Is Biden Punting on Voting Rights?

Biden has promised that fighting authoritarianism is a priority but it doesn't seem like a battle the White House is willing to wage.

Last month in his first address to congress, Joe Biden stated that the three challenges his presidency would confront head-on are the pandemic, the economic collapse, and the attempts to undermine democracy. He evoked the insurrection of January 6, saying, “The insurrection was an existential crisis –- a test of whether our democracy could survive.  And it did. But the struggle is far from over.”

These bold words, however, have been indifferently followed through by action. It’s true that at Biden’s urging congress has taken up two sweeping measures that, if passed, would constitute the most comprehensive bolstering of voting rights and democratic participation in half a century: John Lewis Voting Rights Act and H.R. 1.

Unfortunately, both measures are stalled in the Senate, where West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin’s devotion to the filibuster ensures that they will almost certainly not pass. Aside from Manchin, the Democrats would also need to bring along Arizona Senator Kyrsten Sinema.

Writing in The Atlantic, Luke Savage argues that the unwillingness to pressure holdout Senators raises questions about how serious Democrats are about dealing with a supposedly “existential” threat: “Liberal lawmakers cannot, on the one hand, contend that a deliberate effort is under way to deprive citizens of the franchise while, on the other hand, preserving an archaic legislative convention specifically designed to limit the power of representative democracy. If Democrats plan to match their rhetoric with action, they must train public attention not only on the existential problem of the Republican assault on voting, but also on the need to eliminate the main obstacle to countering that assault.”

Reporting by Ronald Brownstein, also in The Atlantic, bolsters this argument. The Biden White House has a clear path towards passing substantial economic stimulus through reconciliation. That’s an easier fight to win that voting rights protection. Not surprisingly, top Democrats have decided to make a virtue of necessity and contend that economic policy will help the party win in 2022 and 2024, thereby thwarting Republican authoritarianism.

According to Brownstein, the White House attitude is based on them believing Republican voting rights attacks will not be decisive:

Still, it’s clear that the White House is operating at a more tempered level of concern than other Democrats about the threats to small-d democracy emerging in the aftermath of Donald Trump’s attacks on the 2020 election. Based on my conversations with them, officials there seem to take a more nuanced and restrained view of what’s happening. They do not believe that more assertive public denunciation from Biden would dissuade any of the Republican governors or legislators who have moved to restrict voting rights. And although White House officials consider the laws offensive from a civil-rights perspective, they do not think most of those laws will advantage Republicans in the 2022 and 2024 elections as much as many liberal activists fear.

Further, the White House is confident that economic policy is the key to holding on to the House of Representatives and the Senate:

The senior White House official told me Biden aides believe that the best way to overcome Republicans’ undermining of upcoming elections is to maintain Democratic control of the House and Senate. And the best way to achieve that is for Biden to pass the agenda he ran on, which includes working to mitigate political conflict and compromising with Republicans where possible.

One other major factor is at play: Biden is committed to a unity message (which requires making bipartisan gestures of outreach to Republicans) which is at odds with combatting authoritarianism (which would require highlighting and attacking Republican extremism). Biden has, it seems, decided unity will play better as a message than speaking about the democracy crisis.

If Brownstein’s reporting is accurate, then Joe Biden is taking a major gamble on an issue he sees as “existential.” The bet is that preserving and working within institutions will allow the Democrats to fend off surging GOP authoritarianism.

It’s unclear to me whether Biden’s gamble will pay off. I understand the logic behind it. But the real danger is that if the Republicans win in 2022 and 2024 using a mixture of voter suppression and state legislators that over-ride the popular vote, then America will face the worst political crisis since 1860.

If Democrats are unhappy with Biden’s gamble, if they don’t think working within existing institutions is enough, they need to start pressuring the White House to take voting rights reform much more seriously. The likelihood of John Lewis Voting Rights Act and H.R. 1 passing is only going to go down day by day.

Share and Subscribe

If you liked this post, please consider sharing:

or subscribing: