President Biden Must Join Battle To Save Our Democracy As We Know It
The White House announced yesterday that President Biden will hold a two-day “Summit For Democracy” for world leaders in December.
This ironic announcement comes at a time when our own democracy is facing multiple grave threats. And, it comes at a time when President Biden and his Administration has spent almost all of 2021 refusing to play an active role in the battle in Congress to address America’s own democracy problems.
World leaders fully understand that the credibility of President Biden and our country is squarely on the line if we fail to repair our own democracy.
If President Biden’s summit were held tomorrow it would take place under the following circumstances:
➡ Former President Trump continues to intentionally undermine our system of representative government by spreading his Big Lie that the 2020 Presidential election was stolen from him. He has strong support for this position among his followers.
➡ Republican-controlled state legislatures across the country have enacted voter suppression and discrimination laws this year. Unless these laws are overridden, millions of eligible citizens will face losing their ability to vote. These laws are the greatest threat to voting in this country since the Jim Crow era.
➡ A number of states this year have enacted unprecedented laws and changed rules that shift control over the administration of elections from independent to very partisan entities, setting the stage for rigging future elections in these states.
➡ With census data being distributed to the states today, we are about to embark on the most extreme and widespread partisan gerrymandering of congressional districts the country has likely ever seen.
➡Washington influence-seeking political money is flowing at an all-time high with more than $14 billion spent in the 2020 national elections. Billions of those dollars came in contributions from billionaires, millionaires, corporate executives, lobbyists, bundlers, Super PACs, dark money groups, and special-interest PACs.
These dangerous problems for our democracy are addressed by H.R. 1, passed in the House in March, and S. 1 pending in the Senate.
When the Senate returns in September, a revised version of S. 1 will be the first order of business. Standing in the way is a Republican filibuster that must be overcome.
The challenge facing President Biden is clear: Make at least the same kind of effort in the coming days to save our democracy as we know it, that you made for months in devoting the Administration’s resources to passing infrastructure legislation.
The choice for Senators Joe Manchin (D-WV) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), the holdouts to date, on the filibuster rules is clear: Support the steps necessary to bypass a filibuster and enact the revised version of S. 1, which is based on Manchin’s suggestions, or play the pivotal role in doing irreparable damage to our democracy and to American credibility in the world.
In December, President Biden’s “Summit For Democracy” will turn out to be a hollow exercise if we have not gotten our own house in order.
