Editorials
What happened Wednesday at the U.S. Capitol should be a moment of rupture for our political system. Something needs to change. America needs a serious democracy reform agenda, one that gives a new and elevated role to the pro-democracy Republicans who have been fighting with their increasingly extreme anti-system party for the last few weeks.
Americans turned out for the 2020 elections in numbers not seen in over 100 years. Voters made a plan and found a way to make their voices heard.
It appears that our democracy dodged a bullet — or, more precisely, multiple concerted efforts by the president of the United States to torpedo its very foundations.
For generations, the United States, at its best, has been a North Star to the world — a symbol of universal values such as freedom, human rights, the rule of law and democracy. Imagine watching what is unfolding in America today from a foreign capital. The ruling party’s leader refusing to concede a free and fair election, and delaying the peaceful transfer of power.
As experts posit how to rebuild our democracy and expand voting rights, we should spotlight an existing piece of legislation that can achieve these goals: H.R. 1, or the For the People Act. As the article notes, the bill would be “transformative.”
The 2020 presidential election has ended with a decisive mandate for President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris. America has turned the page on the last four years, and I am eager to have a new president who has pledged to serve all Americans, not just those who voted for him. It’s time for new leadership to face our greatest challenges and it’s on us to deliver.
The COVID-19 outbreak and the country’s long overdue reckoning with institutional racism have dramatically laid bare deep-rooted inequities in our society — inequities driven by our broken democracy. It’s time to find solutions, and we believe many of them lie in ending the twin evils of voter suppression and money in politics.