Thread by @benjaminhatche1

1/ Thread 🧵 Biden is the most experienced politician in the country he’s lived through the civil rights movement, and was a senator during watergate, Reagan, 9/11 etc.

Trust me I think he’s knows what he’s doing, let me explain

https://twitter.com/JameEssD1/status/1463881279829684227

2/ there are two pieces to this,

The first is Biden’s economic agenda which includes

1. $1.9T ARP (pandemic relief)
2. $1.2T IIJA (infrastructure)
3. $1.6T-$2.4T BBB (environmental and middle class relief)

3/ The second part is voting rights legislation which includes

1. FTVA (redistricting guidelines, curbs future voter suppression)

2. JLVRAA (prohibits changing voting laws without clearance from DOJ)

Both of these parts are critical to maintaining our democracy.

4/ Biden’s economic agenda is important for maintaining our democracy because the US is at risk of sliding into our third oligarchy

America has had two oligarchies

1. Slavery (the civil war ended this)
2. Labor (FDR’s new deal ended this)

5/ America is close to a third oligarchy which income inequality.

Reaganomics aka Reagan’s economic polices is the main reason why we’re in danger of this.

Biden was a senator during Reagan’s presidency he knows probably better than any of the consequences of Reaganomics.

6/ not only is there income inequality in America today but the gap is increasing.

There’s a number of ways to lose democracy making it hard for people to vote is one of them.

Another way to lose democracy is having too much income inequality.

7/ Biden is doing his economic agenda first because he wants to make sure that these three bills are able to get passed.

1. $1.9T ARP✅
2. $1.2T IIJA ✅
3. $1.6-$2.4T *

It’s also important to remember that the impact of these bills won’t be felt overnight.

8/ It’s probably going to take years probably even 10-15 years to understand how important these bills are but when this happens these bills will have an enormous impact on this country. It would keep us from sliding into our third oligarchy.

9/ Also I think Biden did his economic agenda first because IMO he knew that this was going to be messy and wanted to get this out of the way first.

10/ The second part of this is voting rights/election reform legislation. Which includes

1. FTVA (redistricting guidelines, election security)
2. JLVRAA (informing DOJ of a state is changing election laws)

These two bills are very important to our democracy as well.

11/ This will protect our elections from foreign and domestic threats and against voter suppression

This is the biggest threat to having free and fair elections since the 60s

It hasn’t passed yet why? The filibuster

12/ Have Biden and the Democrats given up on this: no they haven’t

1. Biden during town hall a few weeks ago came out and said that he supports reforming the filibuster, he also said that he would lose votes on BBB if he pushed for filibuster reform now

13/ 2. Schumer has stated that he and other Democratic senators are discussing ways on how to get voting rights legislation passed in the senate.

It’s also important to note that, while Manchin and Sinema are against filibuster reform that

14/ A. They’ve both voted with Biden 100% of the time
B. They both support voting rights legislation
C. Manchin played a key role in helping craft FTVA

Also it’s important to understand that there are other ways besides filibuster reform.

15/ To pass voting rights legislation

Article I Section V subsection II of the constitution states

“Each house may determine the rules of it’s proceedings, punish it’s members for disorderly behavior, and with the concurrence of two thirds expel a member”

16/ It’s also important to understand that congress there isn’t an explicit deadline to pass voting rights legislation the only deadline is (11/8/22) the date of the midterms: assuming that nothing unexpected happens I expect that they will pass this well before that date.

17/ how do I know that Democrats have no specific deadline for this

Article I section IV subsection I of the constitution

“The times, places and manner of holding elections for senators and representatives, shall be prescribed in each state by the legislature thereof;

18/ But the congress may at anytime by law make or alter such regulations, except as to the places of choosing senators.”

I will do another thread 🧵 on article I section IV and V later

Biden knows this as well TBS it’s up to US if we want to get voting rights passed.

19/ The problem isn’t” Biden doesn’t care about voting rights or our democracy” he does and he wants voting rights to pass. The problem is more complex in that this is a very broad agenda and that his economic agenda is also crucial to saving democracy as well.