McConnell Gets Burned After Trying to Compromise With Democrats on Electoral Count Act  - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics
McConnell Gets Burned After Trying to Compromise With Democrats on Electoral Count Act 
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Democrats are eager to take advantage of the only commemoration of Jan. 6 Americans will likely tolerate. The party, spearheaded by pre-retiree Nancy Pelosi, is trying to push through two bills that they hope will boost Democrat Party voter turnout after the For the People Act was defeated multiple times. They may actually have unwitting allies in neo-conservatives pushing the Electoral Count Act.

On a Sunday broadcast, Pelosi actually accused the entire Republican Party of a “legislative continuation of what they did on Jan. 6.” At some point, conservatives must wake up to the realization that Pelosi and Democrats seek to encourage more violence by using inflammatory rhetoric.

On Tuesday, Joe Biden will be in Georgia to use the Jan. 6 narrative to push for the elections-takeover legislation and accuse Republicans of depriving Black Americans of the right to vote.

Still, some Republicans are talking about caving in to demands which would codify a dishonoring version of events and hand Democrats a win on their big lies about voter suppression and other electoral conspiracy theories.

All of this under the guise of preventing political violence while using divisive language that encourages more violence.

A year after the Capitol riot, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is taking orders from Pelosi, and the reelection committees looking at prospective midterm losses, to get tough. Schumer says he’s willing to vote to end the filibuster.

Far from resolving discontent, erasing another democratic norm will make America less stable by bringing more power to Washington, D.C., and giving voters less voice.

Yet, the establishment Republican wing of the GOP has pushed for compromise. National Review penned an editorial imploring Republicans to pass the Electoral Count Act. The piece thematically echoed Democrat midterm slogans alleging that “democracy is under attack.” This position puts the power of centralized institutions over states and voters.

This progressive position is also naïve. “But if anything, a show of bipartisan cooperation on neutral rules for resolving election contests would rob Democrats of a rhetorical weapon,” the editorial claims.

Compromising with Democrats on this bill isn’t going to make any of their concerns go away. It certainly won’t rob them of a “rhetorical weapon” in their media-friendly appearances. It will embolden them.

Congressional Republicans must support Democrat Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema in holding the line against filibuster rule changes and the two far-left voting rights bills. Any compromise puts these senators in an untenable position.

Some conservatives don’t see the obvious. As our friends at National Review put it, “Support for a standalone ECA bill from [Mitch] McConnell and [John] Thune would be a win-win: If Democrats join them, they can enact good policy, outflank Schumer’s strategy of painting them as anti-democratic obstructionists…”

There’s a problem, though.

The Democrats wiping out the filibuster to pass election laws that help Democrats has nothing to do with firming up language around the procedural counting of Electoral College votes or hearing objections. Democrats need a political win and they need either Republican cooperation or to torpedo one of their two moderates in order to obtain a victory.

Republicans should not afford Democrats the opportunity to legitimize this partisan argument or use Jan. 6 or Martin Luther King Jr. Day to get there.

Starting a debate on the Electoral Count Act is all about taking partisan parts of the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, originally taken from the defeated For the People Act, and shoving them into an Electoral Count Act compromise which Manchin or Sinema would be forced to vote on.

Fortunately, McConnell appears to be regretting his initial cooperation with the Democrats.

As soon as McConnell compromised last Wednesday, Schumer pounced, telling Politico, “The Electoral Count Act [reform] says you can rig the elections anyway you want and then we’ll count it accurately.” He maintained his threats to change Senate rules if Republicans won’t agree with the contents of the voting rights bills.

Then last Thursday came; the one-year anniversary of the Capitol riot.

Both former senators, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris used their respective Thursday addresses to the nation to provide their colleagues with political backup, leaning on emotional pressure from the anniversary of the January 6th riot to pass legislation favoring Democrats.

“Right now, in state after state, new laws are being written not to protect the vote, but to deny it — not only to suppress the vote, but to subvert it.… The former president and his supporters have decided the only way for them to win is to suppress your vote and subvert our elections. It’s wrong. It’s undemocratic. And frankly, it’s un-American,” declared Biden.

Harris exposed their partisan intentions more plainly. “Let’s be clear: We must pass the voting rights bills that are now before the Senate, and the American people must also do something more.”

Democrats sprung their trap. McConnell and establishment Republicans fell right in.

McConnell should join the rest of his caucus and back away from talks which would allow Democrats to stuff the act full of their election wish list.

Thursday night, an angered McConnell proclaimed, “It has been stunning to see some Democrats try to exploit this anniversary to advance partisan policy goals that long predated this event.”

“It is especially jaw-dropping to hear some Senate Democrats invoke the mob’s attempt to disrupt our country’s norms, rules and institutions as a justification to discard our norms, rules and institutions themselves,” the Republican boss added.

Over the next week, Democrats will test the norms of our constitutional republic all the way up until their self-imposed deadline of Jan. 17. Maybe longer. Schumer has never been a man of his word. What will Democrats pursue after failure on the Electoral Count Act since Manchin is still a ‘NO’ on Build Back Better?

These desperate moves by Democrats are the flailings of a party that’s losing. Biden is deeply unpopular. Senate Democrats hate their moderates and they cannot get through meaningful parts of their promises to progressive donors. Republican leaders hate their voters and are fine managing the decline.

Division in America is a manufactured byproduct of Washington, D.C.–based Republicans and Democrats, ignoring the concerns of everyday Americans. It’s that simple to “save democracy.”

Americans want fair elections and a transparent counting of their votes. The rest will work itself out in a healthy democracy. Choosing to address the symptoms and not preventing underlying illness will prolong this civil crisis.

Ali Alexander has been a Republican political consultant for 15 years and helped start the “Stop the Steal” movement. He can be found at alialexander.org 

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