Biden Should Put More Pressure On Manchin And Sinema

 

With the Republicans in red states passing dozens of new laws to suppress voting, it was extremely disappointing to see Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema vote with the Republicans to allow them to continue filibustering voter rights. They are helping Republicans to cheat in future elections, and need to be pressured to change their stance on the filibuster. Some groups are already doing this, but President Biden needs to also act to put pressure on Manchin and Sinema.

Here is what Dean Obeidallah thinks Biden should do in part of his op-ed at MSNBC.com:

Biden, who owes his presidency in large part to Black voters, must do more than simply hope that voters two years from now will punish Manchin and Sinema. In the first speech he gave after being declared the winner of the 2020 election, Biden promised point blank to the Black community, “You’ve always had my back and I’ll have yours.” At Biden’s news conference on Wednesday, Kristen Welker of NBC News asked Biden about Black voters criticizing him for not making voting rights a priority sooner, to which the President responded, “I’ve had their back my entire career. I’ve never not had their back.”

Biden now needs to show, not tell. For starters, he needs to travel to West Virginia and Arizona to build more grassroots support to pressure Manchin and Sinema.

He should say no to the people Manchin and Sinema want nominated as federal judges or any people they seek to recommend to the Biden administration, a freeze-out that would diminish the two senators’ power and influence. He should also use his influence to prevent the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee from helping fund these two senators' 2024 campaigns. Finally, Biden may have to very publicly support a primary challenge against them.

Black Americans were targeted by laws and violence for decades by bigots seeking to stop them from voting. It would be insult to the memory of those African Americans who were killed in the struggle for voting rights to allow these two senators to help roll back the progress made by those who sacrificed so much. And it would be an insult to all today who support Democrats of any race if these two senators can undermine our self-determination without paying a political price.

Biden has a choice to make: Stand with these two Democratic senators who have chosen to preserve the filibuster over democracy or stand with the communities that elected him. What’s it going to be?