Conservative-leaning Senator, Joe Manchin, has vowed to vote against For The People Act. The bill, H.R. 1, would expand voting rights, which includes early voting, strengthening ethics rules for public servants , prevent partisan gerrymandering, and reduce or limit influence of money in politics.

The bill, which was introduced in 2019, is up for a vote later this month as a test to see how Senators vote on the issue. Democrats have used the legislation as an attempt to push back against new restrictive voting laws that have recently passed in certain states, in response to “the big lie” that Democrats had cheated Donald Trump of his rightful inheritance.

In an op-ed in the Charleston Gazette-Mail, Manchin did a poor job of explaining why he does not support the bill.

“As such, Congressional action on federal voting rights legislation must be the result of both Democrats and Republicans coming together to find a pathway forward or we risk further dividing and destroying the republic we swore to protect and defend as elected officials.“

( Someone should explain to the Senator that the party he is so eager to work with, is bent on destroying democracy, not preserving or defending it ).

This is baffling, coming from a Senator who has said of Republicans, “If they think they’re going to win by subverting and oppressing people from voting, they’re going to lose. I assure you they are going to lose.”

On the one hand, he acknowledges that Republicans are attempting to stifle the voting rights of Americans, and yet on the other hand, he wants to work with them, holding hands, tip-toeing through the tulips as Tiny Tim strums the eukelele while singing in his girly voice.

Mondaire Jones, a progressive Democrat accused the conservative Senator of voting to preserve Jim Crow. “Manchin’s op-ed might as well have been titled ,”Why I’ll vote to preserve Jim Crow,” he tweeted. He later appeared on MSNBC and pointed out that Manchin’s dreams of bipartisanship is at odds with a party that is “actively working to dismantle our democracy.”

What Manchin fails to acknowledge or understand, is that Republicans are not interested in “coming together,” especially when it comes to voting rights. Republicans don’t believe every American should have the right to vote. They care more about restricting voting rights. They are against democracy, plain and simple. We saw overwhelming evidence of that recently, back in January. And anyone in Congress who is willing to work with a party, who’s majority of members despise the electoral process, must also be against democracy.

Sources: Associated Press, The Week, Charleston Gazette-Mail.