Photo: Getty Images
Stevie Wonder is calling for the Senate to pass voting rights legislation immediately.
On the evening of Martin Luther King Jr. Day on Monday (January 17), the music legend shared a video message, in which he issued a call to action to lawmakers who refuse to act on voting rights.
“Any senator who cannot support the protection of voting rights in the United States of America cannot say that they support the Constitution," Wonder said as he sat behind a piano. "Stop the hypocrisy. Cut the bull-tish."
He added, "If you care and support our rights, do the hard work. You can’t please everybody, but you can protect all of us. And to keep it all the way real: The filibuster is not working for democracy. Why won’t you?"
Voting rights legislation has been at a standstill in the split Senate for some time now with Democrat Senators Joe Manchin (W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.) at the center of the filibuster. Both Senators announced last week that they would not vote to change the Senate’s filibuster rule despite the pleading of President Joe Biden.
According to The Hill, Democrats are reportedly discussing a "novel approach to circumventing a Republican filibuster that may allow voting rights legislation to pass with 51 votes without changing the Senate’s rules."
It would involve the "possibility of forcing Senate Republicans to actually hold the floor with speeches and procedural motions" in hopes of the Republican opposition tiring out so that Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) would then be able to "call for a simple-majority vote on final passage and skip the formal procedural vote — known as cloture — on ending debate."
Get the latest news 24/7 on The Black Information Network. Listen now on the iHeartRadio app or click HERE to tune in live.