last week uh the six conservatives the
six republican appointees on the u.s
supreme court
weakened what remains of the voting
rights act in the six to three decision
and that comes after
uh the conservative majority in the
court led by john roberts gutted
the other big central provision the act
back in 2013.
those two sections section two and
section five were the most important
ways of enforcing changes to voting laws
either
before the fact or after the fact and
and they've both been significantly
weakened now the need for federal voting
legislation is stronger than
ever there's a question about whether
there's any conceivable universe in
which some kind of grand bargain on
voting is possible in which democrats
agree to provisions
that republicans have pushed to quote
unquote protect against fraud like voter
id
in exchange for a guaranteed floor of
voter protections and access
a couple weeks ago we saw a glimmer of
what that might look like when you might
remember senator joe manchin democrat
west virginia proposed
a set of changes to the for the people
act voting bill that did include some
voter id provisions
and when voting rights advocate stacey
abrams endorsed those changes
her endorsement itself was enough to
kill the bill on the minds of
republicans
which leads the question is there
anything to negotiate here
maria theresa kumar's present ceo of
voter latino ellie mistahl the justice
correspondent for the nation his latest
piece is titled bigots have finally
accomplished their goal of gutting the
voting rights act
meddy hassan hosts the meti hassan show
which streams on peacock
during the week 7 pm eastern airs on
msnbc on sunday
at 8 00 p.m um maria let me let me start
with you
i i sometimes think if you could sit
down in an abstract
universe you could consider a universe
in which you could pencil out a big kind
of grand bargain
on national voting standards but
to me the mansion experience shows that
in a practical matter it's not possible
do you think that's too pessimistic on
my part
no chris you know originally you're
supposed to have two different parties
that come at the to
the table and negotiate in good faith
but we already have mitch mcconnell
saying that he doesn't want to support
any part of biden's agenda sadly part of
biden's agenda is to ensure
the full franchise of all americans and
that is what
the that's where the rub lies is that
mansion is trying to continue to
negotiate with a body that was very much
in that state in the 1990s but that has
dissipated into
backing into everybody's corner and when
it comes to specifically to voting
rights
the republicans have demonstrated time
and again that even in certified
fair non-fraudulent elections they want
to gut
someone's access to the booth i'll take
texas as an example
texas it's the hardest place to vote
debt
full stop chris they are just passing
legislation right now to prevent
students from voting why because just
among latino youth you're going to have
a quarter million more
eligible voters in time to kick it out
if we register them so
this is so political and we're talking
about the scaffolding
democracy the little d not the
democratic party and that is where we
need more republicans to come to the
come to the table but sadly manchin also
has to have a wake-up call saying that
he has to side with the party in this
because we're talking about saving the
institution
not his part well and it's also the case
i mean
part of part of the madness here ellie
is that because they the roberts court
in 2013
um you know they struck down technically
struck down sections for the voting
rights act but what they did was
make section five non-operative which is
pre-clearance
all these changes have to get checked by
the department of justice before they go
into effect
and and i said before in the absence of
that then we have all these hand-to-hand
combat fights about every change
and you know if you read the voting
rights opinion about the arizona case
which is after the fact under section
two it's like
yes like maybe there are some small
changes at a disproportionate effect
that are not
um driven by animus but the entire point
of having that
bureaucracy in place to check it was
that we don't have to have these fights
now that's gone we do have to have these
fights and i don't think republicans
want us to stop having them i guess is
my point
yeah no i mean one way one really
important thing to remember about the
arizona voting restriction laws that
were just upheld
by the supreme court is that arizona
admitted
that the reason why they were doing this
was to influence
the election they admitted that these
restrictions disproportionately affected
people of color the supreme court
admitted
that these restrictions
disproportionately affected people of
color
and they all said that's fine and why do
they say that it's fine
because they can't win if they let
everybody vote this is the
the thing that people have to get about
voting rights is that this is actually
an
existential crisis for the republican
party
because if everybody votes the
republicans can't
win the republicans have abandoned
building any kind of
coalition beyond their white supremacist
base
so if that white supremacist base is
diluted in any way
republicans have no strategy to expand
their base
have no policies to appeal to people
beyond their white supremacist face
and so this is like this is their way
this is their only way
to win elections it's by it's by uh
keeping people away from the voting well
but
let me let me just respond to that and
then i'll come to you maddie but i
actually want to i i think that
the republicans think that about
themselves which i think is
it kind of hilariously uh a poor
judgment on themselves that they think
that
but i also think like look at i keep
saying this all the time look at 2020
historically high turnout right the
republicans didn't get blown out in fact
there were four congressional seats in
iowa they won all four a few of those
were supposed to be tight seats and they
kept them right now i was a very wide
state
but in iowa they've done the same thing
they've done everywhere they've rushed
to put in these restrictions
the fact of the matter is it's a fairly
competitive party even under conditions
of high turnout i think they have less
faith in themselves
than even the outcomes in the election
should suggest
look i've always said if republicans
could just not be racist
for like four consecutive years there
are a lot of black and brown votes
for them right there are lots of black
and brown people who support like you
know
basic authoritarianism and a police
state like they could get some votes
if they try it's that they don't want to
try they don't want to and
maybe that's where where that like that
internal self-illusion
becomes reality they don't even want to
try
to go out and get these votes of color
they just
want they just want to have to play
within the box set by their white
supremacist base
and so that's that's why they're doing
these things that they're doing
really effectively and then when you
step back maddie i mean
the thing that's upsetting about this
moment and i think you and i are on the
same page about the sort of peril and
the stakes here is that
so you've got this for the people act
right you couldn't get mansion on board
then you get mansion on board with a
compromise which
okay fine stacey abrams says it's great
let's do it then mitch mcconnell and all
the republicans turn around and say oh
it's a stacey abramsville we can't we
can't touch that
but even if you got rid of the
filibuster as ellie's pointed out and
you passed this thing
the roberts court sitting there waiting
in the wings like absolutely hacking to
death
it's like what are we doing here
indeed let me just address one quick
point between you and elliot a moment
ago and i get both sides of the argument
i think ellie's right
uh that they can't win without changing
these rules you're right that they're
more competitive than people think but
look
the key fact is this it's been 31 years
since a republican president won the
white house
with the popular vote at the first
attempt right that is a long time
they know that they're not stupid they
cannot win the white house forget
congress
uh you know the house which all sorts of
gerrymandering the senate which has all
sorts
of disproportionality they know they
can't win the the top office
uh very easily to come back to your
point about mansion and the senate i
mean
number one the idea that they're going
to reject a compromise because stacey
abraham's name is on it
comes back to ellie's point could they
just stop being racist for even four
days let alone four years
uh number two when is joe manchin gonna
have his awakening maria theresa
mentioned
i don't know i mean i've said joe
manchin's name more times in 2021 than
maybe i've said my two kids and my
wife's name
i am like bernie sanders i'm fed up of
saying joe manchin's name and kissed in
cinema's name
but i just don't understand when they
will get it what it will take for them
to get it we were told
that when they try and do a deal when
they bring something bipartisan and it
fails
they will see the light well we saw it
on s1 where manchin got on board with a
reasonable compromise i am no fan of joe
mentioned but the stuff he offered
was reasonable it was a building block
for something better than nothing
and yet he couldn't get a single
republican on board even his john lewis
bill
that he says is the more important bill
than the for the people act he has one
republican on board lisa murkowski as
far as i can see
so i don't know when they're going to
have their realization i think the point
is that they're never going to have
their realization because it's never
been about
a good fa good faith argument on their
part forget the republicans in good
faith
i've mentioned this on the show before
kissed in cinema in 2010
there's a video you know gone viral
online
she's saying in 2010 we must forget
about the false option of 60
we must use budget reconciliation for
good as republicans did for evil
that's the kirsten cinema i agree with
11 years out of date
so i don't know what's going to take one
word one thing i would say chris
important
joe biden let's not let joe biden get
away with it sorry the president has a
responsibility here it has been nearly
four months since he spoke to george
stephanopoulos and said he supports a
reform of the filibuster i've heard
nothing from the president since where
is the bully pulpit where is he using
his leadership to say
get rid of this filibuster yeah and i
think that's i mean if it's if it is
going to happen maria
and and again this is where you know
this all comes down to is these these
sort of procedural questions which are
actually substantive ones but it's going
to happen to matty's point and i agree
with him
biden is going to have to take it the
reins on it
well he's also you know he's appointed
and deployed
the vice the vice president to go from
town to town she was recently in las
vegas and talking specifically about
this but i will share with you
we are on the verge of losing our
democracy if we do not see
americans talking and calling the
members of congress and filling up the
town halls this august and say i demand
it because
sadly most of our legislators they do
not find courage
unless it's the people talking to them
and this is where we are
to your point chris this is this was the
largest participation
in our nation's history when it came to
the voting booth why throw that out to
the wayside
we haven't engaged publicly paying
attention they understand how the system
works
get them involved because access to the
voting booth is one of the few things
that americans across political stripes
actually agree with
yeah it's true teresa kumar um well
recently right i mean
we've had we've had we had 100 years of
straight up ignoring the 15th amendment
yes
we have to read recent to actually
recognize that the majority of americans
believe it and that is a starting point
and that is right communicating that
opportunity
well and the worrying thing here is that
there's radicalization against it right
i mean you had
the voting rights act you know
reauthorized in 2006 with
unanimous vote by mitch mcconnell robert
strikes it down and now it's like susan
susan collins saying things like we
don't need federal oversight of
elections it's like
well yes we do plainly that's an old
idea maria theresa kumar ellie mistel
and matty haasen thank you all
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you