The president of U.SJoe Biden has placed the fight to ensure the right to vote, that both he and the Democratic Party and numerous observers and analysts denounce under assault by the Republican Party not only in Washington, but above all at the state level. This Tuesday the president tries to demonstrate it with a speech in the state of Georgia, an intervention in which, according to sources from the Administration, had planned endorse publicly, without ambiguity and with details a change in filibuster rules, not asking for its complete annulment but yes specific alterations to reinforce suffrage protections.
Biden’s is a risky gamble. With a meager majority of 50 votes plus that of the vice president Kamala Harris In the Senate, at least two Democratic senators, Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, have shown their outright rejection of changing those rules. And the president is not guaranteed to be able to move forward or the amendment of the ‘filibuster’ that the leader of the Senate, Chuck Schumer, has assured that a vote will be taken at the latest on Monday the 17th, day dedicated to Martin Luther King , opening the door to the voting of two bills on voting rights.
“In the next few days, when these proposals are put to a vote, a inflection point in this country, ”Biden will say according to an excerpt from his speech advanced to the press, in which echoes of the speech he gave last week on the first anniversary of the assault on the Capitol resonate. “Will we choose democracy over autocracy, light over shadow, justice over injustice?” Before embarking for Atlanta, he reminded the senators that they will face “the judgment of history”.
Questioned by activists
The republicans they have launched into a fierce preemptive speech assault of Biden and of any Democratic attempt to alter filibustering but the logical and usual conservative criticisms are not the only concerns that the president should have. A coalition of influential activists and organizers community members in Georgia have refused to attend the events in Atlanta of the president and vice president, which they have labeled as “a waste of time”. It is reported as useless rhetorical exercise that does not come accompanied by a specific plan to carry out the two bills that fight against voting suppression: the Freedom to Vote Act and another named in honor of the late congressman and civil rights fighter John Lewis, which would reinstate protections against discrimination which were established in 1965 and in 2013 eliminated the Supreme Court.
“Instead of speeches the Senate should vote,” the coalition denounced in a joint statement on Monday. “Which we need, rather than a visit from the president, vice president and legislators is that the White House and the Senate stay in washington and act immediately to pass federal legislation that protects our freedom to vote ”, they declared.
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