World Insight: Voting rights protection latest victim of Washington's extreme partisanship

Source: Xinhua| 2021-06-18 21:06:21|Editor: huaxia
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BEIJING, June 18 (Xinhua) -- The voting rights of Black people and other minority groups have become the latest victim to partisanship as deepening divide between Democrats and Republicans threatens to trap many political agendas in Washington.

Just as U.S. President Joe Biden was making his first overseas trips since taking office to tout America as the beacon of democracy, his Democratic colleagues back home in the Capitol Hill were scrambling to secure enough votes to pass a voting legislation, but to no avail.

The For the People Act, a bill intended to expand voting rights, change campaign finance laws to reduce the influence of money in politics, and limit partisan gerrymandering, hit a stumbling block in the past days after Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat from West Virginia, announced his opposition, leaving the Democrats one vote short of passing the bill in the Senate.

However, even if Manchin was on board to support the legislation, the Democrats would still have to face a seemingly formidable obstacle of overcoming a Republican filibuster.

In justifying his lone Democratic holdout on the bill, Manchin said he planned to vote against the bill, which is set to be taken up by the Senate in late June, because it is too partisan.

"Today's debate about how to best protect our right to vote and to hold elections, however, is not about finding common ground, but seeking partisan advantage. Whether it is state laws that seek to needlessly restrict voting or politicians who ignore the need to secure our elections, partisan policymaking won't instill confidence in our democracy -- it will destroy it," Manchin wrote in a statement.

Though Manchin's betrayal stirred up indignation within the Democratic Party and civil rights groups, he did have a point in pointing out that "the fundamental right to vote has itself become overtly politicized."

While the Democrats accuse the Republicans of seeking to restrict voting access for Black people and other minority groups, who are traditional ally of the Democratic Party, the formulation process of the 800-page voting bill had virtually no Republican input. No wonder the bill has garnered zero Republican support.

The Democrats in Washington have made passing the voting bill a top priority. Yet, as said by Manchin, without reaching out to the other side of the aisle and seeking common ground, reforming voting and election reform in a partisan manner will "all but ensure partisan divisions continue to deepen."

Despite the Democratic clamoring that "U.S. democracy is on the line" if the bill fails to pass, the onus is also on them to overcome partisan bitterness if they are longing for political gains to work with the Republicans.

Unfortunately, given the perpetuated congressional dysfunction and extreme partisanship, any hope for bipartisanship to overcome domestic issues looks even dimmer. Enditem

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