Voting rights activists believe Biden’s actions fall short of his dire warnings: NPR

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President Biden speaks about voting rights at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia on Tuesday. Saul Loeb / AFP via Getty Images Hide caption

Saul Loeb/AFP caption via Getty Images

President Biden speaks about voting rights at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia on Tuesday.

Saul Loeb / AFP via Getty Images

When President Biden delivered a long-awaited speech on voting rights in Philadelphia this week, he called the fight against restrictive voting laws “the most important test of our democracy since the Civil War” and decried what he called “the Jim Crow offensive of the 21st century.” on voting rights.

But many people-turned-voters for Biden believe he has let them down in the fight for voting rights so far.

Latosha Brown, co-founder of Black Voters Matter, said Biden made a number of important points during the speech, but added that “the challenge for me is what he didn’t say.”

Brown said in an interview before meeting with Vice President Harris about the vote at the White House on Friday, along with other black women leaders. “The question is, how are we going to respond to what the Republicans are doing now? And will the full weight of the White House be used to make sure that we secure our citizens’ permanent voting rights?”

Many voting rights advocates say they believe Biden devoted too much of his time and political capital to other priorities, pointing to the bipartisan infrastructure bill as an apt example. Biden met behind closed doors with lawmakers on the issue earlier in the week, leading them to support the plan.

“He still uses his bully pulpit, he still travels to the states, he still gives speeches, he still goes to Congress, and he uses the full power of his office to contest those votes,” said Ezra Levine, co-founder of the Progressive Party. Indivisible group. “If it works for roads and bridges, why not work for democracy?”

Biden has tried to revitalize lobbying for the two federal voting rights bills that have faltered in Congress, calling passing a bill for the people a “patriotic duty.”

“Once Congress passes a bill for the people and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, I’m going to sign it and let the whole world see it,” Biden said on Tuesday. “That will be an important moment.”

For Democrats, civil rights activists and progressives looking for a president to lead amid a flurry of Republican-led bills aimed at restricting access to voting, the rhetoric has been long overdue. But for some, it did not live up to expectations woefully.

“I feel that the president fully understands the threats to our democracy, but seems to be leaving the fight to others,” Levin said.

Impatience grows as Biden’s reluctance to cancel procrastination

Many voting rights activists say Biden’s speech contained what they consider a major omission: the president did not detail a legislative plan to push the bills forward. Nor did he indicate any new strategies he might pursue to combat Republican voting laws on his own, or to ensure that federal bills become laws.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Friday that voting rights would be a “reason for his presidency” and that the president would “use his time, use his platform to make sure he talks about them, raises them, and engages with them.”

Psaki did not provide details of the president’s future plans.

During Tuesday’s speech, Biden spoke about the Justice Department’s work to challenge voting laws passed in states this year, as well as expanding the proxy voting rights division. Republicans argue that these voting laws are necessary to reduce voter fraud, although there is no evidence that it is a widespread phenomenon.

The flurry of state legislative action, along with court rulings that would make it difficult to fight interference with voting rights, has led to more calls for action from the federal government.

There has been increasing pressure on Biden to support a rollback of the obstruction to pass a bill for the people, as well as the eponymous legislation of late congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis that would restore protections from the 1965 Voting Rights Act that was dismantled by a Supreme Court decision in 2013.

“I didn’t think procrastination was the F-word we’d be talking about this week,” said Nse Ufot, CEO of the New Georgia Project. “It was shocking that it was not mentioned at all [in Biden’s speech] Given how adeptly Republicans have been at using it to block civil rights legislation in the past.”

Stephanie Spaulding, a spokeswoman for the Fair Democracy, warned that if Biden was unwilling to address disruption, it would disenfranchise black and black voters.

“Democracy itself is at stake,” Spaulding said. “We are already on the path to authoritarianism, and that will be the legacy of the Biden presidency.”

In an interview with NPR’s Asma Khaled this week ahead of Biden’s speech, Harris suggested she had spoken to senators about exceptions to legislative stalling but said she would not publicly negotiate an issue the White House insists is up to the Senate.

“I think of all the issues that the United States Congress can take up, the right to vote is the right that unlocks all other rights,” Harris said. Because of this, it should be one of her highest priorities.”

Biden calls for ‘coalition’ on voting rights

Biden seemed to acknowledge the spectacle of Congress, calling the legislation “one tool, but not the only one.” On Tuesday, he spoke of the leadership role Harris is playing in the administration’s efforts, and appeared to shift his focus to next year’s midterm elections and the need to build coalitions.

He focused on efforts to educate voters about the laws of change, register them to vote, and mobilize them to vote.

“We need to put together a coalition of Americans of all backgrounds and political parties — advocates, students, religious leaders, labor leaders, and entrepreneurs — and make this moment even more urgent,” Biden said.

Many activists were outraged by the suggestion that there was no coalition to fight for voting rights.

“The idea that we need to form some kind of new alliance and get back to the drawing board — I don’t know what he’s talking about,” said InDesign’s Levine. “If he wants a coalition, by all means, Mr. President, lead him. Let’s see the struggle for this.”

Yvutt said that while she was “grateful” that the president recognized the importance of grassroots activism, “community regulators cannot whip up votes in the Senate.”

“But the president of the United States can do that,” she added. “…I didn’t exactly listen to the speech to hear about the work we were already doing. I listened to hear what Biden-Harris was going to do, and I didn’t.”

Several black activists have warned of the dangers of Democrats taking black support for granted – a perennial issue that came to prominence during the 2020 campaign, and noted that assaults on the right to vote pose a threat to their citizenship.

“It’s where black and brown Americans come in again and again. We have complete hope and belief in a functioning democracy. But when it comes to the reality of it, the onus is on us as black and brown voters, as black and brown activists, as black and brown activists, to move the ball across the line,” said Spaulding of Just Democracy. “…It is not us who need to work harder and devise different strategies. It’s the Democrats and President Biden who need to use the power we’ve given them.”

Brown of Black Voters Matter put it more succinctly when she considered the role of black voters in the last election:

“We knew what was at stake and we handed it over. Our expectation is that the White House will fulfill us as we handed the White House.”

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