What to Do when Democracy Can’t Wait

Recently, your correspondent and his wife attended a “Democracy Can’t Wait” rally at Himmel Park in Tucson. The organizer, Eric Robbins, was enthusiastic and urged all of us to take on three “Ten-tasks” in the coming weeks. More on that later.

We attended the rally because we truly believe that Democrats in Congress need to understand that the most important thing they have before them is passing federal legislation to stop the Republicans’ steal of our election rights – a real “Stop the Steal” mission! It is no coincidence that Republican state legislators in almost all states have introduced almost 500 pieces of legislation with the intent of:

1. Making it more difficult for voters to cast their votes.
2. Overturning actions by state and local election administrators that might result in fair ballot counts.
3. Empowering state legislators to override popular votes.

We hear a lot about Democratic legislators in Texas going to great lengths to delay the passage of the Texas voter suppression bills. Meanwhile, the narrow Republican majority in Phoenix is waiting to hear the results of the farcical “Fraudit” of Maricopa County’s election returns before enacting them. Republican legislators in other states have been intimidated into introducing similar legislation in their states, using draft bills cranked out by the Heritage Foundation and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). It has become clear that it is up to the federal government to revive free and fair elections across the country.

Gutting voting rights

In the past, states were constrained in their anti-democracy activities before the Supreme Court clawed away the authority of the 19654 Voting Rights Act. The law gave the U.S. Department of Justice the authority to review pending state actions to govern elections in specific states and the authority to take legal action to block such activities in all the states.

Since the Shelby County v. Holder decision in 2015, which gutted federal voting rights authorities, states dominated by Republicans have become more aggressive and overt. Moreover, with the loss of the presidency and majorities in both houses of Congress last year, Republicans have become far more aggressive, and worst of all, overtly anti-democratic in their quest for total control.

If we are to continue to have a real democracy, we must stop these Republican initiatives. It is a national concern when the threat to democracy is multi-state in nature and inimical to the principles of our representative democracy set out in the Constitution.

Three “Ten-task” steps we all can do

The first Ten-task for you is to call the Washington offices of your elected representatives in Congress and tell them you support any action to pass the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. Repeat the call each day for ten days. So that’s three calls each day for ten days. Members keep track of the number of calls they get on big issues, and we need to flood their offices with calls of support for these bills.

• • Call Senator Kyrsten Sinema at 202-224-4521.
  • Call Senator Mark Kelly at 202-224-2235.
  • Call US Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick at (202) 225-2542.

The second task is to talk to ten friends and neighbors about the importance of these voting rights and fair elections bills and the wrongs they will fix. And then to ask them to join you in doing the first Ten-task too.

The third task is to use your social network voice to tell your followers and friends what you are doing and why. Don’t be concerned about offending your Republican acquaintances and followers. If one segment of the electorate suffers, all segments will suffer as autocracy strengthens its grip on the government. For every friend you offend, you will probably awaken another. In any event, true friendships should transcend politics.

In my last post in July, I outlined four campaigns for Democrats to maintain our democracy. We Democrats are far more interested in this campaign than the Republicans. The U.S. Senate just voted to advance the For the People Act to debate in September. The vote was 50-49, a strictly party-line vote. The time to act is now. This is how we can fight the battle in the coming weeks.