Message-ID:

"You can't teach people to be lazy - either they have it, or they don't." -- Dagwood Bumstead

Joe Biden has made an impassioned attack on racist voting laws sweeping
America, warning that “the 21st-century Jim Crow assault is real” and
demanding of Republicans: “Have you no shame?”

But the president faced instant criticism from progressives for failing in
his 20-minute speech to mention the filibuster, a Senate procedural rule
that has thwarted efforts to safeguard democracy.

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jul/13/joe-biden-republicans-voting-rights-philadelphia

With voting rights under siege from Republican-controlled state
legislatures, Biden on Tuesday delivered his most forceful remarks yet on
the issue, directly condemning his predecessor Donald Trump’s “big lie”
about a stolen election.

He noted that 17 states states had enacted 28 laws that make it harder to
vote, with 400 bills pending. These are likely to have a disproportionate
impact on people of colour. Citing the legalised segregation of America’s
past, the president warned: “The 21st-century Jim Crow assault is real,
it’s unrelenting, and we’re going to challenge it vigorously.”

He delivered a blunt message to Republicans: “Stand up, for God’s sake,
and help prevent this concerted effort to undermine our elections and the
sacred right to vote. Have you no shame? Whether it’s stopping foreign
interference in our elections with the spread of disinformation from
within, we have to work together.”

The president has been praised for ignoring Trump’s attacks and insults in
an apparent effort to restore civility to Washington. But speaking at the
National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, he took off the gloves
regarding Trump’s false claims of voter fraud at the 2020 election, which
culminated in a deadly attack on the US Capitol on 6 January.

More people than ever before cast a vote, Biden said, and challenges to
the outcome were rejected by local election officials, state legislatures
and more than 80 judges. Recounts were held in Arizona, Wisconsin and
Georgia and did not alter the outcome.

“It’s clear for those who challenge the results and question the integrity
of the election, no other election has ever been held under such scrutiny
and such standards. The big lie is just that: a big lie.”

The crowd clapped enthusiastically. In a clear swipe at Trump’s refusal to
accept defeat, Biden continued: “In America, if you lose, you accept the
results. You follow the constitution. You try again. You don’t call facts
‘fake’ and then try to bring down the American experiment just because
you’re unhappy. That’s not statesmanship. That’s selfishness.

“That’s not democracy, it’s a denial of the right to vote. It suppresses,
it subjugates, the denial of full and free and fair elections, the most
un-American thing that any of us can imagine, the most undemocratic, most
unpatriotic.”

Biden noted that the rest of the world was watching, saying that he had
just returned from G7 and Nato meetings in Europe.

“They ask me, ‘Is it going to be OK?’ The citadel of democracy in the
world. ‘Is it going to be OK?’”

He warned: “So hear me clearly. There’s an unfolding assault taking place
in America today, an attempt to suppress and subvert right to vote in fair
and free elections, an assault on democracy, an assault on liberty, an
assault on who we are, who we are as Americans. But make no mistake,
bullies and merchants of fear, peddlers of lies, are threatening the very
foundation of our country.”

Now 78, Biden said he had never expected to utter such words.

“We’re facing the most significant test of our democracy since the civil
war, That’s not hyperbole. Since the civil war. The Confederates, back
then, never breached the Capitol as insurrectionists did on 6 January. I’m
not saying this to alarm you. I’m saying this because you should be
alarmed.”

The president has faced pressure from activists to use his “bully pulpit”
and do more to raise awareness of the assault on voting rights. Last week
he and Kamala Harris, the vice-president leading efforts on the issue,
hosted civil rights leaders.

On Tuesday, Biden promised that the justice department would use its
authority to challenge “the onslaught of state laws” undermining voting
rights in old and new ways. Its voting rights division will double in size.

Biden described it as a “national imperative” for Congress to pass the For
the People Act to fight voter suppression, get dark money out of politics
and end partisan gerrymandering. But he noted that last month Republicans
refused to even debate it.

Former President Donald Trump speaks in Sarasota<br>Former President
Donald Trump gestures while speaking to his supporters during the Save
America Rally at the Sarasota Fairgrounds in Sarasota, Florida, U.S. July
3, 2021. TPX IMAGES OF THE DAY

He also touted the John Lewis Voting Rights Act but neither bill stands a
realistic prospect of reaching his desk while Republicans hold 50 Senate
seats and are able to deploy the filibuster, which requires a majority of
60 in the 100-seat chamber. Yet Biden did not address the issue.

Some leading Democrats, including the House majority whip, James Clyburn,
a Biden ally, have called for creating a filibuster carveout to allow
voting rights bills to pass. Biden made no reference to this workaround
solution.

Some observers expressed frustration. Ezra Levin, co-executive director of
the grassroots movement Indivisible, tweeted: “We’ve waited more than six
months for the president to give a speech on democracy. And that’s what
they came up with?”

He added: “You cannot defeat the GOP attack on democracy just by educating
voters ahead of 2022. You will lose. We will lose. Our democracy will
lose. Stop passing the buck and focus on passing the damn bill.”

### - was wondering when the dems would finally get around to addressing
this little biggie huh :)

i mean, it's either a democracy or it isn't, right?

people's *right* to vote being everything IN a democracy or it's NOT a
democracy??

it thus being highly suspicious indeed should anyone ever deliberately
seek to 'reduce' people's ability to vote!? (by definition: a completely
untenable + wholly unjustifiable position in what is supposed to be a
democracy!)

perforce the right-wing, being a 20/80% minority group, have become
traditionally dependent on restricting people's ability to vote over the
last 100 years as their express method of winning an election! and they
gots away with it! hah!

unfortunately, for them though, everyone & their daughter these days can
totally see-through such a ridiculously cheap ploy! -they wanna actively
restrict people's ability to vote so only they can win it??? wtf!

only sweeping change to the whole voting system is ever likely gonna
repair it... and it's all down to biden now, as the president, to come up
with some kinda NEW 'universal solution' to the whole damn problem once
and for all...

the question being: WILL he actually DO it??? (a genuine turning point in
history folks if he does!)

a law (or series of them) for example, that say makes it mandatory to be
'registered' to vote by default unless then deliberately opted out of (per
occasion) should people wish to abstain for whatever reason on that
occasion; would do it... people having to first legally acknowledge the
'request' to vote before then ticking the box that says 'i don't wish to
vote in this election' if they wanna get out of it - that then being the
law, it behooves any and every administration (locally or otherwise) to
MAKE voting readily available to ALL citizens by law across the board!

a list of all those allowed to vote and those who ain't (people in prison
for example can't vote, etc etc...) with 10-year mandatory jail sentences
for anyone then caught deliberately fucking with it...

and because anything LESS in a democracy, is just pure bs & hypocrisy !!!

right? ;)

Subject	Author
‘Have you no shame?’: Biden decries Repu	slider
it's all bullshit on a stick	chris rodgers
Re: it's all bullshit on a stick	slider
Chuck got burned	chris rodgers
Re: Chuck got burned	slider

"You can't teach people to be lazy - either they have it, or they don't." -- Dagwood Bumstead

interests / alt.dreams.castaneda / Re: Chuck got burned