing the filibuster or a carve out for voting rights to enable passage of the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voter Advancement Act, the White House is banking on “out organizing” the Republicans’ voter suppression laws and gerrymandering efforts in the 2022 election.[2] Michael Li, the Brennan Center’s senior counsel for its Democracy Program, called this strategy “clueless and depressing.”[3]

If you favor the Democrats or just free and fair elections, you should be truly disheartened by all this. But then, Republicans are not satisfied with just rigging the voting process to give them an unfair advantage in future elections. They also want to rewrite history, so Americans won’t hold the black mark of the Trump inspired January 6^th insurrection against them come the 2022 election.

One member of the “law and order” party called the attack on the Capitol “a normal tourist visit.”[4] Other Republicans described the Trump supported rioters as “patriotic political prisoners” and blamed Speaker Nancy Pelosi for the violence, as Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) himself did.[5]

Rather than stand up for the Capitol police who protected them from the violent protesters, the great majority of Congressional Republicans have sacrificed the truth to protect their corrupt boss, Donald Trump, as well as to coverup their own disgraceful behavior.

We are living in a country where the leaders of both major political parties are unwilling to face the truth and act accordingly in the best interests of our nation. Biden and his lieutenants refuse to accept the fact that the only way to have free and fair elections is to abolish or reform the filibuster. This may well cost the Democrats the 2022 elections and the rest of us our democracy.

At the same time, Republican leadership refuses to admit that Trump and his loyal followers attempted to overthrow our government and should be held accountable. And this failure could result in the Republicans losing next year’s election as well. A recent poll in a red Tennessee district indicated that pro-democracy Republicans (34% in the poll) stated “there was no chance that they would consider a candidate who voted to block the certification of the presidential election after the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.”[6] One hundred and forty-seven Republicans, eight senators and 139 representatives, voted not to certify President Biden’s election.[7] Their re-election is at-risk.

Both parties seem to have lost their way and the ability to do the right thing. It is up to us, the American people, to set them straight. But can we, and how, before it is too late?

Bruce Berlin, J.D.

A retired, public sector ethics attorney, Berlin is the author of Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America (See breakingbigmoneysgrip.com.), the founder of New Mexicans for Money Out of Politics, a former U.S. Institute of Peace fellow, and the founder and former executive director of The Trinity Forum for International Security and Conflict Resolution. He can be reached at breakingbigmoneysgrip@gmail.com.

Subscribe to this blog at https://breakingbigmoneysgrip.com/my-blog-3/. Join the movement to revive our democracy. Together we can save the soul of America.

[1] https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/07/09/dnc-strategy-denounced-clueless-and-depressing-amid-gop-assault-voting-rights

[2] https://www.alternet.org/2021/07/joe-biden/

[3] https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/07/09/dnc-strategy-denounced-clueless-and-depressing-amid-gop-assault-voting-rights

[4] https://news.yahoo.com/house-republican-defends-normal-tourist-visit-comment-about-jan-6-insurrection-162631530.html

[5] https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/31/us/politics/jan-6-capitol-riot-pelosi.html

[6] https://newrepublic.com/article/162996/democrats-2022-house-liz-cheney-republicans

[7] https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/01/07/us/elections/electoral-college-biden-objectors.html

The Struggle for the Soul of America: Biden Counters Trump’s Big Lie with One of His Own

Posted on July 17, 2021 by Author: Bruce Berlin

On Tuesday at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, President Biden called out Republicans for promoting the Big Lie that the 2020 election was stolen, and Trump really won. But in doing so, Biden fostered his own Big Lie.

The President advocated that the Democrats could overcome Republican voter suppression efforts and win the 2022 elections without carving out an exception to the Senate filibuster for voting rights. All the evidence suggests Biden is wrong.

Ten Republican senators must join all the Democrats to break a filibuster and pass voting rights legislation. Yet, last month all 50 Republican senators voted to block consideration of the voting rights bills.[1]

In addition, Republican and Democratic senators are having an almost impossible time hammering out a bipartisan deal on infrastructure.[2] This despite the fact that it would clearly benefit red and blue states alike. The likelihood of a bipartisan agreement on voting rights is even more daunting given Republicans’ fears that it will hurt their chances of winning future elections.[3]

Recently, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) proposed a voting rights compromise which included some provisions like voter I.D. that Republicans support. However, Republican Minority Leader Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky) has already indicated that he opposes Manchin’s counteroffer.[4]

To undermine the Republicans’ ever-increasing assault on our right to vote, Biden urged Congress pass the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. However, he never mentioned the greatest impediment to achieving that goal, the Senate filibuster, and then failed to offer a viable path forward for enacting those landmark bills.[5]

Biden appears to naively think that an “all-out effort” to educate Americans about Republican suppression of voting rights will mobilize the public to ensure these bills are passed.[6] Even if that were the case, and that’s a very big ‘if,’ such an effort will take precious time that we don’t have. As I noted in my blog last week (“Can We Save Our Right to Vote”), redistricting of Congressional boundaries will begin soon. And Republicans are set “to gerrymander enough House of Representative districts to win back the majority in Congress in the 2022 elections. At which point, House Republicans will be able to obstruct President Biden’s entire agenda.”[7]

Fortunately, while Biden wavers, Majority Leader Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and other Democrats are pushing ahead. Schumer has called for a cloture vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill for this coming Wednesday.[8] While that vote may very well fail, it will provide a clear sign of whether there are at least the minimum 10 Republican senators required to advance the bill without altering the filibuster. It may also help persuade reluctant Democratic senators like Manchin that the only way to protect our voting rights is by reforming or eliminating the filibuster.

At the same time, the man most responsible for getting Biden’s presidential campaign on the winning track, House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.), has called for Biden to endorse creating a carveout to the Senate filibuster for legislation like the voting rights bills that applies to the Constitution.[9] If Biden wants strong Black support for Democrats in the 2022 election, as well as for his own re-election in 2024, he had better listen to one of the most influential Black officials in the country.

The Democrats need all the help they can get. And they need it now! Call the White House (202-456-1111) and your senators (202-224-3121). Demand a carve out of the filibuster for voting rights and that the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act be passed and signed into law by the end of August at the latest.

Bruce Berlin, J.D.

Subscribe to this blog at https://breakingbigmoneysgrip.com/my-blog-3/. Join the movement to revive our democracy. Together we can save the soul of America.

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/22/us/politics/filibuster-voting-rights.html

[2] https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/12/politics/biden-infrastructure-senate-republican-opposition/index.html

[3] https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/21/politics/voting-rights-senate-republicans-trump-biden/index.html

[4] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/election-reform-voting-bill-mcconnell-b1868124.html

[5] https://www.reuters.com/world/us/visit-philadelphia-biden-pushing-stalled-voting-rights-law-2021-07-13/

[6] https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/13/politics/voting-rights-joe-biden-trump-big-lie/index.html

[7] https://breakingbigmoneysgrip.com/my-blog/

[8] https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/563177-schumer-sets-up-key-vote-on-bipartisan-deal

[9] https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/10/clyburn-biden-filibuster-election-reform-499051

The Struggle for the Soul of America: Can We Save Our Right to Vote?

Posted on July 10, 2021 by Author: Bruce Berlin

American democracy is on the ropes. In state after state, Republican legislatures are making it more difficult to vote.[1] At the same time, they are making it easier to manipulate election results in their party’s favor.[2] Gaining power at any cost is their only goal.

As distressing as this is, what infuriates me even more is the Democrats inability to effectively thwart these debilitating attacks on our democracy. In effect, like Nero, they are “fiddling while Rome burns.”[3]

Time is running out. This fall all 50 states will begin drawing the district boundaries for next year’s Congressional elections based on the 2020 census. Since Republicans control more state legislatures than Democrats do, they very well may be able to gerrymander enough House of Representative districts to win back the majority in Congress in the 2022 elections. At which point, House Republicans will be able to obstruct President Biden’s entire agenda.

In fact, Senate Republicans are doing just that right now. In May they filibustered the Democrats’ bill to establish a bipartisan commission to investigate the January 6 assault on the Capitol.[4] Republicans must have feared that discovering all the facts regarding the attack would damage them politically. Why else would they not want to learn the whole truth about the insurrection that threatened their own lives?

That same fear controls just about everything the GOP does today. Senate Republicans are blocking the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act because they are afraid that making it easier for people to vote will hurt their chances of winning elections. It’s that simple. They don’t care about Americans’ right to vote.

The Republican Party’s only concern is regaining power. Here’s how Congressman Chip Roy (R-TX) put it:

“For the next 18 months, our job is to do everything we can to slow all of that down to get to December of 2022 and then get in here and lead…18 more months of chaos and the inability to get stuff done. That’s what we want.”[5]

And that puts voting rights and the future of American democracy squarely in the Democrats’ court. While most Congressional Democrats want to limit or eliminate the Republicans ability to filibuster, there are a few standing in the way, namely Sens. Manchin and Sinema. According to Representative John Sarbanes (D-MD), one of the lead sponsors of the House version of the voting-rights bill, greater public pressure will raise the stakes on these Democratic senators:

“What the public pressure is doing is conveying the historical dimension of this…I think, ultimately, that’s what is going to land this plane—that people like Senator Sinema, Senator Manchin, and others are going to feel the pull and push of history here. They are going to begin to put it in that context, and no member of the Democratic caucus is going to want to be on the wrong side of this historic opportunity to repair and restore our democracy at a moment of great challenge.”[6]

So, let’s all do our part. On Sunday, July 11 at 11 am, attend the rally to protect our voting rights at 106 S. Federal Place, east of the main post office in Santa Fe.

Join Congresswoman Teresa Leger Fernandez, NM Secretary of State Maggie Toulouse Oliver, and many others. Demand the right to vote for all Americans.

Bruce Berlin, J.D.

Subscribe to this blog at https://breakingbigmoneysgrip.com/my-blog-3/. Join the movement to revive our democracy. Together we can save the soul of America.

[1] https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/28/politics/voter-suppression-restrictive-voting-bills/index.html

[2] https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/23/opinion/republicans-voting-us-elections.html

[3] https://grammarist.com/idiom/fiddle-while-rome-burns/#:~:text=The%20phrase%20fiddle%20while%20Rome,a%20song%20about%20the%20destruction.

[4] https://www.axios.com/jan-6-commission-senate-republicans-filibuster-40993503-9abb-484d-a4da-984eac929e88.html

[5] https://www.yahoo.com/news/gop-congressman-caught-video-saying-213740820.html

[6] https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2021/06/manchin-filibuster-voting-rights/619281/

The Struggle for the Soul of America: Why Are Republicans So Afraid of the Truth?

Posted on May 22, 2021 by Author: Bruce Berlin

This week the House Republican and Democratic leaders of the Homeland Security Committee negotiated a deal for a bipartisan, independent commission to investigate the January 6^th assault on the Capitol. The agreement made major concessions to the Republicans: the panel would be evenly divided between members appointed by Democrats and Republicans, and the GOP-appointed commissioners would have veto power over any subpoena.[1]

But a balanced commission with veto power wasn’t good enough for the ‘all or nothing,’ uncompromising Republicans. Rep. John Katko, the lead GOP negotiator, urged his colleagues to support the commission bill: “This is about facts. It’s not partisan politics.” Nevertheless, only 35 House Republicans supported the bill while 175 of them voted against it.[2]

Republicans opposed the investigation despite the fact that their lives, as well as their Vice President’s life, were threatened by a deadly mob on January 6^th. They argued that the scope of the bill was too narrow and had the potential to interfere with other ongoing investigations. Republicans wanted to dilute the focus on the insurrection by also examining prior violent protests against racism and police brutality, important but unrelated issues.

The truth is Republicans just wish the whole thing would disappear. For them it’s an inconvenient distraction from regaining control of Congress in the 2022 elections. According to Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), the minority whip, “Anything that gets us rehashing the 2020 election, I think, is a day lost on being able to draw contrast between us and the Democrats’ very radical left-wing agenda.”[3]

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell also opposes the bill because he asserts it’s a Democratic “slanted and unbalanced proposal.” Consequently, it has little chance of gaining the Republican support in the Senate necessary to become law.[4]

In fact, Republican objections to the commission were just another subterfuge to try to sweep the attack on the Capitol under the rug. They reject the investigation because they fear two things: Trump’s supporters and the truth.

Two-thirds of GOP voters still strongly support Trump.[5] The former president forcefully opposes an independent commission investigating the January attack on the Capitol.[6] He also fears the truth.

Republicans who go against Trump are subject to his unrelenting attacks and a primary challenge by a Trump loyalist in their next election. These officials are more concerned with holding onto their powerful jobs than they are with an attempt to overthrow our government. At the same time, they are afraid of what an investigation might reveal:

Did some Republican Congresspeople have prior knowledge of the attack, and/or provide assistance to the insurrectionists?
Was the assault planned with aid from Trump?
Why were the Capitol police so ill-prepared?
Could some Republicans be prosecuted for their roles in the attack?
Why was there more than a three-hour delay in reinforcements arriving at the Capitol?
Could the commission’s findings result in a backlash against the Republican Party in next year’s election?

Ironically, if Senate Republicans agree with most of their House colleagues and reject establishing an independent commission, they may put their party in an even deeper hole. With no bipartisan investigation, Speaker Pelosi will be free to create a select committee completely controlled by the Democrats.

Pelosi noted that “I certainly could call for hearings in the House with a majority of the members being Democrats, with full subpoena power, with the agenda being determined by the Democrats, but that’s not the path we have chosen to go…” However, she added, “we will find the truth…if they don’t want to do this, we will.”[7]

Sounds like the Democrats are finally getting ready to play hardball.

Bruce Berlin, J.D.

A retired, public sector ethics attorney, Berlin is the author of Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America (See breakingbigmoneysgrip.com.), the founder of New Mexicans for Money Out of Politics (now RepresentUs New Mexico), a former U.S. Institute of Peace fellow, and the founder and former executive director of The Trinity Forum for International Security and Conflict Resolution. He can be reached at breakingbigmoneysgrip@gmail.com.

Subscribe to this blog at https://breakingbigmoneysgrip.com/my-blog/. Join the movement to revive our democracy. Together we can save the soul of America.

[1] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/january-6-commission-house-approves/

[2] Ibid.

[3] https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/mcconnell-comes-out-against-jan-6-commission-imperiling-its-chances-of-becoming-law/2021/05/19/60de1f52-b8b3-11eb-a5fe-bb49dc89a248_story.html

[4] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/january-6-commission-house-approves/

[5] https://www.vox.com/2021/5/19/22440434/trump-mcconnell-commission-january-6

[6] https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/capitol-riot-commission-05-20-21/h_ca6833de0e88f74f757d6c9ebf0c756b

[7] https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/capitol-riot-commission-house-vote/h_cf1551703acca4dde8c307afa728c5eb

Posted on May 14, 2021 by Author: Bruce Berlin

The Struggle for the Soul of America:

Will the Craziness in the Republican Party Help Dems and

Principled Conservatives Save Our Democracy?

What’s coming out of the Republican Party these days is outrageous and, frankly, utterly depressing. How could anyone in his or her right mind suggest that the riot at the Capitol on January 6 looked like “a normal tourist visit”?

Yet, at a Congressional Oversight Committee hearing on Wednesday, Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.) did just that. He claimed that “if you didn’t know the TV footage was a video from January the 6th, you would actually think it was a normal tourist visit.” He further stated that it was a “boldfaced lie” to call the storming of the Capitol by hundreds of Trump supporters an insurrection.[1]

In addition, Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) argued that the Justice Department was “harassing peaceful patriots.” Gosar and his fellow Republicans chose to ignore the fact that the rioters sprayed officers with pepper and bear spray, and severely injured dozens of police officers.[2] These were the officers who were protecting them and the rest of Congress from a violent mob. One officer, Michael Fanone, whom the insurgents beat and shocked with a stun gun, called the riot “the most brutal, savage hand-to-hand combat of my entire life.”[3]

Later, Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) set the record straight: “I was there. What happened was a violent effort to interfere with and prevent the constitutional order of installing a new president…As such, it was an insurrection against the Constitution that resulted in severe property damage, severe injuries and death.”[4]

On the same day as the Oversight hearing, Republicans ousted Rep. Liz Chaney (R-WY) from her leadership position in the House for telling the truth. Chaney had more than once publicly repudiated former Pres. Trump’s lies that the November election had been stolen through widespread fraud.[5]

It’s clear that the truth no longer matters to the vast majority of the Republican Party. Former chair of the Democratic National Committee Howard Dean believes “most politicians in the Republican Party are no longer Americans because they no longer believe in democracy.” In reaction to their ousting of Rep. Chaney, he asserted that GOP officials “essentially are neo-fascist…They fundamentally do not believe that another legitimate point of view exists other than theirs.”[6]

Fortunately, not all Republicans fall in that camp. In fact, some are ready to fight the Trump scourge that has overtaken their party. In a just released letter, more than 100 prominent Republicans threaten to break from the GOP and form a third party:

“[W]hen in our democratic republic, forces of conspiracy, division, and despotism arise, it is the patriotic duty of citizens to act collectively in defense of liberty and justice. We, therefore, declare our intent to catalyze an American renewal, and to either reimagine a party dedicated to our founding ideals or else hasten the creation of such an alternative.”[7]

Who knows what will come of this new Call for American Renewal effort? Certainly, it will attract some attention. Liz Chaney will make sure of that. Other disaffected Republicans, as well as some Independents, will surely join. But will they be in large enough numbers to change the course of the Republican Party? Or, perhaps, to start a viable third party?

In any event, the founding of a principled Republican alternative to Trumpism is a good sign. It weakens Trump’s hold on the GOP, while it reinforces the need for the political reforms Democrats seek. If so many life-long, true Republicans think Trump must go, maybe his brand will become less appealing to others as well. Some moderate Republicans may decide there’s no longer a place for them in their party and turn to the Democrats. At the same time, diehard Main Street, conservative Republicans might decide to join Chaney and the Call for American Renewal. No one knows how this will all turnout, but the future of our fragile democracy is certainly in the balance.

Bruce Berlin, J.D.

A retired, public sector ethics attorney, Berlin is the author of Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America (See breakingbigmoneysgrip.com.), the founder of New Mexicans for Money Out of Politics (now RepresentUs New Mexico), a former U.S. Institute of Peace fellow, and the founder and former executive director of The Trinity Forum for International Security and Conflict Resolution. He can be reached at breakingbigmoneysgrip@gmail.com.

Subscribe to this blog at https://breakingbigmoneysgrip.com/my-blog/. Join the movement to revive our democracy. Together we can save the soul of America.

[1] https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/gop-lawmaker-claims-no-insurrection-193300761.html

[2] https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-capitol-siege-riots-government-and-politics-a58c37305c9b4c9dcb04cd4fa2443a83

[3] https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/mitt-romney-insurrection-capitol-182726223.html

[4] Ibid.

[5] https://www.wsj.com/articles/liz-cheney-set-to-lose-gop-leadership-post-11620819337

[6] https://www.huffpost.com/entry/howard-dean-republicans-not-americans_n_609cd245e4b03e1dd38599e7

[7] https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/100-republicans-sign-letter-threatening-form-party/story?id=77665734

The Struggle for the Soul of America: The Republicans’ Relentless Obstructionism and the Futile Call for Bipartisanship

Posted on May 9, 2021 by Author: Bruce Berlin

The Republican Party is deeply divided. On one side are the Trumpsters. While they are united in their support for former president Trump, they actually fall into two separate camps.

On the one hand, we have the true believers, like Alabama Rep. Mo Brooks and Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley, who led the fight to overturn the election and return Trump to the White House. Millions of Trump faithful are in this bloc as well. Brooks claimed that Americans “have been victims of the largest voter fraud and election theft scheme in American history,”[1] without providing any evidence.

On the other hand, we have the shameless sheep. These are the Republican officials who are too afraid of Trump’s base to stand up for the truth. Since 55% of Republicans still believe the election was stolen[2] and 60% want Trump to run for president in 2024,[3] they fear being primaried by a true Trump supporter. Holding on to power is more important to them than the future of our democracy.

According to Republican Rep. Adam Kinzinger, who voted to impeach Trump, most of his colleagues are thinking: “I need to continue to exist in this job so that I can make an impact. I don’t have the courage or the strength or the ability to swing this party, so I’m going to just kinda put my head down and go along.”[4]

There is, however, a third group. A small minority of Republicans who do not support Trump and his lies and are willing to speak truth to power. Most prominent among them is Rep. Liz Cheney, currently the 3^rd ranking Republican in the House. She recently explained, “The 2020 presidential election was not stolen. Anyone who claims it was is spreading THE BIG LIE, turning their back on the rule of law, and poisoning our democratic system.”[5]

Equally striking were the comments of Michael Wood, a Texas Republican congressional candidate and former Trump backer who lost a recent U.S. House runoff with just 3% of the vote. A former Trump backer, Wood noted that the Republican Party has “lost its way”:

I don’t know what we stand for…We don’t like baseball. We don’t like Coke. We don’t like NASCAR. We don’t like Hollywood. We don’t like academia. We don’t like anything. We’re just a grievance party that hates a good hunk of America and then we call ourselves patriots, and this is just a dead end.[6]

Then, to effectively prove Wood’s point, Republican Senate minority leader and Obstructer-in-chief, Mitch McConnell, declared, “One-hundred percent of our focus is on stopping this new administration.”[7] For McConnell and the majority of Republicans, it’s all about obstruction and regaining power. To hell with controlling the pandemic or improving the lives of the American people.

Our democracy is floundering in large part because the Republican Party is rotting away. And because Democratic Sens. Manchin and Sinema are demanding unrealistic bipartisanship before they will support critical bills that can save our democracy from Republicans’ relentless obstructionism and their boundless craving for all-embracing power. These Democrats are standing firm despite the fact that McConnell, Hawley, Brooks and their colleagues have made it clear that they will have none of it.

Cheney and Wood are voices in the wilderness. There are no Republican leaders able and willing to heed their warnings. The critical question then becomes: Will Manchin and Sinema grasp the deadly peril our democracy faces and put the needs of the country ahead of their idealistic bipartisan principles? We must do whatever we can to help these senators see the light and do the right thing.

Bruce Berlin, J.D.

A retired, public sector ethics attorney, Berlin is the author of Breaking Big Money’s Grip on America (See breakingbigmoneysgrip.com.), the founder of New Mexicans for Money Out of Politics (now RepresentUs New Mexico), a former U.S. Institute of Peace fellow, and the founder and former executive director of The Trinity Forum for International Security and Conflict Resolution. He can be reached at breakingbigmoneysgrip@gmail.com.

Subscribe to this blog at https://breakingbigmoneysgrip.com/my-blog/. Join the movement to revive our democracy. Together we can save the soul of America.

[1] https://graphics.reuters.com/USA-TRUMP/LAWMAKERS/xegpbedzdvq/

[2] https://www.ipsos.com/en-us/news-polls/majority-republicans-still-believe-2020-election-was-stolen-donald-trump

[3] https://www.newsweek.com/6-10-republicans-want-trump-run-2024-think-2020-election-stolen-1581031

[4] https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/adam-kinzinger-trump-election-conspiracy-092610348.html

[5] https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/may/03/liz-cheney-republican-trump-election-big-lie

[6] https://www.yahoo.com/huffpost/michael-wood-congressional-candidate-republican-party-nicolle-wallace-000443441.html

[7] https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/joe-biden/mcconnell-says-he-s-100-percent-focused-stopping-biden-s-n1266443

The Struggle for the Soul of America: Corporate America Joins the Battle for Voters’ Rights

Posted on April 17, 2021 by Author: Bruce Berlin

It’s a cloudy, overcast day here at my home in the country outside of Las Vegas, New Mexico. While many of us have gotten vaccinated and are moving on with our lives, another momentous storm is sweeping across the country.

Yes, we do seem to be slowly beating back the COVID pandemic. In fact, Dr. Fauci recently indicated that “we would approach some degree of normality as we get towards the end of the summer and into the fall, and a considerable degree of normality” by next winter.[1] I hope he’s right.

Yet, what’s happening today in America’s corporate boardrooms is anything but normal. As I noted in my blog of April 9 (https://breakingbigmoneysgrip.com/my-blog/), Republican lawmakers throughout the nation are doing whatever they can to gain and maintain political power. In 47 states they are making it more difficult for people of color to vote, people much more likely to support Democrats.[2]

Now, a new voice has suddenly entered the fight to protect our voting rights. Hundreds of U.S. corporations and executives, including Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, G.M., Starbucks and Warren Buffett, recently signed on to a two-page ad in the New York Times and the Washington Post calling for the defense of Americans’ voting rights.[3]

And, in the irony of all ironies, the Republicans are up in arms. Here’s how Republican leader Sen. Mitch McConnell, who knows how to talk out of both sides of his mouth better than any other politician, responded to the corporate support for voters’ rights:

“My warning to corporate America is to stay out of politics,” before unbelievably adding, “I’m not talking about political contributions.”[4]

This is the same Sen. McConnell who praised the 2010 Supreme Court’s Citizens United ruling that money is speech protected by the First Amendment and corporations are just like people who, therefore, have the right to finance election spending:

“For too long, some in this country have been deprived of full participation in the political process.” He hailed the decision as “an important step” in “restoring the First Amendment rights of these groups.”[5]

Of course, both parties take loads of campaign contributions from corporate interests.[6] However, the Democrats are not the hypocrites that McConnell and his Republican colleagues are. They don’t accept huge donations and then tell their corporate donors to stay out of politics.

But here’s where you come in. Tell these corporate contributors to put their money where their mouths are and back up their speech with effective action.

Do the following to help strengthen corporate efforts in the fight for voters’ rights:

Check out the NYT ad at https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/14/business/dealbook/ceos-voting-rights.html
Write down the names of companies that you do business with or from whom you buy their products.
Write/email those companies. Tell them you are a customer of theirs and you support their stance on voting rights. Write to as many companies as you can.
Urge them not to donate to any candidate or elected official (state or federal) who supports state or federal efforts to restrict voting rights in any way, or who was involved in the January 6 insurrection.
Insist that they only donate to candidates and elected officials (state or federal) who support HR1/S1 (the For the People Act) and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.
Contact your friends and family and ask them to take the above steps as well.

Together, with Corporate America on the side of protecting everyone’s right to vote and our demanding they withhold funding of Republicans working to restrict voting rights, we can be a powerful force in the struggle to save our democracy.

Bruce Berlin, J.D.

Subscribe to this blog at https://breakingbigmoneysgrip.com/my-blog/. Join the movement to revive our democracy. Together we can save the soul of America.

[1] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/fauci-breakthrough-infection-covid-vaccine-b1830303.html

[2] https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/voting-laws-roundup-march-2021?ms=gad_voting%20laws_513381296572_8626214133_121430490955&gclid=Cj0KCQjw6-SDBhCMARIsAGbI7Ugdzt2p9ECuO9L4gAq34U9LPZvOTc2tbxNqs02ZMCZQmaEGpr038xAaAmYbEALw_wcB; https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/how-restrictive-voting-requirements-target-minorities

[3] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-04-14/corporate-america-unites-for-voting-rights-without-naming-plan; https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/14/business/ceos-corporate-america-voting-rights.html

[4] https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/04/07/mitch-mcconnell-georgia-citizens-united/

[5] Ibid.

[6] https://www.opensecrets.org/elections-overview/biggest-donors

The Struggle for the Soul of America: Joe Manchin, the Filibuster and the Right to Vote

Posted on April 9, 2021 by Author: Bruce Berlin

The right to vote is the central principle of American democracy. Yet how representative can a democracy be if millions of its citizens are denied the right to vote through hundreds of state voter suppression laws?^[[1]]

Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) is the only Democratic senator who is not a co-sponsor of S1, the Senate version of the For the People Act.[2] This landmark Act includes, among other provisions:

· automatic voter registration and other steps to modernize our elections

· a national guarantee of free and fair elections without voter suppression, coupled with a commitment to restore the full protections of the Voting Rights Act

· small donor public financing to empower ordinary Americans instead of big donors (at no cost to taxpayers) and other critical campaign finance reforms

· an end to partisan gerrymandering

· a much-needed overhaul of federal ethics rules[3]

Most importantly, the Act would thwart virtually every voter suppression bill currently pending in the states.

Manchin supports the right to vote, but he wants the final bill to be bipartisan. Recently, he wrote, “As the Senate prepares to take up the For the People Act, we must work toward a bipartisan solution that protects everyone’s right to vote, secures our elections from foreign interference, and increases transparency in our campaign finance laws.”[4]

In an ideal world, I would agree with Sen. Manchin. But in the real world where Mitch McConnell is the intractable leader of Senate Republicans, bipartisanship is unthinkable. Not only did McConnell call S1 a “solution in search of a problem,” but he also flatly denied that GOP lawmakers were “engaging in trying to suppress voters, whatsoever.”[5]

McConnell and his Republican colleagues choose to ignore the Brennan Center for Justice’s recent report that 361 bills to make it harder to vote have been introduced in 47 states in the first three months of this year, overwhelmingly by Republicans.[6] Still, no Republican senator has indicated any support for the Act.

Carving out an exception to the filibuster for voting rights legislation may be the only way to pass S1 and guarantee the right to vote for millions of Americans. But Manchin asserts that he will not vote to eliminate or weaken the filibuster.[7]

The ball is in Manchin’s court. He can stick to his bipartisan demands, in which the Republicans clearly have no interest, and be the senator that allowed Republican voter suppression to cripple our democracy. Or he can join his fellow Democrats in supporting voters’ rights, save our democracy and not let a Republican filibuster stand in the way.

Manchin can’t have it both ways. Write Sen. Manchin at 306 Hart Senate Office Bldg, Washington, DC 20510; call his office at 202-224-3954; or email him using this form: https://www.manchin.senate.gov/contact-joe. Demand that the senator stick with the Democrats and support the right to vote for all Americans.

Bruce Berlin, J.D.

Subscribe to this blog at https://breakingbigmoneysgrip.com/my-blog/. Join the movement to revive our democracy. Together we can save the soul of America.

[1] https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/04/361-voter-suppression-bills-have-already-been-introduced-this-year/

[2] https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/1

[3] Ibid.

[4] https://www.huffpost.com/entry/joe-manchin-for-the-people-act_n_605cc780c5b67593e0569de7

[5] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/for-the-people-act-senate-mcconnell-b1821867.html

[6] https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2021/04/361-voter-suppression-bills-have-already-been-introduced-this-year/

[7] https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/joe-manchin-filibuster-vote/2021/04/07/cdbd53c6-97da-11eb-a6d0-13d207aadb78_story.html

The Struggle for the Soul of America: The Redistricting Conundrum

Posted on March 27, 2021 by Author: Bruce Berlin

Redistricting is a red-hot issue this year. Why? Because how states reset their Congressional districts as well as their state legislative boundaries in the coming months will have a critical impact on which party controls Congress and state legislatures for the rest of the decade.

Reforming the redistricting process is one of many reasons why enacting the For the People Act (H.R.1)[1] is essential to ensuring that our elections are fair and competitive. The bill takes redistricting out of the hands of partisan state legislatures by mandating states create independent redistricting commissions to draw Congressional district boundaries.

The measure would prevent both parties from gerrymandering districts favorable to their candidates. However, the Republicans control the majority of state legislatures and, consequently, would have the most to lose with the passage of H.R.1. Right now, many of those Republican legislatures are doing whatever they can to manipulate the electoral process in order to entrench their political dominance.

The most egregious example of GOP power grabbing occurred in Georgia earlier this week. The Republican-dominated State Assembly passed a bill, which Republican Governor Brian Kemp immediately signed, that “gives state-level officials the authority to usurp the powers of county election boards” and effectively change the outcome of an election.[2]

According to one commentator, “the Georgia law is part of a broader wave of GOP efforts, at the state and national level, to undermine the fairness of American elections. What happened in Georgia reveals the true face of the modern Republican Party: a far-right institution that threatens American democracy…”[3]

The For the People Act is the Democrats bold advance to rescue our democracy. It has already passed in the House. Since redistricting will occur in every state this year, the Democratic-controlled Senate must act quickly to eliminate partisan overreaching, as just occurred in Georgia. If the Senate fails to pass H.R.1, the Republicans will likely retake the House of Representatives in the 2022 elections and immediately terminate President Biden’s legislative agenda.

Here in New Mexico, redistricting was a big issue in the just completed 2021 regular legislative session as well. Unlike H.R.1, the N.M. Redistricting Act, SB 304, had bipartisan support. Fortunately, the Act bars a seven-member redistricting committee from considering party registration data in crafting new boundaries. Yet, in making its final decision, the legislature is not required to adopt one of the district maps proposed by the independent committee.[4] Though SB304 is a significant step in the right direction, regrettably, partisan considerations will likely still play a part in the Democratic-controlled legislature’s redistricting efforts.

Thus, H.R.1 is the only equitable solution to the redistricting conundrum. Until independent redistricting commissions are mandated in all 50 states, partisan gerrymandering will continue to unfairly influence our elections. We must urge our senators to support S.1, the Senate version of the For the People Act.

Bruce Berlin, J.D.

Subscribe to this blog at https://breakingbigmoneysgrip.com/my-blog/. Join the movement to revive our democracy. Together we can save the soul of America.

[1] https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/1/text

[2] https://www.vox.com/22352112/georgia-voting-sb-202-explained

[3] Ibid.

[4] https://www.nmlegis.gov/Legislation/Legislation?Chamber=S&LegType=B&LegNo=304&year=21

The Struggle for the Soul of America: The Curse of the Filibuster

Posted on March 18, 2021 by Author: Bruce Berlin

Senate Democrats appear to be damned if they do and damned if they don’t. On the one hand, Mitch McConnell and his Republican colleagues are threatening to utilize the filibuster to block President Biden’s legislative agenda on democratic reform, economic recovery, infrastructure, the environment, social justice and other priorities. If the Democrats don’t curtail or eliminate the filibuster, they will fail to deliver on their campaign promises and surely be defeated at the polls in 2022.

On the other hand, if Senate Democrats do move to override the filibuster in order to pass S. 1, the For the People Act, and other critical initiatives, Sen. McConnell warns he’ll use “procedural moves to grind the chamber to a halt and make current gridlock look like ‘child’s play.’”[1] In which case, the Democrats will also likely fail to deliver concrete results and lose in the 2022 elections.

So, what are Democrats to do? Moderate Democrats, like Biden and Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia, are calling for returning to the old “talking filibuster” where senators actually had to stay on the floor and continuously talk to maintain a filibuster.[2] After many hours, the theory goes, the filibustering senators will tire and give up, at which point the proposed legislation would only need a simple majority to pass. Of course, there is no guarantee of their relenting. And the proponents of the measure may be the ones who give up first and withdraw their bill from consideration.

Other Democrats, including moderates like Sen. Amy Klobuchar, are now convinced that eliminating the filibuster is the only solution. She explained that “the likely demise in the Senate of a House voting rights bill had flipped her…to a ‘yes.’”[3]

Trying to find some middle ground, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR) is calling for an exception to the filibuster where any bill expanding voting matters would not be subject to the 60-vote cloture requirement.[4] But Sens. Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) have not agreed to that.[5] How can any Democrat believe that the right of 50 Republican senators to filibuster is more sacred than the right of all Americans to vote? What are they thinking?

Meanwhile, the clock is ticking. If the Democrats cannot agree on a way around the filibuster, S. 1 and the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act will not pass the Senate. Red states will then have a field day approving voter suppression laws and millions of voters, mostly minorities and youth, will lose the ability to cast their ballots in 2022. The obstructionist Republicans will again control the government. And, the American people’s voting rights and our democracy will be badly wounded, if not outright destroyed.

Earlier this week, Repair Our Democracy issued the following statement:

“Our democracy is under attack, and the For the People Act offers popular, common-sense solutions that will stop the GOP’s assault on voting rights, repair our broken campaign finance system, and root out the corruption that plagues our politics.

"With Democratic control of the White House and Congress, and with support from a vast majority of the American people, it’s time for Senate Democrats to go big on democracy reform. The Senate must move expeditiously to pass this sweeping legislation in its entirety—without delay, without breaking it up, and without the filibuster.

"Recent polling from Global Strategy Group and ALG Research shows that 83 percent of voters support the For the People Act—including 96 percent of Democrats, 74 percent of Republicans, and 73 percent of Independents.”[6]

As concerned citizens, we must all advocate for and put maximum pressure on all Democratic senators to find a way out of this potential disaster. The filibuster does not serve we, the people. Call, email or write your senators today and demand that they come together, override the filibuster and save our democracy.

Bruce Berlin, J.D.

Subscribe to this blog at https://breakingbigmoneysgrip.com/my-blog/. Join the movement to revive our democracy. Together we can save the soul of America.

[1] https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewsolender/2021/03/16/mcconnell-threatens-100-car-pile-up-in-senate-if-democrats-nuke-filibuster/?sh=62d7096836a3

[2] https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/#inbox/FMfcgxwLswKZkjvTzFRnzmMCSxVDtwJG

[3] https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/05/us/filibuster-senate-democrats.html

[4] https://www.vox.com/22260164/filibuster-senate-fix-reform-joe-manchin-kyrsten-sinema-cloture-mitch-mcconnell

[5] https://www.vox.com/2021/3/17/22336181/joe-manchin-filibuster-reform-41-votes-talking-jeff-merkley-senate-rules

[6] https://mail.google.com/mail/u/1/#inbox/FMfcgxwLswLjSXKzPjRKtHlcCbxPwTTq