Last week, in a non-binding voice vote, the U.S. House of Representatives agreed to ban the display and sale of Confederate flags in all National Parks. The flag issue was added as an amendment to the National Parks spending bill by House Democrats.
House Republicans were outraged when they realized what they had voted for. To keep peace, Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) once again demonstrated his lack of leadership skills by caving to Southern Republican legislators and slipping another amendment into the same bill that would reinstate the sale and display of the Confederate flag.
Maybe he thought no one would notice the switch-a-roo before the final vote. Unfortunately for Johnny-boy, his sneaky tactic was spotted. Fearing that the Democrats would offer another amendment to reverse his amendment to the amendment (follow that?), Boehner decided instead to save face and just pull the entire bill from the House schedule.
what eye thynk: John Boehner should be considered something of a biological miracle, what with his being able to stand upright despite possessing a backbone consisting entirely of Jell-o.On Thursday, House Democrats threw Speaker Boehner another curve ball, one that will be sure to keep his jellied spine quivering for weeks to come: they offered a compromise on the flag issue in return for work on approving an update to the Voters Right Act.
In 2013, the Supreme Court determined that the formulas the Voters Right Act used to decide which states would need clearance from the Justice Department before changing their registration and elections procedures were outdated and therefore unconstitutional. The only way to keep the sixty-year old act functioning as intended is for Congress to update it. Despite efforts from congressional Democrats, Republican lawmakers in Washington have continued to balk at any update.
Within days of the Court's decision, states like Texas, Alabama and North Carolina reinstated election restrictions that the Justice Department had vetoed just months earlier. Since then, other states with Republican legislatures have created their own re-vamped voter regulations. Voter ID laws have proliferated, college students have been prohibited from voting in the district in which they live during the school year and instead are told they must travel to their parent's homes to cast their ballot, early voting days have been reduced and those wishing to vote with absentee ballots are being required to jump through extra hoops to do so. Democrats claim that these new regulations are aimed at cutting down the number of minority, poor, and young voters because these two demographics tend to vote in favor of liberal agendas.
Representative James Clyburn (D-So.Carolina) said Democrats would stop pushing for the addition of Confederate flag amendments to appropriations bills, if Speaker Boehner's caucus would agree to work on updating the 1965 Voting Rights Act to bring it into line with the Supreme Court's ruling.
Speaking at a press briefing in the Capitol, Mr. Clyburn said, "I'm here to say to you that the members of the Congressional Black Caucus and the full Democratic Caucus are willing to sit down with the Speaker and work out a way for us to allow the proper display and utilization of...the flag in certain instances if he would only sit down with us and work out an appropriate addressing of the amendments to the Voting Rights Act... We believe that there's a proper place for all of us to honor our heritage, and nothing is more of a heritage to African-Americans than the right to vote."
Referencing the Charleston church massacre that has put the Confederate flag issue front and center across the country, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-California) said that GOP leaders needed to do more to address the institutional racism that seems to have taken hold of their party. She added that this is "an opportunity for the Republican majority not just to send a condolence card or show up at a service, but to translate that into action. And we are now segueing from the conversation about the flag to a conversation about voting rights."
The Democrats' offer has brilliantly exposed the basic social difference between the two parties, leaving John Boehner stuck between a rock and a hard place. He can either anger some in his caucus and accept the Democrats' offer in the hope that enough Southern legislators will forgive him and successful appropriations votes will follow; or he can keep everyone in his caucus happy by refusing the Democrats' offer, and find every appropriations vote over-shadowed by a very public and very embarrassing fight over the Confederate battle flag.
Option number two also brings with it the threat that Mr. Boehner's weak leadership will result in some federal agencies closing because he couldn't get the House to approve their individual spending bill. If that happens, Republicans will find themselves slogging through the 2016 election season under the cloud of another GOP-spawned government agency shutdown.
In short, Speaker Boehner can choose to either 1. Stand with racists to protect the GOP, or 2. Stand against racism to protect America.
I can feel the gelatin quivering from here.
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