Rooted Deeply in the Soil

 this morning as i write, i am fearful.  such a feeling is unusual for me, but events in this country don't bode well for its future.  while democrats control the executive and legislative branches of government, their hold on the senate is tenuous.  two senators, manchin of west virginia and sinema of arizona, insist that bills before the senate must be passed with bipartisan support.  that will never happen as long as senate republicans are united in their determination to see a democratic president and congress fail no matter what the cost to the nation.  their goal is political power, not the good of the people.

republican-controlled state governments are making it more difficult for democrats to gain power at the state level, even when the majority of voters support democratic candidates.  they do this by restricting access to the polls and by constructing congressional district maps in such a way that their candidates are elected to majorities in state legislatures and to the federal house of representatives.  by so doing, the republican party rules, even when a majority of voters in their states oppose them.  in addition to these authoritarian measures, republican-controlled legislatures have passed laws, giving them, rather than impartial officials, control of the counting of ballots.  had this been the case in the last election, the will of the voters would have been nullified and trump would have been declared the winner, even though president biden clearly had the most votes.  thus, the apparatus for thwarting the people's electoral choice has been put in place in time for the upcoming 2022 elections.

the inability of the democrats in congress to pass progressive measures has exacerbated the situation.  two senators have the power to stop the passage of reforms to the senate rules, thanks to the arcane rules of the senate.  mr. manchin's  and ms. sinema's insistence on preserving those rules that were originally adopted to force compromise and find common ground between the two parties now prevent the passage of any legislation that their own party puts forward, since few, if any, republicans are willing to seek compromise or find common ground.  the desire for bipartisanship on the part of the two senators effectively gives them veto power on all legislation, even when it could pass with complex parliamentary work-arounds that bypass the requirements for a sixty-vote majority.

congress could stop many of the state-level attempts at voter suppression, but the democrats cannot muster the votes needed for passage under the senate's current rules.  until and unless senators sinema and manchin are willing to amend the rules to allow the two voting rights measures to pass with a simple majority instead of a sixty-vote majority, the country will be controlled by a minority of its voters in the future, just as the senate is now controlled by two recalcitrant democratic senators.

may those who seek political power instead of the well-being of our people repent of their desire for control at any cost.  may the people of our country see the harm being done to our democratic processes when we allow the current political climate to continue.  may anti-democratic forces be defeated, both at the polls and in the minds of the vast majority of our people.  may we become a land of "liberty and justice for all," whether rich or poor, democrat or republican, immigrant or native-born.  shalom.