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If the Democrats dont pass H.R. 1 and the new VRA, there is a very good chance that America will wind up under an extended period of minority rule in which the party that represents 4546 percent of the country can have a majority of power in Washington, Drutman told me. Which is not only fundamentally unfair, but it contravenes any set of democratic values and creates a sense of fundamental illegitimacy [that] is deeply destabilizing for a democracy.

Merkley, the principal sponsor of the Senate companion bill, is no less emphatic. Especially with Trumps efforts to subvert the election, the American vision of representative government has slid over the cliff, and [its as if] we caught a root, and we are just holding on by our fingertips, he told me. We must find a way to pass this bill. It is our responsibility in our majority to defend citizens rights to participate in our democracy. There is no other acceptable outcome.

Still, passing the bill, and perhaps the new VRA, will almost certainly require every Senate Democrat agreeing to end the filibuster in some fashionand at least two of them, West Virginias Joe Manchin and Arizonas Kyrsten Sinema, have been adamantly opposed to that action. Merkleys strategy for convincing Democrats to reconsiderat least for the democracy-reform legislationis to encourage an extended debate on the bill, both within the committee and on the Senate floor, and to allow any senator to offer amendments. If Republicans still block final passage with a filibuster after that process, Democrats could either vote to carve out election-reform legislation from the filibuster, or require Republicans blocking the bill to actually filibuster in person, he told me. Democrats could change the rules to tell Republicans you better be here day and night, because we are going to go for weeks and if you are not here, we are going to a final vote on the bill.

Read: This is the future that liberals want

Whatever mechanism Democrats employ, its clear the voter-mobilization groups that worked to produce their unified control are prepared to erupt if the party allows procedural constraints to block passage of H.R. 1 and the VRA. The New Georgia Projects Ufot told me that when Biden and Harris campaigned in Georgia just before the twin runoff elections, they promised big change if the states voters gave them the Senate majority. They didnt add an asterisk that change would be possible only if McConnell somehow chooses not to filibuster their agenda. The filibuster never made it into any of [Senate Majority Leader] Chuck Schumers campaign ads; the filibuster was not a part of President Bidens stump speeches, or Vice President Harriss when she was down in Savannah, Ufot said. Their campaign rhetoric was on full blast, on 10, about why we needed to send them to Washington, D.C., to work on a progressive agenda.

Saying we cant make progress on that agenda, because of existing rules that they have the ability to change will ring like a hollow argument, and it wont bode well for this coalition, Ufot added.

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Democrats' Biggest Decision: Nuking the Filibuster - The ...