From voting rights and immigration reform to criminal justice and student debt relief, Democrats warn that the party is at risk of seeing its majorities evaporate by failing to deliver on public promises, a projection that has prompted fear and finger-pointing among President Biden’s most loyal base.
“We showed up and risked arrest to try and get the White House to do more on the filibuster,” stated Jana Morgan, director of the Declaration for American Democracy, a grassroots progressive network.
“On Tuesday, I was arrested with 24 other people. We were willing to put our bodies on the line because this issue is fundamental and foundational to the continued success of our country,” she declared.
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The crux of the issue for many is voting rights.
Biden administration officials and lawmakers on Capitol Hill have prioritized legislation to protect one of the country’s most fundamental principles with uneven attention. When a critical bill is up for a vote, Democrats rally around its passage, waxing philosophical about its importance to the fragile fate of the nation.
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But when Senate Republicans vote against any attempts to debate the measure like they did this week with the Freedom to Vote Act, the discussion usually falls to the back of the burner.
All the while, advocates keep shouting in unison about getting something done.
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“America is backsliding into autocracy,” Morgan said. “This is not just ‘an issue.’ That is the issue.”
“What we need is to know that there is a real considered strategy in place on this and a real determination from the White House to do whatever it takes,” she insisted.
Republicans’ veto of the latest voting rights bill wasn’t the first time they have stopped Democrats’ plans. Earlier GOP-led attempts to stall legislation have been equally effective and Democrats accuse their Republican colleagues of promoting voting restrictions in a bid to help them win elections.
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Democrats tend to worry that a crucial part of democracy will disintegrate if legislation is not passed to protect it.
On paper, President Biden is sympathetic to that sentiment. On Wednesday, he released a statement indicating that upholding voting rights is an “urgent” matter to his administration and “the very soul of America is at stake.”
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And on Thursday night, he took his boldest step yet to acknowledge that filibuster reform to pass voting bills is something he could get on board with. Answering a question by CNN moderator Anderson Cooper during a primetime town hall about whether he would contemplate “fundamentally altering” the practice, Biden indicated he was open to that “and maybe more.”
Opposingly, Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) have crimped the only realistic way to pass voting legislation in an evenly divided Senate with no Republican support, vocally opposing getting rid of the filibuster.
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