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Welcome to another hot-garbage week of coordinated GOP voter suppression efforts, which will either be stopped in their tracks by Senate Democrats, or rot out American democracy until it collapses like an old jack-o-lantern. What’s it gonna be, Jysten Smanchin?
- Republicans in Georgia’s state Senate have approved a bill that would end no-excuse absentee voting, after the election rules written by Republicans 16 years ago stopped boosting Republican candidates to victory in 2020. That follows passage of a Georgia House bill with a whole raft of provisions targeting voters of color, including provisions that cut weekend-voting days, restrict drop boxes, and even criminalize passing out food and water to voters waiting in line. Granola bars are a gateway drug to widespread voter fraud, and it’s high time somebody put a stop to it.
- On Tuesday, former President Jimmy Carter issued a statement denouncing the bills: “As our state legislators seek to turn back the clock through legislation that will restrict access to voting for many Georgians, I am disheartened, saddened, and angry.” As Stacey Abrams put it, “We saw unprecedented levels of turnout across the board. And so every single metric of voter access that has been a good in Georgia is now under attack.”
- Georgia’s Jim Crow-style voter suppression push is uniquely appalling, but Republicans around the country are racing to finalize their own iterations. Gov. Kim Reynolds (R-IA) has signed into a law a bill that shortens the early voting period and makes voting by mail much more difficult. In New Hampshire, GOP lawmakers have introduced three bills that would restrict student voting. Arizona Republicans plan to shift election-oversight authority to the GOP-controlled legislature, shorten the early voting period, and force Arizona voters to include personal information on their absentee ballot envelopes. (An interesting outlier: Kentucky’s GOP-legislature has been considering an election reform bill that preserves expanded voting access, with bipartisan support. That expansion was made possible because Kentucky elected Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear. Elections matter, for the existence of future elections, among other things!)
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It’s no coincidence that this latest push coincides with Republicans’ lockstep refusal to back an enormously popular relief bill.
- As Washington Post columnist Greg Sargent points out, it was Democratic Senate victories in Georgia that made the American Rescue Plan possible. By escalating voter-suppression efforts there, Republicans were not only reacting to their recent losses, but further insulating themselves from any fallout for spending their days screaming about six unknown Dr. Seuss books instead of doing anything at all to address the country’s ongoing crises. The popularity of President Biden’s first major legislation couldn’t attract any support from a party that’s entirely given up on winning more votes by improving peoples’ lives, but it sure did make the GOP’s antidemocratic projects more urgent.
- All eyes are now on moderate Democrats in the Senate, whose opposition to doing away with the filibuster will be the biggest obstacle to passing H.R.1’s pro-democracy election reforms. After Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) expressed his openness to possible filibuster modifications, Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ) looks likely to be the last big, curtsying holdout—though the stark reality of Republicans gleefully blocking the voting-rights bills that she supports, as GOP voter suppression efforts march forward in Arizona, may persuade her. Perhaps she’ll be interested to know that 61 percent of Arizona voters think passing major legislation is more important than keeping the filibuster intact?
There isn’t much wiggle room here: Left untreated, the GOP rash of voter suppression bills targeting vulnerable Democratic voters spells the end of American democracy. Democrats have exactly one chance to fix it, and it’s on all of us to make sure they do → votesaveamerica.com/forthepeople.
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Crooked’s new sports podcast Takeline premieres next TUESDAY March 16th!
Each week, Emmy award-winning host Jason Concepcion and 2x WNBA champion—and new co-owner of the Atlanta Dream—Renee Montgomery will host a fast, funny, smart, THOUGHTFUL conversation about sports, culture, politics, and all the ways they intersect on and off the court.
They are so much fun to listen to, and it’s gonna be your new favorite show. Listen to the trailer and subscribe to Takeline on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts →
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The whole staff of the Nevada Democratic Party quit after DSA candidates won all five party leadership positions. The progressive wing of the party in Nevada has been battling the “Reid machine”—the establishment operation still led by former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid—for five years, since Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) was organizing support for his 2016 presidential run. Progressive groups like the DSA picked up momentum in the state through sustained organizing for Sanders, and after Sanders’s 2020 campaign ended, a slate of progressive candidates used that organizing infrastructure to sweep party-leadership elections. Establishment Democrats had run on the claim that progressives were out to divide the party, making it ironic (if still unsurprising to the new leaders themselves) that the party staff immediately left en masse, rather than work together.
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- The House will pass the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package on Wednesday morning. The biggest revelation of the day is that the stimulus checks will not feature President Biden’s name, in a break from the tacky-but-politically-useful convention that Donald Trump established.
- The British royal family has released a brief statement on the Oprah interview, stating that “while some recollections may vary,” they’re very sad to hear that Harry and Meghan had a bad time. For some stronger writing on the topic, please refer to this perfect lede in the Irish Times.
- A sixth woman has accused Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY) of sexual harassment, alleging that he inappropriately touched her at the governor’s mansion late last year.
- The White House is vetting antitrust scholar Lina Khan, who developed the intellectual foundation for treating giant tech platforms as monopolies, for the Federal Trade Commission, striking fear into the hearts of Marks Zuckerberg everywhere.
- Federal prosecutors alleged that Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes was in direct communication with militia members in the leadup to January 6, and during the insurrection itself. Rhodes has not been charged, so far.
- Gov. Kristi Noem (R-SD) said she’ll sign a bill passed by the state legislature to ban transgender athletes from participating in women’s sports, continuing the proud 2021 tradition of GOP governors solving imaginary problems only.
- The DCCC has ended its ban on political consultants who work for primary challengers, a big retreat and bigger win for progressive candidates.
- Jury selection has begun in Derek Chauvin’s trial, though it’s still unclear whether Chauvin will face a third-degree murder charges for kiling George Floyd. Prosecutors are concerned that the decision to move forward in the meantime could later get the case tossed out entirely.
- Buzzfeed laid off 47 U.S. Huffpost employees three weeks after acquiring the company, in a meeting with the password “springisH3r3”, the twee Sinema-curtsy of layoff-meeting passwords. Buzzfeed has also shut down HuffPost Canada.
- Piers Morgan has left Good Morning Britain after storming off set like a child in response to mild criticism of his comments about Meghan Markle, which included the take that Meghan...should have been chiller about receiving constant criticism. The U.K.’s Office of Communications said it received 41,015 complaints about Morgan’s remarks.
- The White House dogs were sent back to Delaware after Major had a very minor “biting incident” with a Secret Service agent, but they will return. #MajorInnocent #MoreLikeMinor #MinorInnocent
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Disgraced former President Donald Trump has used his feud with the RNC as the springboard for his latest grift, which would be very funny if it didn’t have a bearing on national politics. (Honestly, it’s still pretty funny.) Fuming over the RNC’s refusal to purge members who weren’t undyingly loyal to him and plotting his revenge in the midterms, Trump had his lawyers send a cease-and-desist demand that the RNC stop using his name and likeness in fundraising appeals without his authorization. On Monday afternoon, the RNC politely told the Trump team to fuck off, citing Trump’s status as a public figure. On Monday night, Trump put out a statement explicitly directing his supporters to donate to his PAC instead of the RNC: “No money for RINOS.” Far from seizing on the opportunity to finally throw Trump overboard, the RNC has made plans to move part of its spring donor retreat to Mar-a-Lago, further lining his pockets and establishing his place at the center of the party.
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Today in Under-Discussed, Very Good American Rescue Plan Provisions, the package includes the largest benefit for Black farmers since the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
President Biden’s support for Amazon workers voting to unionize in Alabama has galvanized Democratic organizers in the state.
New guidelines from the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force will add more Black people and women to the pool eligible for annual lung cancer screenings.
The Biden administration has approved 300,000 PPP loans for small businesses with five employees or fewer, with a 20 percent boost in loans for minority-owned businesses, and a 14 percent increase to businesses owned by women.
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