Between @joshtpm and @JakeSherman, I think Josh is closer to being right where Biden and the Senate filibuster are concerned. It should be possible to pass Biden’s spending & tax priorities in legislation that cannot be filibuster — in practice, a significant limitation....
https://twitter.com/joshtpm/status/1418391346939891713
....of the filibuster by itself. When the Senate does get to democracy promotion legislation is when the rubber will truly meet the road. Democrats will need public attention to be on the popular things they want to do — on voting rights, election rules, government ethics.
They will not want public attention to be on bickering over the filibuster, a point of procedure that the Twitterverse and some liberal commentators have deluded themselves into believing voters care about.
Democrats can be tempted to talk to (and agree with) each other about the filibuster. @SenAmyKlobuchar’s box-checking field hearing of the Rules Committee this week featured some of this. But to get the spotlight on voting rights legislation requires public conflict.
Democrats demanding ballot access, Republicans championing voter suppression. Democrats against partisan gerrymandering, Republicans for it. Democrats for government ethics, Republicans for corruption. These fights can be had in committee hearings, real ones, in Washington.
Or they could, if Senate Democratic committee chairs were capable of organizing such hearings. If they are not, federal voting rights legislation is very likely going nowhere, as Republican state legislatures change election rules to make it easier for GOP candidates to win.
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