Things are looking bleaker than ever these days when it comes to the US Congress passing laws that we badly need.
As it stands now, with the thin margins of a Democratic majority in the US House and an even thinner one in the Senate, Republicans still have enough power to block much-needed legislation.
For those with short memories, we've been dealing with this problem since at least the beginning of the Biden administration but many of us remember that this has been going on for decades and it's at its worst.
While those groups specifically point to two bills, one to protect voting rights and to assemble a commission to investigate the January 6 attack on the Capitol, there are also many other bills, as well as the one for infrastructure, that are also being blocked by Republicans.
That should clarify why it's gotten really bad.
Here are clips of Senator Schumer talking about Trump's grip on the Republican party but most importantly, not being able to work with the GOP and what he means to do about it in Congress.
Also, while you're here!
In a letter sent to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), signed by over 100 progressive groups, they are demanding that Democrats move to kill the filibuster. This is because the filibuster has consistently been used by GOP leaders to block just about everything Democrats have tried to pass.
One report about the letter says:
Schumer plans to bring up the bill in the coming weeks, along with others, like the Paycheck Fairness Act and possibly LGBTQ rights legislation, which are likely to be blocked by filibusters. They will test the Democratic resolve to preserve the supermajority rule.
Contributing writer for The Atlantic Adam Serwer seemed to conclude on MSNBC Saturday morning that Democrats would have to move more to the right of their ideologies in order to be competitive.
This of course would do nothing but serve the fascist agenda of the GOP.
The filibuster is not in the Constitution, but democracy sure is. @AdamSerwer explains the bizarro politics going on that makes the former sound more sacred to this Senate than the latter. #Velshi pic.twitter.com/WvCoizlwUY
— Ali Velshi (@AliVelshi) June 5, 2021
Even worse is another conclusion, drawn by Serwer, as to why they would block such bills in the Senate as one that would form a commission to investigate the January 6 attack on the Capitol:
...because they agree with the underlying ideological claim of the rioters, which is that Democratic electoral victories should not be recognized.
That "reasoning" isn't specific to that bill as it can be applied to others not being passed into law. For this reason or another, Republicans have mostly rejected legislation started by a Democratic president or created by the leadership.
Whenever it's gotten to this point, the only thing Democrats have been able to do is to make the effort anyway, wait until Republicans filibuster them again and it will just become another symbolic gesture for history to judge, which is exactly how this is going to play out in the US Congress.
[Featured screenshot: "Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) speaks during a press conference June 2, 2021" (AP Archive/YouTube)]
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