50+2: Lemon Doesn’t Understand Senate Majority, ‘Minority Ruling’ Us

Former President Trump once called CNN’s Don Lemon “the dumbest man on television.” And on Thursday night he once again proved it by showing how he doesn’t understand what constitutes a majority of the Senate. Lashing out at Senate Republicans and Democratic Senators Kyrsten Sinema (AZ) and Joe Manchin (WV), he suggested the refusal to blow up the filibuster was the “minority ruling the majority.”

Just to quickly go over the math:  50 + 2 = 52 and 52 out of 100 is a majority.

“GOP won’t protect the vote. Two members of his own party won’t carve out the filibuster to make it happen,” Lemon decried in his opening screed. “This is what you call — I mean It’s obvious that a minority is ruling the majority. This is how it works.”

Adding: “It’s what happens when you have a — a razor-thin majority but a minority party explicitly saying, ‘we’re not going to work with you.’ A minority party who appears voting rights, they don’t really care about it. It doesn’t matter to them.”

A few minutes later, he spoke with CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein asserted that Manchin and Sinema’s defense of the filibuster was allowing “The red states should continue to tighten the grip on voting rights for this entire decade.”

Brownstein went on to warn of a coming “great divergence” where Republicans would be “Unwinding civil liberties and civil right”:

This could lead to a substantial unwinding civil liberties. The Supreme Court could allow states, the red states, to restrict or ban abortion. There are many rollbacks to LGBTQ rights. First Amendment rights can be limited in how teachers talk about race in schools. Protesters can also protest.

The future is very different in terms of basic civil liberties, whether they are found in blue or red states. This is why today marks a pivotal moment or crossingroads.

“Listen, the lion’s share of the blame should be placed on Republicans because they’re just not going to budge, Also, on These are the Democrats with this misguided view of what filibuster actually is and its history.,” Lemon sneered in response.

Building off of Lemon’s attack on Republicans, Brownstein showed his disdain for democracy as he decried Republican MAJORITIES in state legislatures passing election laws. “We’re seeing Republicans impose these voting restrictions in the red states on a party-line majority vote basis,” he said. “The states are passing these restrictions on a party-line majority basis.”

“You say today reveals that the trifecta of red-state legislatures, the right-leaning Supreme Court, and the Senate filibuster Democrats will not be able to govern even after they win the elections, making it difficult for them to do so.,” Lemon huffed.

Trump, whose agenda was thwarted by Democrats obstructionists, should hear that.

This all helped to push. Big LieRepublicans restrict voting rights.

Below is the transcript. Click “expand to read:

CNN’s Don’t forget Lemon tonight
January 13, 2022
Eastern, 10:13.31

(…)

DON LEMON – So the President is admitting defeat as the GOP doesn’t want to protect the vote. It’s all about the GOP, because it is impossible to get just one or two in a bipartisan system. What if you don’t have one, two or even three? Nope.

GOP doesn’t want to protect the voter. His party and two members won’t allow him to use the filibuster.

This is what we call it. It is flat-out that the minority rules over the majority. This is how it works. It’s what happens when you have a — a razor thin majority but a minority party explicitly saying, “we’re not going to work with you.” A minority party who appears voting rights, they don’t really care about it. They don’t care.

There is also the ruling of the majority conservative Supreme Court, which is an enormous blow to President Obama’s efforts to harness the power and resources of the federal government in fighting the pandemic. While the Supreme Court blocked his vaccine testing and vaccine rule for large corporations, it allowed a mandate to some health workers for a national vaccine mandate.

(…)

Eastern, 10:36:18

RON BROWNSTEIN: It’s a momentous day. You can see the failure with Kyrsten Sinema declaring she won’t accept any cut from the filibuster to vote rights and Joe Manchin echoing this sentiment. Now, the path may now be open for red states and they can continue tightening the veil on voting rights over the next decade.

It is clear that the Supreme Court will not interfere. The Roberts court has never overturned a state voting rights restriction, and in fact kind of banged the gong for everything you’re seeing with the Shelby County decision, in 2013 eliminating the Justice Department’s preclearance authority.

Manchin and Sinema arguing that Congress needs a supermajority to pass legislation, it is possible there will be no real limit on the power of the red states.

This could lead to a substantial unwinding civil liberties. It is very likely that the Supreme Court will allow the states to ban or restrict abortion. There are many rollbacks to LGBTQ rights. First Amendment rights can be limited in how teachers talk about race in schools. Protesters can also protest.

The future is very different in terms of basic civil liberties, whether they are found in blue or red states. This is why today marks a pivotal moment or crossingroads.

LEMON: And all of this – Listen, the lion’s share of the blame should be placed on Republicans because they’re just not going to budge, but also on the two Democrats who have this sort of misguided idea of what the filibuster is actually about and the history of the filibuster.

[Crosstalk]

Continue reading.

BROWNSTEIN – Think about the dissymmetry here. These voting restrictions are being imposed by Republicans in red states on the basis of a majority party vote. Three Democrats are total members of the state legislatures that have the strictest voting laws. Only 19 percent of the 1600 Republicans in state legislatures voted for them. These restrictions are being passed by the states on a majority-party basis.

This is possible thanks to the Supreme Court’s decisions. Each of the Supreme Court decisions, including Shelby County’s 2013 decision and Rucho’s 2019, were approved by a majority vote. Five Republican appointees voted for four Democratic appointees. Manchin and Sinema set the standard for Congress that it can only respond to restrictions on voting rights with a bipartisan supermajority, 60 votes.

And that kind of incongruity, that kind of imbalance in the playing field virtually guarantees, I think, that through the 2020s we’re going to see more rather than less restrictions on people’s access to the ballot box.

LEMON: What are you doing? I think you have answered some of that. What you say today shows that Democrats cannot govern due to the combination of the red-state legislatures and the right-leaning Supreme Court.