The more I think of it, the crazier it seems that Dems haven’t made this their top priority instead of HR 1. The threat in 2024 isn’t on the front end of the election, via voter suppression. It’s on the back end, after the votes have been counted. 1/9 nationalreview.com/2021/06/fixing…
HR 1 does nothing to address that. It’s not even useful as a political cudgel now that Manchin has joined the GOP in opposing it. And he may not be the only Dem who’s opposed. So why are they still obsessing about it? 2/9
The process of filling influential state election offices with Trump loyalists is already in motion in states like Georgia, with Jody Hice challenging Brad Raffensperger. If Stop The Steal 2.0 happens in 2024, the pieces will be in place to make it work next time. 3/9
Dems need to think about how to prevent state legislatures from tossing out the results of their elections on “fraud” pretenses and how the House and Senate will handle certifiying the election if they do. 4/9
There’s no downside to prioritizing it. *Maybe* there are 10 GOPers in the Senate who’d support a bill to reform the Electoral Count Act, although I doubt it. If I’m wrong, then great. The bill passes and the 2024 nightmare scenario is averted. 5/9
But even if I’m right and the GOP filibusters the bill, that would be powerful evidence of their willingness to try to overturn the next election if need be by staving off a legislative effort to prevent it. Dems can run on that. 6/9
An Election Count Act reform bill might even spark a nasty intraparty GOP fight once Trump inevitably weighs in to say that any Senate Republican who votes to foreclose the possibility of overturning a Democratic win in 2024 is a traitor. 7/9
If nothing else, Dems should be able to get all 50 in their caucus behind this one. And if they're really lucky, GOP obstruction might convince Joe Manchin to lower the filibuster threshold to, say, 55 if there are five Republicans willing to support the bill. 8/9
Anyway, it’s total malpractice by Schumer and Pelosi that they’re not thinking about this, even if only as a fallback to HR 1. Which, by the way, is completely dead. 9/9
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