really see this as a winning general election issue moving forward. they are setting their sights on other topics. and the last word goes to joyce vance but maybe the most important question of the evening and it comes from the world of the possible. joyce, you know anything that s going to get 60 votes on voting rights in the u.s. senate is not going to be what the democrats want. it s going to be something by definition watered down. here is the question, though. will it still be enough in terms of federal protections to counteract all of these voter suppression measures being passed by republican controlled state legislators? that is tough work we have ahead of us as a country, to protect voting rights. and of course that happens in two bills that are currently sitting in the senate with the manchin proposal, we are really
the last word goes to joyce vance. what may be the most important question of the evening coming from the world of the possible. you know that anything that s going to get 60 votes on voting rights in the u.s. senate is not going to be what the democrats want. it is going to be something by definition watered down. here s the question, though. will it still be enough in terms of federal protections to counteract all of the voter suppression measures being passed by republican controlled state legislatures? that s tough work that we have ahead of us as a country to protect voting rights and it happens in two bills that are currently sitting in the senate with the manchin proposal we are really talking about the for the people act which in many ways addresses voting. how do we register?
orenstein, an emeritus scholar at the american enterprise institute and among the scholars that signed that letter. good to see you again. welcome. good to see you, too, joshua. call me norm. good to see you, norm. what do you think the action might look for? is it the for the people act working its way through congress or could it be something else, assuming we are talking about federal action from washington? it starts with the voting rights acts which was eviscerated by the shelby county action. they re separate but important actions to take. it is important to know even if we got all of the elements for the for the people act, which would safeguard federal elections for voters and make it easier for them to vote and overcome a lot of these voter suppression measures, they don t directly address the biggest threat that we have to our democracy. as i saw ali vitali at the start of the show talking about trump
joining us now is norm ornstein, an emeritus scholar at the american enterprise institute and among the scholars that signed that letter. good to see you again. welcome. good to see you, too, joshua. call me norm. good to see you, norm. what do you think the action might look for? is it the for the people act working its way through congress or could it be something else, assuming we are talking about federal action from washington? it starts with the voting rights acts which was eviscerated by the shelby county action. they re separate but important actions to take. it is important to know even if we got all of the elements for the for the people act, which would safeguard federal elections for voters and make it easier for them to vote and overcome a lot of these voter suppression measures, they don t directly address the biggest
lie. it is in response to donald trump s theory that the election was stolen. that he should have won the election. that voter fraud was committed in a massive way. so the conspiracy theories in the minds of those insurrectionists on january 6th is the very same thinking propelling all these voter suppression measures in the states. that s why when liz cheney made her media tour after she was ousted from the republican leadership and she was asked for her position now on these voter suppression bills. and she acted like these were two different issues. they re not. they re fully connected. that s why democrats need to see this through. not just in the form of making sure a commission gets stood up, but making sure that time is spent on the senate floor taking up this measure for the people act that chuck schumer says will be voted on the last week of june, the john lewis voting rights act. these are critical measures and this delay negotiation around the infrastructure package is creat