3 Things: Voting Rights and the Fever Swamp
/By Don Varyu
June 16, 2021
Every sane American recognizes the sham of Trump’s “Big Lie”—his childish tantrum claiming he really won the 2020 election. It doesn’t matter if this qualifies technically as a lie—after all, he may be crazy enough to actually believe he won. It also doesn't make a difference in terms of impact--it's a falsehood all the same. And falsehoods matter.
I bring this up to point out related falsehoods to the Big Lie in terms of voter suppression efforts that are already doing damage at the state level. But these falsehoods come not from the right, but from the resurgent fever swamp of liberal anger. Endless rants by so-called Democratic “activists” have now infected the wider pool of left-leaning politics and media. The result is a feeding frenzy surrounding the White House.
Here are three oft-repeated messages that are problems--and all-too-typical of the Dems' circular firing squad:
(1) “Biden is the problem!”
When the President arrived to deliver a speech in Philadelphia this week, there were people outside protesting against him. But not nuts from the far right. They were liberal activists claiming he just wasn’t speaking out enough on voter suppression. Ironically, inside he was speaking out on voter suppression:
“Make no mistake. Bullies and merchants of fear…peddlers of lies…are threatening the very foundation of our country. The 21st century Jim Crow assault is real.”
Afterwards, liberal cable hosts and their pundits begrudgingly admitted the words were probably OK… but to sway the public, he needed “more passion!” This is entirely misguided, and misses the whole point. The public was not the intended audience. (Anyway, nothing he could have said would swing the votes of even a tenth of a percent of the electorate; left, right or middle.) Biden knows the only audience that matters consists of a couple Democratic senators who’ve come out against both of the two pending federal voting rights bills. Those bills could negate the states' crimes. These few senators are the people he has to convince. Which leads us to falsehood #2…
(2) “Be like LBJ!”
This cry quickly spread through the fever swamp. “Look what LBJ did—he passed both the Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act by motivating the public!” Again, totally wrong.
Passage of those Acts had nothing to do with a president urging protests or making impassioned speeches. That was already coming from Martin Luther King and others. LBJ’s conclusive work was done behind closed doors, away from public scrutiny. He leveraged personal persuasion on former Senate colleagues from the segregated South who could not understand how he could turn away from their “southern cause.” They did not see where his heart was. What they did see, according to masterful biographer Robert Caro, was a campaign of kidding, cajoling, arguing, and logic—and if that failed, a single threat: “Hey, if we don’t give this to them now, they’re gonna be back in a year or two demanding twice as much.” Not exactly Jefferson-level idealism…but it worked.
Which leads us to our current moment. One of the reluctant Democratic senators, Joe Manchin, is reported to have communicated to Biden the following message (paraphrased here): “Look, don’t pressure me in public--especially on the filibuster, alright? What are you going to do--primary me? Find someone further left to run against me in West Virginia? Good luck with that. And what if that leftie does beat me? Do you think that guy will have a chance against whoever the GOP runs? When you lose that seat, you'll also lose the Senate. McConnell’s back in charge…and all of your agenda is toast. So back off.”
It's a harsh reality lost on too many on the left.
(3) “Do more!”
Ok, great. What do you suggest? We’ve spent more than a decade with Republicans slamming every single Democratic plan--without even bothering to respond with a counterproposal. They are just bomb throwers. So maddening!
And now, some on the left are doing exactly the same thing. “We don’t know what you should do—just do it!" Somewhere, Trump is smiling.
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Granted, Biden may not have LBJ’s powers of persuasion. We’ll find out. But his off-the-record conversations with Manchin and a couple others are the only chance we’ve got to bypass the filibuster for the purpose of securing American voting rights. This should be obvious to everyone.
This is my message to all the eager and frustrated staffers and journalists and cable pundits and academics luxuriating in the fever swamp. You are right to be angry. So am I. Because no cause is more important right now than defeating voter suppression at the state level. And only a federal law can do that.
But stop for a minute and ask yourself this: is your outrage actually hurting Biden’s chances--are you, in fact, part of the problem? If you say no, that your self-indulgence and bloviation will somehow help, then I guess have at it.
On the other hand, if you think twice, maybe you’ll re-aim your fire in the right direction. At all the racist GOP Congressmen and Governors and state legislators who are trying to lynch democracy. Please, don’t be unwitting tools in their cause.
Or...at the very leas...please come up with a coherent idea of what you’d like Biden to do. Juist one.
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