Joe Biden Just Gave A Damn Good Voting Rights Speech
As we alluded to in our livestream post of President Joe Biden's big voting rights speech, it's about time for some damn action on voting rights. And the president went to Philly today to talk about that.
It was an impassioned speech, and he shouted a whole bunch. The Beltway media is fixated on this idea that Biden is boring, but the fact is that he's always given a damn good speech. And to get it out of the way, nope, he didn't tell the Senate to FUCKIN' FIX YOUR SHIT, which is perhaps the only thing many people want to hear. History will tell whether it was wise for him to refrain from commenting on that. But it was an important speech.
Biden went further than he previously has in calling the current Republican party by its real, fascist name. After telling nice stories about people and their experiences casting free and fair votes, young and old, new voters, longtime voters, people whose families and ancestors couldn't vote ... after all that, he talked some real shit about Republicans. It's good to do that.
Biden noted that the 2020 election was "the most scrutinized ever in American history," that it went to the Supreme Court twice, and that more than 80 judges, including some appointed by Donald Trump, found that all Trump's and the Republicans' fake claims of fake fraud were fake bullshit. "No other election has ever been held under such scrutiny, such higher standards. The Big Lie is just that: A Big Lie."
That led Biden into talking about what Republicans are doing now, which is "something darker and more sinister." He said, "You don't try to bring down the American experiment just because you're unhappy." He called it "the most un-American thing any of us could imagine." You hear that? You whining fascist shitbag fuckers?
Biden referred to Republicans' anti-voting crusades and, especially, their efforts to actually change the rules of who gets to count the votes and decides which votes count, as "election subversion," and said they are actively trying to "ignore the will of the people," by giving themselves the right to overturn elections they simply don't like. He said their target isn't just Black voters, but rather all voters who didn't vote for them. (He was yelling at this point.)
He said what fascist insurgent Republicans around the country are doing is an "assault on democracy." He called those working to suppress voters "bullies and merchants of lies." He emphasized that part of his oath was to protect America against domestic enemies.
At one point, he shouted these questions:
BIDEN: Will you deny the will of the people? Will you ignore their voices? We have to ask, are you on the side of truth or lies? Fact or fiction? Justice or injustice? Democracy or autocracy?
Biden also called on his "Republican friends" to "stand up, for God's sake!" He asked, "Have you no shame?" We hope he knows that was a rhetorical question.
Biden called on the Senate to pass the For the People Act. Said he would sign it, not that that was ever in question. Called for the Senate to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. He's ready to sign that one too. We wonder what the hold-up is, oh yeah, we remember now.
Biden noted that the "world is wondering" whether America, supposedly some paragon of freedom, can figure out its shit. He said people on his recent Europe trip were literally asking him if it's going to be OK.
And he announced that the Voting Rights Division at the Justice Department is doubling its size at his direction, to enable Justice to go after states like Georgia currently passing Jim Crow voting laws. (And yes, he used the words "21st Century Jim Crow assault" to describe what's going on.)
It was a solid speech. It ended with RESOUNDING NOTES! about WE THE PEOPLE! He was preachin'.
We wonder if Joe Manchin, Kyrsten Sinema and those moderate Democratic senators we're always hearing about who quietly also don't want to change or eliminate the filibuster were listening. Maybe they were busy taking some sort of bipartisan hot yoga class with Susan Collins, we dunno.
You may watch the replay of Biden's speech right here, in your OPEN THREAD.
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