Delayed by a day, but that won’t stop anything.
Republican lawmakers in Texas are attempting to cement more bricks into the wall they hope will shield their hold on power from the state’s changing electorate.
After more than 20 years in firm control, the GOP is seeing its dominance of Texas politics slowly slip away, with some once reliable suburbs following big cities into the Democratic party’s fold.
This legislative session, Republicans are staging a sweeping legislative campaign to further tighten the state’s already restrictive voting rules and raise new barriers for some voters, clamping down in particular on local efforts to make voting easier.
If legislation they have introduced passes, future elections in Texas will look something like this: Voters with disabilities will be required to prove they can’t make it to the polls before they can get mail-in ballots. County election officials won’t be able to keep polling places open late to give voters like shift workers more time to cast their ballots. Partisan poll watchers will be allowed to record voters who receive help filling out their ballots at a polling place. Drive-thru voting would be outlawed. And local election officials may be forbidden from encouraging Texans to fill out applications to vote by mail, even if they meet the state’s strict eligibility rules.
Those provisions are in a Senate priority bill that was set to receive its first committee airing Monday, but Democrats delayed its consideration by invoking a rule that requires more public notice before the legislation is heard. Senate Bill 7 is part of a broader package of proposals to constrain local initiatives widening voter access in urban areas, made up largely by people of color, that favor Democrats.
The wave of new restrictions would crash up against an emerging Texas electorate that every election cycle includes more and more younger voters and voters of color. They risk compounding the hurdles marginalized people already face making themselves heard at the ballot box.
“I think Texans should be really frustrated with their politicians, because it is so obvious that there’s a lot of work that needs to be done to put itself in a place where its people are safe with all the challenges we could be expecting to be facing in the modern era, and instead they’re figuring out how to stay in power,” said Myrna Pérez, director of the voting rights and elections program at the Brennan Center for Justice, which is analyzing and tracking proposed voting restrictions across the country.
“Their manipulation has got a shelf life, and I think that’s part of the reason why they’re so desperate to do it right now because they see the end. They see what’s coming down the road for them.”
See here, here, and here for the background. I don’t have a whole lot to add to what I’ve already said, but it occurs to me that the Republicans may be underestimating how much of a negative effect this will have on their own voters, at least their own voters in high-population areas. Plenty of Republicans vote by mail, and the boost that Republicans got in Latino areas last year came primarily from low-propensity voters, who are exactly the kind of people that will be affected by further restrictions on when and where to vote. They obviously think they will profit from all this, and I certainly may just be whistling past the graveyard, but Democratic voters have shown a lot of resilience in recent years, and these bills are based on lies and the hurt feelings of one particular person. Maybe they’re shooting themselves in the foot here. It sure would be nice to think so, anyway.
If 2020 was the most secure, fraud free election, maybe ever, in the history of the US, then why do we need federal HB 1? Why the need for Democrats to change literally everything, when we just did it near perfect, with not even a hint of fraud?
Sen. Blunt asks why it’s considered voter suppression for the Federal Government to notify the states which of their residents has died, and thus had their SS benefits stopped. The answer is, the federal government often makes mistakes. So if the federal government often makes mistakes, and still we just had a perfect, no fraud election, why the need for HB 1? Why mess with perfection?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDBPoME1wLM
Maybe we should ask Ron Klain about it. He seems to be the one calling the shots here:
https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1374797256352792578
[turn the sound up to hear it distinctly]
I hope none of the mostly all straight, white posters here at OTK have aspirations to serve their country in the Biden administration, because you are NOT wanted.
Senators Tammy Duckworth and Mazie Hirono give you an automatic thumbs down, folks. Well, all except Jules and Manny. The rest of you can just forget about it.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/byron-yorks-daily-memo-an-ugly-turn-for-biden-and-diversity
AN UGLY TURN FOR BIDEN AND DIVERSITY. The Democratic Party’s obsession with race and identity politics took a nasty turn Tuesday when Democratic Senator Tammy Duckworth, backed by Democratic Senator Mazie Hirono, declared that she would not vote to confirm any white nominees for any administration positions. The only exceptions, Duckworth said, would be for white nominees who are also lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer.
As the story unfolded, Fox News Capitol Hill reporter Chad Pergram tweeted that Duckworth told a pool reporter, “I am a ‘no’ vote on the floor on all non-diversity nominees. You know, I will vote for racial minorities and I will vote for LGBTQ. But anybody else, I’m not voting for.” Her message was clear, as Politico put it in its Playbook newsletter: “Duckworth vowed to reject any nominee who is white and straight.”
This is what your own party thinks about y’all. Imagine if a conservative had said something like that…..we’d be calling for that senator’s resignation, holding marches, protests, etc. THIS is what racism looks like, and even more appalling, it comes on the heels of the racist hate crime killing of 10 Whites in Colorado by a Syrian Muslim.
Also notice she explicitly clarifies what ‘diversity’ means…..it means NOT White.
Longer video of Biden today who clearly has zero idea what is going on. Anyone who has ever visited a memory care wing of a nursing home has seen this blank stare before….it’s quite clear, even though fully vaccinated Biden still chooses to wear a mask, the eyes do not lie:
https://twitter.com/breaking911/status/1374805707069984770?s=21
No wonder they want the press out. Look at Joe veg while they are shouting questions at him.
Looks like you are the last man standing, Bill Daniels.
Kommentariat crumb trail this evening:
Bill Daniels on It’s Voter Suppression Week in the Senate
Bill Daniels on It’s Voter Suppression Week in the Senate
Bill Daniels on It’s Voter Suppression Week in the Senate
Bill Daniels on It’s Voter Suppression Week in the Senate
Bill Daniels on Republicans take aim at bail reform
Time to call it quits and surrender. You talkin to yourself now, Bill. Some Doc might opine that such solitary demeanor might be a symptom of something.
In the sprit of universalist humanism (as distinguished from socialism and solidarity), let me nevertheless offer some reassurance:
WE SHALL OVERCOME, OR AT LEAST, WE SHALL MANAGE …
Okay, all jokes aside, if you are right about Biden’s mental acuity, so what? … We would be one step closer to a Harris Presidency. Why don’t you give her a chance to prove her mettle and measure up to Angela Merkel (a Conservative, by the way. Got that wrong in a previous comment.)
Famous line on the migration front, distractors notwithstanding: “We will manage”
Even earned her a wikipedia entry (in English). See here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wir_schaffen_das
This protégée of Helmut Kohl (of Wall-dismantling fame) may be a better comparator as a political contemporary on the world stage, but she is hardly the first role model of female leadership and stateswomanship. Not to mention the similarity in current challenges of public policy and effective governance.
It’s been a while since Margaret “Iron Lady” Thatcher, Indira “Woman of the Millennium” Ghandi née Nehru, Golda “best man in the government” Meir née Mabovitch. These historic paragons of strong women at the helm of their respective ships of state may not resonate as readily with the Dora la Exploradora generation.
Wolf,
Gonna have to disagree with you about Angela Merkel. Look at the facts:
~raised and indoctrinated as East German Commie
~self loathing white, loathes ethnic Germans
~intentionally flooded Germany with 3rd World Africans and (even worse) Moslems
Angela is destroying her country in the exact same way the left here is rapidly destroying America. Here, watch Joe Biden, in his own words, talk about overwhelming America with non Whites, and how that’s a worthy goal:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgrliuQW_-Q&t=56s
Colonizing Germany or the US with 3rd Worlders, particularly with Moslems, isn’t beneficial, Wolf. Hell, the 10 White bodies in Colorado are barely cold, as a direct result of the suicidal desire to mass import Moslems here.
12 out of the most recent mass shooting victims were White, Wolf. Whites are being exterminated and survivors are being discriminated against, and you sit there and say, “This is fine.”
Hold on… wasn’t the mass shooter in ATL a white guy with a sexual addiction ?, and the mass shooter in Sutherland Springs, TX., a white guy as well ? Far as I can tell, neither one were Communist or Muslim.
C.L.,
10 Whites were murdered by a jihadi Syrian Muslim ‘refugee’ that never should have been let in the country in the first place. Those bodies are just barely room temperature, and here you are with your muh whataboutisms.
White people were mass murdered in yet another hate crime attack against Whites, and you not only don’t care, you mock the victims by supporting the mass importation of MORE Syrian jihadi Muslims.
And two whites were mass murdered in Atlanta by a deranged, self loathing leftist. 25% of his kills were Whites, but you don’t care about that, only choosing to mourn the 6 non Whites, because White people apparently aren’t people in your eyes. You don’t care about the suffering of the White families, only the suffering of the non Whites. Despicable.
How the Atlanta shooter described himself-
” Long described his world this way: “Pizza, guns, drums, music, family, and God. This pretty much sums up my life. It’s a pretty good life.””
Not a leftist, he is a Southern Baptist conservative.
Bill gets touchy every time someone mentions Germany, that being the Nazi homeland central to his brand of White Supremacy.
Sorry, I misspoke in the above comment. As Seth Meyers has pointed out, calling the guy a “shooter” make his murders seem like a hobby. He is in fact a socially conservative Southern Baptist mass murderer.
Bill, is that you or Manny posting ? LOL.
Jen,
I’m going to concede that the ATL shooter was one of mine. Will you concede that the Colorado jihadist was one of yours?
Note the ATL shooter shot multiple races of people. His ire seemed to be directed at sex workers. Meanwhile, the CO shooter focused on murdering exclusively White kafirs……a hate crime.
Re: Bill/Jen exchange and tracing white supremacy to Germany
The notion of a German “homeland” is problematic, Nazi homeland even worse. And Hitler’s ideology of supremacy focused on the concept of an “Aryan” “master race.” He mostly killed white people.
Let it be said that contemporary Germany has a well-functioning democracy, as do Austria and Switzerland. All three countries are federally structured and have competitive multi-party systems. None engages in calculated machinations to suppress voting. Austria even lowered the voting age to 16 to get young people involved while they are still in school.
Switzerland (Swiss Confederation) is famous for its direct democracy (via citizen initiative/referendum). As for immigration, foreigners make up 25%. And they have four national languages: German, French, Italian, and Romansh. English, of course, too, as international lingua franca.
As for ethnic diversity in Germany, the first major wave of post-WWII migrants were the Turks (of Islamic religion and culture), who arrived as “guest workers” long before German reunification and Angela Merkel, and helped make the economic miracle happen.
Still no motive in Boulder shooting. No this stupid killer was not ‘one of mine’. Emigrated from Syria as a toddler, became US citizen.
https://abc13.com/still-no-motive-in-boulder-shooting-police-chief-says/10450619/