![A grave week for civil rights, democracy and a presidency](https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/220115184946-01-deliver-for-voting-rights-martin-luther-king-iii-super-tease.jpg)
A grave week for civil rights, democracy and a presidency
CNN
Democrats appear certain to add another failure to their list of missed deadlines and thwarted legacy goals this week, with a push for voting rights bills expected to crash in the Senate with humiliating implications for Joe Biden's presidency.
The party faces a moment of stark symbolism just a day after the holiday honoring Martin Luther King Jr., which Democrats had set as a deadline to pass new laws to counter Republican curtailments on voting in multiple states. Votes expected to be called by Majority Leader Chuck Schumer will enshrine ideological divides in the party and call into question the credibility of an under-pressure President who has led a full-throated campaign for legislation demanded by modern civil rights leaders in the week that he marks his anniversary in office.
Democrats will hold a high-stakes caucus meeting on Tuesday evening, but there is no sign they can convince holdout colleagues to support efforts to change Senate rules to pass the two bills with a simple majority.That means that when Schumer, a New York Democrat, brings up voting rights legislation later this week, it will fail because Democrats are unable to get 60 votes to break Republican filibuster tactics.Schumer could then hold a vote on changing those filibuster rules to pass the two bills with the votes of all 50 Democrats and a tie-breaker vote from Vice President Kamala Harris.That tactic would force Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona, who oppose removing the Senate filibuster, to go on record opposing a centerpiece of Biden's presidency and may only deepen their estrangement with their colleagues.