Dems Switching Gears Ahead of 2022 Midterms: But It Won't Work

Congressional Democrats, worried about the 2022 midterms, are changing their legislative agenda in the closing days of 2021, according to several news sources. But even if true, it won’t likely do them any good.

We got the first hint Wednesday from Jesse Rodriguez, MSNBC vice president of Editorial & Booking.

“NBC News: Senate expected to shelve Build Back Better bill, moving forward aggressively now on voting rights,” he reported.

Build Back Better received a setback Thursday when the chamber parliamentarian rejected the third Democratic attempt to include immigration reform in the bill, telling senators that it doesn't meet the rules for what can be included in a budget measure that bypasses the Senate's filibuster rule.

Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., drove the final nail in the bill’s coffin — at least for this year — when he announced on Fox News Sunday that he couldn’t throw his support behind it.

“I cannot vote to continue with this piece of legislation,” Manchin announced, stating that Biden’s Build Back Better plan “is a no.”

“I’ve tried everything humanly possible. I can’t get there.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., read the tea leaves Thursday, and was already making plans to change direction, according to Manu Raju, CNN chief congressional correspondent.

“Schumer now saying that they want to get voting rights bill done ‘in time for the 2022 elections,’” he tweeted.

But for that to succeed, Schumer needs support from Sens. Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, D-Ariz., to shelve the filibuster rule, which requires 60 votes to pass legislation not related to taxation or spending.

“What Schumer didn't promise: a vote (which would fail) before Christmas,” Raju continued. “With Manchin/Sinema opposed to changing rules, there's no path to getting bill done even next year.”

During his same Sunday interview, Manchin shattered any dreams of killing the Senate filibuster rule — and with it, any road to approving his party’s version of voting reform without Republican support.

"If you can make the Senate work better, the rules are something we've changed over the years," he said. "Two-hundred thirty-two years there's been rules changes. But there's never been a change with the filibuster, the rights of the minority.”

But even had Manchin agreed to eliminate the filibuster, he’d already indicated that he would vote against the voting reform bill, called the “For the People Act” that the House had approved in March as H.R.1.

"The truth, I would argue, is that voting and election reform that is done in a partisan manner will all but ensure partisan divisions continue to deepen," Manchin wrote in an op-ed published by the Charleston Gazette-Mail in June.

The For the People Act would essentially remove the states’ power to set the time, place and manner of holding federal elections and hand it over to the federal government to micromanage.

The Heritage Foundation reported early this year that “it would implement nationwide the worst changes in election rules that occurred in 2020 and further damage or eliminate basic security protocols.”

It would include universal mail-in voting with no signature verification, eliminate voter ID requirements, provide for ballot harvesting, require states to accept ballots received up to 10 days after the election, and give voting rights to felons the moment they’re released from prison.

If that weren’t enough, Oklahoma lawyer Gabriel Malor identified seven provisions of the bill that are at least arguably unconstitutional.

Finally, given that the 2022 election cycle begins next month, even if the For the People Act were approved by Congress and signed into law before Christmas, it would be too late, according to Business Insider’s Grace Panetta.

“Not only does a voting rights bill still have no chance if Manchin/Sinema remain opposed to filibuster changes, but any legislation that passed now (or frankly, even months ago) would have no chance of being implemented in time for the 2022 midterms,” she reported.

So if it has no chance of approval, is more-than-likely unconstitutional, and would be too late to change the 2022 elections, why bother?

In a word, desperation.

The For the People Act is the Democratic Party’s last-ditch effort to prevent what everyone knows will happen on November 8, 2022 — a Democratic rout.

Historically the party in the White House always loses congressional seats at the midterms. Former President Barack Obama learned this in 2010 when he was dealt what he called his “shellacking.”

Biden’s plummeting approval ratings all but guarantee that 2022 will be even worse for his party.

On the subject of desperation, 20th century American poet Langston Hughes wrote:

“I went down to the river,

“I set down on the bank.

“I tried to think but couldn't,

“So I jumped in and sank.”

That’s the Democratic Party. It isn’t thinking — it’s sinking.