Democratic and sometimes-centrist Senator Joe Manchin has opposed ending the legislative filibuster to pass voting rights legislation, among other things, and charted his own path by proposing a bipartisan compromise that include at least one major Republican priority.
But what we already know -- and what Joe Manchin should know -- is that it doesn't matter. The devil himself doesn't compromise.
Manchin included voter identification in his alternate proposal to secure voting rights, but Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell says his entire caucus would still oppose it.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said he believed all 50 Republicans would oppose Sen. Manchin’s (D-W.Va.) slimmed-down elections compromise, which focuses on expanding early voting and ending partisan gerrymandering in federal elections. And it’s not clear there’s a single Republican vote to even begin debate on the matter, potentially dooming Manchin's proposals before they can even make it into the bill. [...]
“It needs to be blocked,” said Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.), who praised Manchin last week for “saving our country” in encouraging bipartisanship. “I’m not optimistic that they could make enough changes to that to make it a fair bill. It would usurp the rights of the states.”
Honestly, how could you not be completely bewildered?
To say that Manchin's proposal would "usurp the rights of the states" is another way of saying Republicans want to restrict voting rights as much as possible at the state level and a voting rights bill -- even one that includes voter ID -- would limit their options.
We are only in this position today because Chief Justice John Roberts declared that racism is over when the Supreme Court ruled that states no longer need preclearance from the Justice Department to change their voting rights laws.