By the standards Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema have set for federal action on voting rights, the 14th and 15th amendments to the Constitution — two pillars of the post-Civil War effort to ensure equality for all Americans — would never have become law. Every Democrat in Congress […] Read more »
Manchin and Sinema Now Face the Weight of History
The battle over access to the ballot is entering a precarious new stage. Democrats and civil-rights groups are pursuing a two-track strategy to preserve their embattled hopes of passing federal legislation establishing a nationwide floor of voting rights. What happens next will likely determine whether Congress can act at all. […] Read more »
How mainstream Democrats are flexing their muscle in 2021
The first five months of President Joe Biden’s term show the moderate wing of the Democratic Party still has a lot of juice left. We see that in the Senate, where moderates like Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona are standing in the way of […] Read more »
How Joe Manchin speaks for a lot of Americans
West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin is increasingly drawing the ire of progressive Democrats. With the slimmest of majorities in the Senate, Democrats need every vote and Manchin’s unwillingness to bend on issues such as filibuster reform is getting in the way of the party’s legislative priorities. But as I noted […] Read more »
How the Senate’s Long-Term Equilibrium Could Shape Democratic Decisions on the Filibuster
Key Points• A majority of states are now either solidly Republican or solidly Democratic on the presidential level, and the party a state prefers for president increasingly has a big edge in winning the state’s two Senate seats. Given these patterns, it’s possible to game out the basic contours of […] Read more »
Public Divided on Filibuster Reform, But Few Want to Dump It Entirely
Americans are evenly divided between those who approve of the filibuster, those who disapprove of it, and those who have no opinion. The Monmouth University Poll also finds that nearly 4 in 10 favor reforming how the U.S. Senate uses the filibuster while about 2 in 10 want to eliminate […] Read more »