Chuck Schumer is handling this exactly right

| 8:30 pm EDT October 20, 2021
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Chuck Schumer is doing it exactly right by holding failed Senate vote after failed Senate vote on voting rights legislation. It’s free publicity that builds broader public support for the legislation, and puts more pressure on the holdouts. The media covers every failed vote, and educates the voting public on why it failed, why it should have passed, and who’s to blame for the fact that it failed.

This makes the Republicans (and Manchin and Sinema) look terrible in the eyes of swing voters, the only group they really fear. It ramps up the pressure on them to at least incrementally cave, which is how all progress happens in politics.

I wish more of you understood how these things work, because it’s really important that you all participate in the process. If you merely sit back and yell “Manchin and Sinema will never cave no matter what,” then you’re the problem, because you’re actively giving them cover to not have to cave. But if you work with Schumer to ramp up the noise and pressure on them, then you’re doing it right.

Look at how much Manchin has incrementally caved on infrastructure in the past week alone; he’s clearly a caver when he’s under enough pressure (ignore whatever rhetoric comes out of his mouth, as it almost never lines up with his actions). This proves that we can also get Manchin (and Sinema) to begin incrementally caving on voting rights if we pressure them hard enough.

Each time Chuck Schumer holds yet another high profile vote on voting rights legislation, keep in mind that 1) it’s supposed to fail by design, so it’ll get attention, and 2) it’s your job to help ramp up the pressure on the holdouts. If you’re whining about how we’re going to lose no matter what, you’re only sabotaging your own side.