Keeping up with politics is important. It’s also incredibly difficult. Not only are the day to day movements of politicians and pieces of legislation really emotionally taxing, the general pace of law making is very slow. For example, the bill that I have been eyeing for months, H.R.1 AKA the “For the People Act of 2021,” was introduced to the house back in January and only recently saw any kind of decisive action in the senate today. Your average person doesn’t have that kind of patience (hence the value of good journalism to keep us up to date, but I won’t get into that now lol). Well, if you want to stay informed, I recommend making a habit of discovering a piece of legislation you are personally interested in and keeping up with it. Become personally invested in a law! There are great websites you can do this with, including the official government site for congress.
Here is what I used to keep up with H.R.1: https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/1
The above link leads to the summary page, which gives a handy outline of the bill’s contents. If you want a deeper look, however, you’ve got to find an analysis or read the legal jargon of the bill itself. The website also lists actions taken on the bill. It’s a little out of date as of writing, because the senate just shut down the whole process with a filibuster. That last bit has me upset for a number of reasons.
H.R.1, among other things, attempts to ensure mail-in ballots, force redistricting to be carried out by nonpartisan commissions (redistricting happens every 10 years and is used to gerrymander voting districts to, frankly, allow Republicans to be way over-represented in congress despite lower numbers), and limits campaign spending from foreign nationals. It also allows for automatic voter registration and expands early voting. It has been criticized by the Fox News universe for allowing folks to vote without any form of ID. This is false. While the law eases up on ID requirements (which can already be bypassed easily in most states that require it anyway), the law does provide a provision that requires voters without ID to sign a statement. In the event of an investigation into election integrity, this statement can be traced. Of course, fraud is historically a nonissue in elections despite the insane claims of the previous president.
In short, the bill is awesome. It does everything I have ever wanted a voting bill to do. The stuff about gerrymandering specifically could seriously improve the political landscape of the united states and force campaigning politicians to tackle real issues rather than rely on cheating their constituents into a majority.
It occurs to me that not all that many people really understand what a filibuster is. Some have this notion that it is a last ditch effort, an emergency tool, to shut down legislation that might be bad. Literally speaking, filibustering is the act of giving a speech on the floor that never ends, so the process of congress can’t go on. It gums up voting and pretty much kills a bill. You can do this by spewing nonsense for hours on end at the pulpit. Bernie Sanders has some pretty epic filibusters:
Bernie’s filibuster actually talks policy, which is impressive. Other filibusters can be truly nonsense.
The thing is, filibusters are not generally used as an emergency measure. It is common practice on the senate floor these days, and it tends to come out immediately. In this case, the republicans have chosen to filibuster the voting bill. This means that the bill isn’t even going to be discussed or debated. Your elementary school vision of the legislative process probably involved rigorous debate. Senators would argue their case, call up experts to comment, and show charts of data to back up their claims. Well, that isn’t what actually happens. The modern senate either votes or doesn’t. There is no healthy discourse, no discussion. It is brain dead. This system is dysfunctional, it does not encourage intelligent, rational discussion of laws.
Now, you may be thinking, “Gee Aaron, I can appreciate this perspective, but why can’t the proponents of H.R.1 just compromise to get the bill passed?” Talks have been had, of course. The republican discourse on the bill, however, has been entirely bad faith. Many republican senators back Trump’s claims that our elections are fraudulent, abd Mitch McConnell recently dismissed the bill as a simple power grab without seriously debating its actual components. They aren’t going to talk about it. Unfortunately, this dynamic is pretty common. In the event of redistricting, republicans would have to seriously change their platforms to actually attract new voters to win elections, so their obvious response is to use the easiest tools available to destroy the bill at inception. To them, this bill is life and death. A shame, I say!
I will be monitoring these events further and will provide comment if the situation changes. The calls to end the filibuster continue. Both parties have been pretty egregious in their exploitation of the filibuster, so I think it is time to rethink that whole process. At the very least, there needs to be serious debate on the senate floor. We can’t let these zombie politicians continue to eat our tax dollars while not doing their job.
PS: fuck the republicans.