Will The Senate Protect Democracy Or Will The Big Lie Prevail?

 

WERTHEIMER’S WEEKLY NOTE  |  JANUARY 6, 2022

Today, one year after the insurrectionist attack on the Capitol, our democracy faces its greatest internal threat since the Civil War.

Trump’s Big Lie that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from him may well be the most dangerous con job ever perpetrated on the American people. Repeated incessantly by Trump and his followers throughout the past year, the Big Lie has had enormous impact. 

It is the basis for the January 6 insurrection … for the tidal wave of voter suppression and election sabotage laws passed by Republican state legislatures in 2021, with more to come this year … and for the obstructionist Republican filibusters in the Senate to protect these destructive, un-democratic laws by blocking essential voting rights measures.

Trump’s Big Lie is the basis for recent polls that show nearly three-quarters of Republicans still believe this demagogic lie, even though neither he nor anyone else has presented a shred of credible evidence to justify his false claim.

Another poll finds that an astonishing 52 percent of Republicans believe that those involved in the January 6 vicious attack on the Capitol were “protecting democracy.”

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) announced this week that “the Senate will debate and consider changes to Senate rules on or before January 17.”  The rules changes would allow the pending voting rights bills to overcome a filibuster and pass by majority vote.

The right to vote and honest elections are the cornerstone of our democracy. Without them, democracy disappears.  

Republican state and national officeholders have wreaked havoc on the ability of eligible Americans to vote and to have their votes properly counted, all based on Trump’s Big Lie.

Under new state voter suppression laws, it is expected that millions of Americans will lose their ability to vote. These laws are not random. They specifically target Black and brown voters, other minorities, the disabled, and urban voters. The laws limit voting by mail, ballot drop boxes, and early voting – major factors that contributed to record turnouts in 2020 without any evidence of meaningful voter fraud.

In addition, new state election subversion laws give state officeholders the ability to politicize the appointment of election administrators and empower partisan election officials to manipulate and rig election tabulation results.

The Freedom to Vote Act, currently being blocked by a Republican filibuster, would provide voting standards for federal elections that would override these destructive laws.

Among other things, the measure would allow no-excuse voting by mail for every eligible voter, make it easy to return ballots through drop boxes and other means, make early voting easily accessible, improve access for voters with disabilities, and provide for automatic voter registration and same day registration.

The Act also provides protections against election officials being dismissed without cause and provides the ability to challenge in the courts any rigged tabulation of votes.

This week, Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), the lead opponent of the voting rights bills, announced it might make sense to look at reforming the Electoral Count Act (ECA). The ECA provides rules for the functioning of the Electoral College and for congressional handling of votes for President cast by the Electoral College.

This is a McConnell bait-and-switch gambit to allow Senate Republicans and their allies in the media to argue that legislation to protect voting rights and the integrity of elections should be abandoned and to consider ECA reform instead.  While reforms to the ECA are necessary, they are no substitute for addressing the larger assault on voting and fair elections facing our nation.

At stake today is whether the most dangerous Big Lie in U.S. political history will prevail. At stake is whether Congress will protect the right to vote and the integrity of our elections. At stake is whether the filibuster rules will be revised to repair a dysfunctional Senate.

At stake is whether our democracy is going to be saved. 

The Senate must act now to preserve our democracy and protect the right to vote.

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Fred’s Weekly Note appears each Thursday in Wertheimer’s Political Report, a Democracy 21 newsletter. Read this week’s newsletter here. Or, subscribe for free here and receive your copy each week via email.