Joe Biden Gave a Great Speech on Voting Rights. I Just Wish It Mattered.

By Charles Pierce, Esquire

15 July 21

The word "filibuster" did not pass the president's lips on Tuesday.

t was an excellent speech that the president gave Tuesday in Philadelphia. It hit almost all the right notes and it hit them hard. There was a sense of crisis to his delivery, and more than a little indication that he understands how perilous this moment is for the experiment that began not far from the spot where he was talking. It had the tone of a speech you give after the country has been attacked, which it has been. He even broke out a new line, talking not only about “voter suppression,” but about “voter subversion,” which is certainly equally dangerous to the franchise. (For example, in Texas, the provision that cuts down on drive-through voting is “voter suppression.” In Georgia, the provision that allows the state election commission to overrule local election officials is “voter subversion.”) And his closing was a rouser.

We the people here will never give up. We will not give in. We will overcome. We will do it together. In guaranteeing the right to vote, ensuring that every vote is counted, has always been the most patriotic thing we can do. Remember, our late friend John Lewis said, “Freedom is not a state. It’s an act.”… And we must act and we will act for our cause is just. Our vision is clear. Our hearts are full. For we, the people, for America itself, we must act.

I just wish it mattered. I wish I could see it changing minds, if only the minds of Senators Joe Manchin and Kirsten Sinema and their stubborn devotion to the filibuster—a word, I should note, that did not pass the president’s lips on Tuesday. The Democrats from the Texas legislature are in Washington right now, awaiting an imminent encounter with the Texas Rangers, because they’re out there on a creaking limb trying to defend the franchise in their state, and using the only weapon they have left. From NBC News:

The lawmakers have promised to use their time in the nation’s Capitol lobbying for federal voting rights legislation. "We also know that we are living right now on borrowed time in Texas, and we can't stay here indefinitely," said state Rep. Rhetta Bowers, a Democrat from the Dallas area. "Texas Democrats will use everything in our power to fight back but we need Congress to act now.”

But, fundamentally, the whole business comes down to the answer to a question that the president thundered at the crowd in the middle of his address on Tuesday.

Have they no shame?

No, in fact, they don’t. And he knows it. We all know it. Hell, they’ve moved on to denying that the events of January 6 were what we all saw them to be on television. If you’re willing to do that, full in the knowledge that your constituency will not exact a price from you, and indeed may cheer you on, you’re willing to do almost anything. In fact, Manchin and Sinema—and the several other Democratic senators whom I believe are standing in the shadows behind them—have no shame, either. They’re not blind or stupid. They are making their choices and they are standing by them. The bully pulpit, after all, is just a piece of furniture.