Or, at least, he’s willing to kill democracy in order to save it.
In a bizarre op-ed for the Charleston (WV) Gazette-Mail, Senator Joe Manchin explains “ Why I’m voting against the For the People Act.” His opener sets the tone: The right to vote is fundamental to our American democracy and protecting that right should not be about party or politics. Least of all, protecting this right, which is a value I share, should never be done in a partisan manner. These sentences are contradictory. If one is genuinely protecting the right to vote, it can’t be done in a partisan manner. It can have an ancillary benefit for one party and harm another but that’s democracy, not partisanship. During my time as West Virginia’s secretary of state, I was determined to protect this right and ensure our elections are fair, accessible and secure. Not to benefit my party but all the people of West Virginia. For example, as secretary of state I took specific actions to establish early voting for the first time in West Virginia in order to provide expanded options for those whose work or family schedule made it difficult for them to vote on Election Day. Throughout my tenure in politics, I have been guided by this simple philosophy — our party labels can’t prevent us from doing what is right. Okay. But what if—I’m just throwing it out there—one of the parties wasn’t guided by that philosophy? What if they had calculated that they can only win by suppressing the vote of demographics unfavorable to them? What then? Unfortunately, we now are witnessing that the fundamental right to vote has itself become overtly politicized. Today’s debate about how to best protect our right to vote and to hold elections, however, is not about finding common ground, but seeking partisan advantage. Whether it is state laws that seek to needlessly restrict voting or politicians who ignore the need to secure our elections, partisan policymaking won’t instill confidence in our democracy — it will destroy it. Ah, you get it, then. The first two paragraphs were just throat-clearing? As such, congressional action on federal voting rights legislation must be the result of both Democrats and Republicans coming together to find a pathway forward or we risk further dividing and destroying the republic we swore to protect and defend as elected officials. Ah. So… what if we lived in a political climate where this wasn’t going to happen? What if there were, say, “state laws that seek to needlessly restrict voting or politicians who ignore the need to secure our elections” and “partisan policymaking” that “won’t instill confidence in our democracy — it will destroy it.” You’d want to do something about that if you were, say, a member of the U.S. Senate rather than Secretary of State of West Virginia, right? Democrats in Congress have proposed a sweeping election reform bill called the For the People Act. This more than 800-page bill has garnered zero Republican support. Why? Are the very Republican senators who voted to impeach Trump because of actions that led to an attack on our democracy unwilling to support actions to strengthen our democracy? Are these same senators, whom many in my party applauded for their courage, now threats to the very democracy we seek to protect? Yep. Pretty much. The truth, I would argue, is that voting and election reform that is done in a partisan manner will all but ensure partisan divisions continue to deepen.
