US President Joe Biden has once again argued for the protection of voting rights in the US in a fierce speech. He says he will do everything he can to get a new law that should regulate that approved, while he does not shy away from adjusting the rules in the Senate.
By this he meant the abolition or at least temporarily suspension of the so-called filibuster. That is the means by which any senator can delay or even block the passage of a bill. Under current rules, a filibuster can only be circumvented if at least 60 senators vote for it.
The Democrats – who have 50 seats in the 100-member Senate – have been unable to get that number for months alone when it comes to the proposed new electoral law.
Senate is a shadow of what it was
Biden is “done to be quiet,” he said, after he said he spent the past few months trying to persuade senators to vote for the bill, mainly in the wings.
“Unfortunately, the United States Senate, once established as a grand deliberative body, is now a mere shadow of what it used to be,” Biden, who was a senator for nearly 40 years, said in his speech. He spoke of a “battle for the soul of America”, which he compared to Martin Luther King’s struggle against segregation in American society in the 1950s and 60s.
Freedom to Vote Act
Biden gave his speech in Atlanta, King’s hometown. King’s son, Martin Luther King III, among others, was present at the speech.
In June, a first proposal from the Democrats to reform the elections, the so-called , failed in the Senate For the People Act. Then the Democrats worked on a new, slightly modified law; the Freedom to Vote Act.
With the electoral law, the Democrats want to better protect the voting rights of minorities, make voting more accessible and simpler, reduce the influence of money in American politics and reduce the influence of parties on the division of electoral districts.
Biden says the changes are necessary to defend American democracy “against enemies from within and without.”
Shout out to Republicans
In his speech, he also lashed out hard at Republicans, who he says are not doing enough to protect democracy in the US. Recently, several Republican states such as Georgia, Texas and Arizona passed reformed electoral laws that critics say are making voting more difficult in those states.
Biden blamed Republicans for a lack of guts and urged them to choose “which side” they want to be on. He then juxtaposed controversial names from America’s past like George Wallace (pro-segregation governor of Alabama) and Jefferson Davis (leader of the southern states in the American Civil War) with such celebrated names as Martin Luther King or Abraham Lincoln. Biden called the Capitol storming over a year ago a coup attempt for the first time.
End of the filibuster?
After Biden’s speech, several prominent Democrats, including Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer, hinted at ending the filibuster.
For that, the Democrats only need a majority in the Senate. In a stalemate, the vote of Vice President and Democrat Kamala Harris – formally the President of the Senate – is decisive.
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