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Showing Original Post only (View all)If Democracy Is Dying, Why Are Democrats So Complacent? [View all]
Link to tweet
https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/05/democrats-voting-rights-filibuster/618964/
If youve followed recent Democratic messaging, youll have heard that American democracy is under serious attack by the Republican Party, representing an existential threat to the country. If youve followed Democratic lawmaking, youd be forgiven for thinking that the threat is actually a rather piddling one. The disconnect, in this case, isnt attributable to Democratic embellishment, but to inexcusable complacency.
In his first address to Congress, last month, President Joe Biden established three basic themeseach one invoked in a language of crisis and political urgency: The worst pandemic in a century. The worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. The worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War. When it came to the third, Biden was both pointed and emphatic, tying the events of January 6 and the broader effort to delegitimize Novembers election to a wider crisis of democracy. Congress, he declared, should pass H.R. 1 and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act and send them to my desk right away.
Biden is far from the only Democratic leader to have made the connection. In urging the Senate to pass H.R. 1, which would improve voter access and election security, Senator Chuck Schumer (hardly anyones idea of a firebrand) said in March that state voter-restriction laws smack of Jim Crow rearing its ugly head once again. He went as far as warning that if we dont stop these vicious and often racist actions, Third World autocracy will be on its way. Schumer hasnt been shy about naming an antagonist, either, citing a concerted, nationwide effort to limit the rights of citizens to vote and even declaring that we wont let [Republican-controlled legislatures] create a dictatorship in America.
Granting some room for hyperbole, these dire pronouncements arent entirely misplaced. As of March 24, researchers at the Brennan Center for Justice had logged some 361 bills containing provisions that seek to restrict votinga 43 percent increase from about the same time in February. Many involve the usual suite of suppression methods introduced under the auspices of fairness and transparency (expanded ID requirements, banning same-day voter registration, limiting the use of mail-in ballots, etc.), and one in Arizona even aspires to give the state legislature the authority to override the certification of future presidential-election results by simple majority vote. A recording recently released by The New Yorkers Jane Mayer, meanwhile, makes more or less explicit that Republican operatives plan to use every tool at their disposal to defeat the renewed push for expanded voting rights, despite its widespread popularity.
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Those two need to come under a full frontal assault. Whatever it takes, they must be forced to ...
lagomorph777
May 2021
#13
Those in power don't want to rock the boat too much, even democrats. The people must be more
triron
May 2021
#4
I'm sure the blogosphere knows better than the Democratic Party leadership.....
brooklynite
May 2021
#7
No one is required to defer to Democratic Party leadership, especially when democracy is threatened
friendly_iconoclast
May 2021
#9
I hate this framing. I'm a Democrat and I'm not fucking complacent. Neither is any other Dem I know.
LymphocyteLover
May 2021
#10
Democrat's still believe in playing by the rules while Republican's look for ways to game the
jalan48
May 2021
#12
This is what I think too. It's not that they don't care. It's that they don't know what to do.
CrispyQ
May 2021
#15
How does a democracy deal with a party which works toward one party rule and the elimination
jalan48
May 2021
#18
This: "Democracy depends on competing interests playing by a set of agreed upon rules."
CrispyQ
May 2021
#27
I think the claim that American democracy is dying is just politics, i.e., hyperbole.
Steelrolled
May 2021
#16
History is on the side of the author, we need to learn from it so we don't repeat the bad parts
uponit7771
May 2021
#22
The article is entirely accurate in blaming *some* Democrats for their complacency...
friendly_iconoclast
May 2021
#20