Many Democrats have expressed frustration as two members of their party have refused to join them in voting to end the filibuster. Perhaps none has gone quite as far as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi did on Monday.
During an event for Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Pelosi launched into a bizarre rant about elections and the state of our democracy.
“Nothing less is at stake than our democracy,” she said. “This is about suppressing the vote, it’s about nullifying the elections.”
.@SpeakerPelosi at an MLK Day event: George Washington & Thomas Jefferson have "tears in his eyes” that the filibuster is being used to stop us from nationalizing elections pic.twitter.com/SOWNNfk6aG
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) January 17, 2022
So what is it that is presenting such a terrible threat to our system of government? It’s that evil filibuster, of course.
Congressional Democrats are trying to pass a so-called “voting rights” package that includes both the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. This package is actually an attempt to federalize elections.
According to Business Insider, the Freedom to Vote Act includes provisions that would give felons the right to vote and allow universal mail-in balloting despite the concerns of fraud such a system would inevitably raise.
Meanwhile, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act would require “states with histories of discrimination to seek permission from the federal government before enacting new voting rules or redistricting plans,” reversing Supreme Court precedent.
The package passed Pelosi’s House of Representatives, but it is unlikely to overcome the filibuster in the Senate. That is a good thing for America, because this bill would be incredibly harmful to our elections.
But to leftists like Pelosi who believe the federal government should wield as much power as possible, the filibuster presents a roadblock. So she continued with her unhinged meltdown on Monday.
“If you really, truly want to honor Dr. King, don’t dishonor him by using a congressional custom as an excuse for protecting our democracy,” Pelosi said.
“We have no right to honor this family, to visit the monument. Imagine, 36 years old, left this Earth in such a way that he has a monument on the Mall along with Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson — all of them with tears in their eyes for the departure from our democracy that is happening right now unless the truth is acknowledged and this legislation is passed.”
In addition to the fact that Pelosi’s rambling makes it hard to decipher what she is trying to say, her overall point is extremely questionable.
King is not alive to give his opinion on the filibuster or the current “voting rights” package, but nothing in his work suggests he would support federal overreach into American elections.
He fought against real injustice, not the faux-racism that leftists today claim is inherent in voter ID laws that apply to every American voter of every race.
As for Jefferson, he was one of the biggest proponents for states’ rights the country has ever seen. He would certainly not support the federalizing of American elections.
Washington may not have been quite the advocate for states’ rights that Jefferson was, but it’s hard to imagine he would have wanted the federal government to become so powerful as to control elections.
Like Jefferson, Lincoln also expressed support for states’ rights throughout his political career.
Pelosi provided no evidence to back up her claim about these men having “tears in their eyes” because of present-day issues like the filibuster and the nationalizing of elections. If they were here today, evidence suggests they would not be on her side.