The United States’s president, Joe Biden, said Tuesday that he would support if it were necessary to change the rule of the Senate that requires special majorities, so that the Democratic party can approve a reform that protects the right to minority vote.
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“I have had low-key conversations with members of Congress for two months. I’m sick of being silent, ”said the president before the Republican opposition blocking two crucial bills.
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The US president traveled to Georgia, a state that it described as the “cradle” of the fight for civil rights, to advance in an explosive context in one of its key promises: to protect access to African-American vote, which it considers threatened by the conservative southern states.
In a speech full of references to this combat led, among others, by Martin Luther King in the 1960s, Joe biden He declared: “Today I say this clearly to protect democracy: I support a change in the Senate rules, whatever it may be, to prevent a minority of senators from blocking progress in access to voting rights. Each member of the Senate will be judged by history, regardless of the party to which they belong ”.
The president thus took another step in his complaint that the opposition in the Republican party is preparing the ground to make it difficult to vote in the next electoral cycles and, potentially, turn around a result that does not favor them in the legislative elections of this year and the presidential elections of 2024.
The ex-president Donald trump (2017-2021), which holds the Republican reins, has convinced the majority of conservative voters that they stole the 2020 elections and is using that power to promote “anti-voting laws” in states controlled by conservatives, he warned. Biden.
“Republican legislators in several states have already announced plans to go further this year, to turn the will of the voters into a mere suggestion” in the November legislative elections, he stressed.
According to experts in the American voting system, some of the measures approved in conservative states increase the influence of partisan politicians in the electoral administration, which could facilitate a manipulation of the results at will.
And since the United States does not have a central electoral system, but each state sets its own rules for the elections, Democrats are concerned that if Trump or another Republican politician challenges the result of a vote again, it could be successful thanks to new state laws.
For their part, the associations of defense of civil rights They claim that these reforms complicate access to the polls for minorities, considered more favorable to Democrats, and increase local authorities’ control over voting operations.
Filibusterism in the United States Senate
To prevent this, Democrats have promoted two federal bills that would counteract the effect of these state measures: the so-called Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Promotion Act. However, the Republican opposition has so far managed to block its approval thanks to a maneuver known as “filibuster”, Which makes it possible to prevent the debate of any measure if a majority of 60 votes does not meet in the Senate.
Biden, who was a senator for more than three decades, had so far opposed the possibility that the Democrats would eliminate that maneuver to enforce their very narrow majority, which is only 50 seats, half of the chamber. However, he assured that the obstruction of the Republicans left him “no other option.”
The alternative, according to US Vice President Kamala Harris – who spoke in Atlanta just before Biden – involves accepting that the entire United States “pay the price, for generations,” at the polls.
However, the idea of eliminating recourse to “filibustering” needs absolute unity in the Democratic ranks, and at least two senators – centrists Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema – have expressed doubts about the idea.
Despite everything, the Democratic leader in the Upper House, Chuck Schumer, has decided to accelerate the debate and assured that this Wednesday he will re-schedule a vote on electoral reforms.
If Republicans block a vote on those measures, Schumer plans to spark a debate on the rule change before next Monday.
Those plans outraged Republicans, whose Senate leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday accused Democrats of using “false hysteria” about state voting restrictions to “amass more power.”
“If they try to break through the Senate (…), we will make the voices (of the Republicans) heard in this chamber in ways that will be more inconvenient to the (Democrat) majority and the White House than anyone has ever seen in his life, “threatened McConnell in a speech in the plenary chamber.
‘It is a low-profile insurgency, but very pernicious’
But for Biden, whose economic and social agenda is bogged down and his popularity index shivering, there is no longer time for moderation in the face of a Donald Trump who continues to affirm against all evidence that he won the last election.
Democrats accuse the former president’s supporters of changing electoral rules in Republican-controlled states for their own benefit.
Georgia, for example, restricted voting by mail, or prohibited the provision of food or water to voters who wait, sometimes for hours, to vote.
This state also increased the control of local legislators – most of whom are conservatives – over the voting process. “It is a low-key insurgency, but very, very pernicious,” said Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer.
Despite being in favor of eliminating filibustering in the Senate, Biden is far from getting away with it. He needs to rally all Democratic senators without exception, and Joe Manchin, who has already blocked a huge billion-dollar investment package for social reforms pushed by the president, is reluctant to support him in his “right to vote” crusade.
Biden doesn’t have much time to convince him, as Democrats risk losing their slim parliamentary majority in the fall during the midterm elections.
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* With information from AFP and EFE
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