As his presidency approaches its first anniversary, Joe Biden has embraced a new top priority: above all, reform American democracy first. In increasingly sharp terms, the president accuses the Republican opposition of an authoritarian course. According to Biden, the US is currently at a crossroads: “Do we prefer democracy over autocracy?” he asked in Atlanta on Tuesday.
It was the second appearance in a week in which the president – for his own sake – lashed out at Republicans and his predecessor Donald Trump. He did this last Thursday at the commemoration of the Capitol storming, on January 6 last year.
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Speaking at a solemn ceremony, which nearly all Republicans abstained from, Biden stated that the US “is not a country of kings or dictators or autocrats.” On Tuesday, he lamented that “no Republican has had the courage to stand up to a defeated president and protect America’s suffrage. Not a single one”.
And Biden doesn’t just blame Republicans for sticking with the ex-president after the Trump-instigated storm. He also denounces that since their loss in November 2020 they are adjusting electoral procedures and districts in such a way that they can henceforth “overrule the will of the majority”. For example, by giving Republican representatives and administrators the legal power to cancel an election result and designate a winner.
We are not a country of kings or dictators or autocrats
Biden Thursday at commemoration of the Capitol riots
To the applause of his audience — activists and students at a local black university — Biden promised on Tuesday that he would not give in. “I will not back down,” he said. “I will protect the right to vote and our democracy from all enemies, both foreign and, yes, domestic.”
Electoral reform is the last straw
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For the remaining three years of his tenure, it will be crucial whether he can deliver on that promise. His ambitious socioeconomic agenda has stalled in the 50-50 Senate split in recent months and Biden’s party is also in danger of losing its narrow majority in the House in the midterm elections in November. This leaves suffrage reform as his last chance at a lasting legacy. In any case, it will be difficult to fulfill any economic promise if he does not first ensure that Democrats can still book ballot box victories.
Two bills are ready to protect the electoral process against partisan political manipulation. Both have already been passed in the House of Representatives. However, they face robust Republican resistance in the Senate, who do not let the proposals come up for debate.
I will protect our democracy from both foreign and, yes, domestic enemies
Biden Tuesday in Atlanta
In another attempt to break through that blockade, Biden chose Atlanta as the backdrop on Tuesday. The today highly multicultural metropolis was long considered the capital of the racist South, where the Ku Klux Klan had its headquarters. In the second half of the last century, the city grew into a bastion of the black civil rights movement, with Martin Luther King and John Lewis as important icons. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris visited the tomb of King and his widow Coretta ahead of the speech, and one of the reform proposals bears Lewis’s name.
Biden said “the coming days” will be crucial for the future of the United States. His party colleague Chuck Schumer, leader of the Democrats in the Senate, wants to consider the proposals before Monday, when the US commemorates Rev. King’s birthday. If the Republicans continue to block this, Schumer threatens, the Democrats will fiddle with the filibuster. Republicans are still using this archaic weapon of obstruction (threatening endless debate) to keep many Democratic bills from the Senate floor.
Democrats divided among themselves
After its abolition, from now on not 60 but 50 senators would be able to debate a proposal. Since the Republicans at the state level also use their majorities (half plus one) to unilaterally change the electoral rules, they can now also suffice in the Senate, Biden said in Atlanta.
The problem for the Democrats is that they don’t have a solid majority for abolition. For some conservative Democrats, that “nuclear option” is going too far. The major disadvantage of abolishing the filibuster is that – should the ruling party ever again become a minority – it will then no longer have this weapon.
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Progressive Democrats, for their part, warn that their party must not be naive and must now play the game as hard and dirty as the other side. Among many left-wing activists, Biden was not welcome in Atlanta. They complain that in his first year he invested too little in voting rights. The relatives of Reverend King, among others, were criticized for wanting to meet the president anyway. Local black suffrage champion and governor candidate Stacey Abrahams appeared to be avoiding the president under the guise of agenda issues.
If the Democrats remain divided, the filibuster reform can also be looked at, instead of scrapping it. For example, by only abolishing it with regard to electoral legislation or by making it more difficult to invoke it. Another option is to revive a compromise on electoral reform between moderate Republicans and Democrats.
Time is running out for the Democrats. As Biden spoke on Tuesday, a North Carolina court bent over a Republican-redrawn constituency map. In the southern state, where Trump received just under half of the vote at the end of 2020, thanks to this card, Republicans could win up to more than three-quarters of the seats in November. The judge held up the card.
A version of this article also appeared in NRC on the morning of January 13, 2022
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