Looking at a Right All Wrong

"Least of all, protecting this right [to vote], which is a value I share, should never be done in a partisan manner." 

-- Sen. Joe Manchin

The other day, I wrote a piece about a statement that Kyrsten Sinema made about the filibuster that was totally misguided and misstated the facts and history of what she was trying to defend.  Today, it's Joe Machin's turn.  To be clear, this is a separate issue -- hers was on the filibuster, his is on voting rights.  And though the problem aren't his interpretation of facts and history, he too is totally misinterpreting the problem in order to make his square argument fit into a round hole.

To be fair, his statement sounds noble, The problem with the view, however, is it doesn't take into consideration that the right of all Americans to vote is being blocked in a nonpartisan manner, blocked by one party to keep those of the other party from voting.?  The people who Joe Manchin wants to join him in a bipartisan way to protect the rights of all Americans to vote are specifically the very people who are blocking the right to vote and making this bill necessary.  Which is the very point of the bill.

This is like the police saying that they believe in the right of all people to be safe and protected, and so they will not arrest any criminals until at least some of them say that they agree, as well.

It's like firefighters saying that they believe in the right of all people to have fires put out when a home is burning, and so they will not put out any fires until at least some arsonists agree.

As reasonable and patriotic as Sen. Manchin's statements seems, he appears to be conflating "the right to vote" with "the right for Democrats to vote." That's NOT the bill. it's about protecting every person's right to vote, whatever their views.  The reality is that is Joe Manchin actually believes that the protecting the right to vote of all Americans is a right he shares (which I am certain he does), then it's not a matter of nonpartisanship, but rather that every individual should protect the right of everyone to vote -- even if they stand alone.  Even if not only member of the opposing party is fighting that, but also if other every member of one's own party disagrees with you.

After all, this is about protecting "the right to vote."  That itself is a nonpartisan issue.  And where Joe Manchin is making his mistake is that in viewing this as the nonpartisan issue it is, he seems to believe that that means both sides should agree.  It doesn't.  It means that if you support the issue, then it doesn't matter what the views of others are who support it, as well.