To Save America, Biden and Democrats Must Devote 2022 To Rallying Around Voting Rights

[appalachiablue]

'If Biden really wants to save America, he must devote 2022 to rallying around voting rights.' Daily Kos, 12/12/21. Ed.

When Joe Biden launched his presidential campaign in spring of 2019, he laid out the stakes for the 2020 election in what was arguably one of the most inspired moments of his candidacy. "Charlottesville, Va., was home to the author of one of the great documents in human history," Biden said in his video announcement, referring to the Declaration of Independence—penned by Thomas Jefferson in 1776—which declares that “all men are created equal.” But Biden noted that the same city where Jefferson made his home had more recently been overrun by Klansmen, white supremacists, and neo-Nazis in what he called a "defining moment" for the nation.

"In that moment, I knew the threat to this nation was unlike any I had ever seen in my lifetime," Biden said, adding that we are in a "battle for the soul of this nation."

Biden asserted that he believed history would ultimately view Donald Trump's 4 years in office as "an aberrant moment in time." "But if we give Donald Trump 8 years in the White House, he will forever and fundamentally alter the character of this nation—who we are," Biden said. "And I cannot stand by and watch that happen." Biden the candidate was crystal clear about the danger Trump posed to our constitutional republic and his feeling that the country was teetering on the edge. Trump then began his Big Lie about 2020 fraud, pressed state election officials & lawmakers to buckle to his will, threatened top officials at the DOJ, put the lives of our congressional members & his own VP at risk, & initiated a slow-motion coup that has captivated the overactive imaginations of roughly 2/3rds of Republican voters.

In short, even though Biden now sits in the Oval Office, the threat facing the country today is so much greater than the one he saw as a candidate. Because unlike 2020, a Democratic win in 2024 might be nothing more than a speed bump on the way to the GOP’s fascist takeover of the country. President Biden and Democrats have dedicated their first year with full control of Congress to pushing through what might still amount to an historic economic agenda. The American Rescue Plan and bipartisan infrastructure law have made massive, sorely needed investments in jobs, our country's families, and America's future. The Build Back Better bill, even in whittled-down form, could still serve as a transformational pivot point to the future.

But frankly, none of that will matter unless Democrats spend the lion's share of 2022 doing everything in their conceivable power to shore up the nation's electoral system and frame the midterms as a choice between sound Democratic leadership & a party bent on functionally destroying our democracy. What this means is that Democrats must pivot very early next year to the voting rights fight alongside constant messaging about GOP extremism on everything from masking & vaxxing to abortion to rigging the electoral system to their Jan. 6 cover up. We need a voting rights push that allows Democrats to explain to voters how Republicans are both working to suppress voters &, perhaps even more consequentially, writing laws that allow them to overthrow the will of the people if they don’t like the election outcomes...

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https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/12/11/2068727/-If-Biden-really-wants-to-save-America-he-must-devote-2022-to-rallying-around-voting-rights

[appalachiablue]

2. I saw that, fixed

[PortTack]

3. He says he will...I take him at his word!

[appalachiablue]

4. Same, Biden knows. Mass support, strong messaging also urgent.

[lees1975]

5. Sometimes we don't see everything they're doing

and I really trust Biden to make sure that the Democrats stay in line. He's a lot like Obama, in that he just doesn't over-react to what's going on in the media.

It does seem like there's a disconnection somewhere with the DNC. It seems to me like they should be a lot more visible, though it may be because I'm kind of in a Democratic party pocket and don't see a lot of their publicity.