Our new president, Joe Biden, is a person of great personal integrity and a competent political leader. He faces a devastating Covid pandemic, the resulting dismal economy, and the climate change crisis.
This column is about another challenge facing President Biden: the urgent task of restoring and protecting democratic norms and constitutional governance. These pillars of our freedom have been disregarded and undermined by his immediate predecessor. Here are three of the steps our new president should pursue to that end.
1. Repeal the Electoral Vote Count Law of 1887 that allows Congress to challenge the electoral college results as certified by the states . Doing so would eliminate the power of Congress to overturn results of the electoral college. In the future, one party may control both houses of Congress and move to overturn the election of the candidate of another party. This is not a dystopian fantasy. On January 6, 145 Republicans voted to support challenges to electoral votes in two states.
A repeal of the 1887 law would also eliminate the power of legislatures to overturn the results of future elections in their states. .
2. Fight voter suppression. In 2013,the Supreme Court effectively struck down the heart of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by a 5-to-4 vote in Shelby County v. Holder.
The effect of that decision was to free nine states, mostly in the South, to change their election laws without advance federal approval. According to the New York Times,
the Court divided along ideological lines. The two sides drew sharply different lessons from the history of the civil rights movement and the nation’s progress in rooting out racial discrimination in voting. At the core of the disagreement was whether racial minorities continued to face barriers to voting in states with a history of discrimination.
“Our country has changed,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote for the majority. “While any racial discrimination in voting is too much, Congress must ensure that the legislation it passes to remedy that problem speaks to current conditions… 40-year-old facts having no logical relationship to the present day.” In my view, subsequent history has proven the Chief Justice wrong. Here are some of the barriers put in place to suppress the number of Black citizens ability to vote: the basic act of registering to vote has been made complex and easy to malevolent challenge, voting places have been moved without notice and /or have been reduced in number, votes cast by mail have been invalidated based on dubious challenges to signatures, gerrymandering has reduced the impact of votes cast by Black citizens in congressional elections.
The good news is that the opinion articulated by Chief Justice Roberts was not bigoted in intent, though it was destructive in its consequences. Roberts wrote that Congress remained free to try to impose federal oversight on states where voting rights were at risk, but must do so based on contemporary data.
As a layman , it seems to me that Chief Justice Roberts’ words provide a basis for a legislative fix to restore the power of the Voting Rights Act. Guaranteeing Black Americans the fundamental right to vote unimpeded by local and state governments is at stake.
3. Be a paragon of respect for all Americans, including the 74 million people who voted for your opponent. Drawing from the Gospel According to Mark, President Abraham Lincoln warned the nation in his time that “A house divided against itself cannot stand”. That is true in our time as well. There are pro-Trump Americans who hate democracy and/or support QAnon conspiracy theories. They are beyond the pale. Those involved in insurgences belong in jail. But there are millions Americans who can find common ground if their grievances are heard, their personal values are treated with respect and their life experiences understood. Our national unity has been torn asunder over the years by both Right and Left. Some are far more guilty than others but none of us is completely blameless. Intolerance of the Other, conspiracy theories, identity politics, attacks on science and observable facts, political correctness that stifles discomfiting opinions, and cancel culture are among the factors. President Biden can be the “healer of the breach”, to borrow a term from the Prophet Isaiah. Even if he cannot bring the polarized halves of our country together perhaps he can build a bridge to connect them. Let’s support him in that effort.