One day later, McConnell says on Senate floor that "after careful consideration" he will oppose Dems' 1/6 commission proposal, calling it unnecessary because there are enough investigations already
McConnell had some disagreements with specifics of Dems' proposal, but of course he could try and negotiate on those if he wanted to.
The lines about a new investigation being unnecessary seem to justify blanket opposition to the idea.
McConnell's position is currently being expressed as his personal opinion, not the party's. So still theoretically possible he will not try hard to block the commission and leave it up to his senators. But he isn't helping.
Punditry shorthand is Biden won because of nonwhite voters and white college grads. Not the whole story. His coalition was:
-39% voters of color
-29% white college grads
-32% non-college whites
That is, he got more actual votes from non-college whites than college whites.
That's because, well, there are lots of white people in the USA, and lots of them vote. White share of the electorate has been shrinking but is still quite high (72% of 2020 voters).
McConnell (speaking now against the For the People Act) was the preeminent opponent of the McCain-Feingold bill. This was before he was GOP leader. His name was on the (mostly) failed Supreme Court challenge to it.
Of the 11 Republicans who voted for McCain-Feingold in 2002, just 1 is still in the Senate — Susan Collins. She has said she opposes the For the People Act in its current form cnn.com/2021/03/22/pol…
Yup, this is the risk. It's already happening. And that's why I've become so pessimistic about a Republican speaking out with a bold principled stance achieves. If the entirely predictable outcome is that they'll soon be replaced by a hardcore Trumpist...
NEW: I profiled Joe Manchin. I cover his 4-decade career, and his improbable rise to become Democrats’ key 50th senator.
I interviewed him about the filibuster, HR1, the minimum wage, whether he’d ever switch parties, and more. Some highlights: vox.com/22339531/manch…
On Manchin's op-ed saying there's no circumstance under which he'll eliminate the filibuster:
“The op-ed was as clear as it could be... If you want to argue about it for two years, then you’re going to waste a lot of your energy and your time.”
Manchin on HR1/S1: “How in the world could you, with the tension we have right now, allow a voting bill to restructure the voting of America on a partisan line?”
He insists it will just feed more distrust in the system and "anarchy" like Jan 6 — "I'm not going to be part of it"
Separately, @mattyglesias has written a critique of the bill today.
When I asked about redistricting I was told that the politics of it are extremely fraught among House Ds and considering their small majority, a broader overhaul is just too difficult