(#4703) Still holding out hope for a filibuster carve out of some sort for voting rights protections

      Like Charlie Brown trying to kick the football Lucy keeps moving at the last second, I am Charlie Brown, trusting her to not move it this time. I feel less than confident that Manchin will find his way to protect voting rights through a filibuster carve out but we Americans need it badly if we are to protect our democracy. With the full democratic senate caucus somewhat to mostly concerned now that protecting voting rights is the main issue of our day I can't but hope that the more reality challenged democrats in the senate will find their way to understanding the existential threat republicans are parlaying into undermining our democracy.
     It isn't as if they are doing it in secret either. So many republican controlled state legislators are passing laws to either restrict or obstruct eligible voters from voting. The republicans in the senate are also in total lockstep, excepting maybe republican Murkowski, to keep voting rights protections from even being discussed on the senate floor. The bill that we democrats are trying to debate in the senate is written by none other than the most moderate of democrats in our caucus, Joe Manchin. Yet even he cannot find the 10 republican senators needed to overcome the filibuster of required 60 votes to even begin to debate the merits of protecting our democracy. Yes, republicans are against protecting our democracy.
     So now a group of moderate democratic senators are trying to find a way to preserve the filibuster but to also allow for a vote that will pass Manchin's voting rights protection bill. We will see how it goes but to me there is no greater accomplishment that can be had coming from the senate in a generation and that is passing voting rights protections. I have hoped for this to be done for many months and if it does get done now then I will be a happy man who knows that the republican assault on our democracy will not go unchallenged.