Washington, (Transatlantic Today) – PRESIDENT BIDEN and VP Harris landed in Georgia on Tuesday to debate crushing a Senate filibuster for voting rights as the whole state was hungover following the University of Georgia’s College Football Playoff Championship win over college football Goliath Alabama. What comes next sounds like humor but is entirely accurate; the Georgia General Assembly called off their Tuesday session, presumably since leaders understood they couldn’t hold a quorum regardless of what transpired in the championship, good or bad.
That said, it was more than merely the Georgia football fans blowing off the POTUS visit, during which the President placed a wreath at the grave of Martin Luther King Jr. and gave a speech at Morehouse College in Atlanta. On Monday, a team of civil rights leaders and voting rights activists declared they wouldn’t attend the President’s speech, voicing disapproval at Biden’s half-efforts to pass a voting rights bill.
Guided by Black Voters Matter, the meeting with directors from GALEO Impact Fund, the Asian American Advocacy Fund, New Georgia Project Action Fund, and more requested actions, not words.
“Take voting rights seriously,” stated James Woodall, previous Georgia NAACP President. “We’re requesting for [Biden] to take this earnestly and to draft a solid strategy. [POTUS] should be in Washington accepting a vote on this right now,” he said. “Also, go, Dawgs.”
A hypothetical Democratic candidate for GA governor and voting rights leader, Stacey Abrams, did not observe Biden’s arrival in Georgia, noting a scheduling conflict; Abrams did not discuss further. Biden utilized powerful tongue to bombard partisan stubbornness in the U.S. Senate, comparing senators who vote to support a filibuster to contend voting rights legislation to segregationists and secessionists.
For the first time, President Biden summoned Congress to put down the filibuster to approve voting rights legislation within the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act. Biden had earlier bypassed verbiage about the filibuster, reluctant to discuss the matter publicly. “I’m tired of remaining quiet,” Biden stated.
Civil rights directors have indicated unprecedented measures brought or endangered by legislators in the path of Biden’s electoral win in 2020, and the U.S. Senate victories by Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff in January 2021.