Announcing that the very foundations and future of American democracy and the dignity of the entire world were at stake, US President Joe Biden put forth great effort to pass two laws related to voting rights, and threw his weight on changing Senate laws to win them over. opposition to Republicans.
Speaking in Atlanta on Tuesday, shortly after meeting with the family of Martin Luther King Jr., in front of vice president Kamala Harris, voting rights activists and prominent Black Democratic Party leaders, Biden said “the right to vote and to have. the counted vote is a democratic freedom ”.
Undoubtedly the most controversial political issue in American politics right now, the debate on voting rights is about who will vote, how, where, who is openly voting, and who is voting. Conflict between Republicans and Democrats over all of these questions has intensified over the past decade.
Joe Biden said in response to the hard work done to improve voter registration, increase voter access, and deepen human rights, Republicans have chosen a “wrong, democratic way”. “For them, a lot of people voting under democracy is a problem. So they set a barrier. ”
He cited some examples of measures taken by Republicans to limit voter access – to make it harder to vote by post; reduce the number of dump boxes where one can drop your votes and reduce the number of hours a person can do so; limiting the provision of food and water to those standing in the polls on election day (as per Georgia law); making it easier to remove law enforcement officials who were law-abiding by 2020 and appointed party affiliates to influence the accounting process and certification.
“Just last year, 19 states were not nominated but enacted 34 laws that violate voting rights… Jim Crow 2.0 is about two fraudulent things: voter oppression and election overhaul. It is no longer about who will vote; it is about making it difficult to vote. About who will be able to count the vote and whether your vote is important, ”added Joe Biden.
Complaining that the purpose of the “former president” – Biden does not refer to Donald Trump by name – and his allies was to “undermine the rights” of anyone who voted against them, he said, “The facts will not matter; your vote will not matter.” not in democratic countries. ”
The US president said the world was watching, citing the example of the G-7 summit where, in response to his claim that the United States had returned, the coalition asked him, “How long?” “As someone who has worked in foreign policy all my life, I never thought I would ever hear our partners say such a thing.”
It is for this reason that Joe Biden is setting the stage for Congress to pass the Freedom of Voting Act – he says, he will ensure full voting by post, enough drop-off boxes, adequate food and water supply to the people. waiting in line, protecting electoral officials impartially from intimidation and harassment, withdrawing political money, creating fair regional maps and ending racial discrimination – and the John Lewis Voting Development Act. The latter will restore state direction on changes to electoral laws in provinces with a history of racism, an important provision of the Voting Rights Act, which was repealed by the Supreme Court in 2013.
The Senate is equally divided, with 50 Democrats and 50 Republicans. By a vote of President Kamala Harris, Democrats have a simple majority, on paper to push for both laws. But the Senate’s filibuster tradition makes it dependent on Democrats to have 60 votes to legislate. This is the clause that Biden challenged in Atlanta for the first time.
“The United States Senate – designed to be the world’s largest negotiating body – has been made its own shell. and vote. Let the majority win. And if that little empty thing is blocked, we have no choice but to change the Senate rules, including removing the filibuster for this. “
The next action at the US conference on voting rights is now set to play back in Washington DC, where Democrats hope to make changes to the Senate rules on January 17 – the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr.