Yesterday, Mitch McConnell took to the Senate floor to oppose a proposal to make Election Day a federal holiday—a provision included in the House Democrats’ anti-corruption and clean elections bill, H.R. 1.
“This is the Democrat plan to restore democracy?…Just what America needs, another paid holiday.”
Of course the entire point is to allow working people the ability to vote without having to take time off of work or finding a babysitter for their kids. Democracy is not supposed to be an obstacle course.
As Chris Hayes said last night, “Nothing to me is more revealing of the core pathology of the modern Republican Party than the way that it sees widening access to the ballot and higher turnout as a threat. And they’re not necessarily wrong. I mean, Mitch McConnell’s ideal political system is one in which ultra-wealthy anonymous donors pour unlimited money into elections to elect Republican majorities that can gerrymander their states to insulate them from democratic accountability.”
McConnell has long been the spearhead of the Republican effort to rig the system in their favor, calling any attempt to overturn Citizens United an effort to repeal the 1st Amendment, and even praising more dark, foreign money in our elections.
As Chris Hayes said, McConnell is “the soul of the modern Republican Party.”
THINKING CAP: WHY THIS REP WANTS TO END SHUTDOWNS FOR GOOD.
After the longest government shutdown in American history finally ended last week, freshman Congresswoman Jennifer Wexton (D-VA) is determined to make sure that it never happens again.
Wexton explains why she forced a vote on a resolution stating that “shutdowns are detrimental to the nation and should not occur”—and discusses some of the backlash the vote received.
She also fills us in on what it’s been like navigating the halls of Congress as a freshman member during one of the most contentious periods that the Trump administration—and the country—has endured. Listen to the episode here.