Dear WSD reader,

Voter suppression is a huge threat to our democracy, as state legislatures pass waves of restrictive voting laws that target minority voters. I have been writing about this topic for ClassAct, an organization of college classmates that focuses on political and social justice issues.

As you know, I've been keenly interested in voting issues for some time. Last year, I co-authored a primer on gerrymandering for ClassAct and moderated a forum on that key topic, in June 2021.

I am sending you ClassAct's latest newsletter, which contains several materials on voting suppression--and offers suggestions on how you can help to combat this scourge:

A five-minute video, in which my classmate Jim Harbison and I discuss the key issues and threats related to voter suppression

My two-page summary of the recent trends in state legislatures and the Supreme Court's rulings

A spreadsheet listing volunteer organizations that are deeply involved, and effective, in motivating potential new voters and registering them

You can easily access these materials by clicking on the buttons in the newsletter.

Best regards,

Ryan O'Connell

The Supreme Court is swinging a wrecking ball at the Constitution. The radicals on the Court are shredding well-established constitutional rights—and creating brand-new ones—as they cast aside precedents willy-nilly. Goodbye, Roe v. Wade and Miranda. Hello, an absolute right to carry guns on the streets on New York City.

The Court threw out New York’s gun control law and established a new, fundamental right to carry a concealed gun in public. The decision is a travesty based on a fraud. This is a radical reinterpretation of the Second Amendment and an extraordinary assault on a state’s authority to protect its citizens.

So much for states’ rights….

New York Democrats’ brazen attempt to gerrymander the electoral maps has blown up in their faces. Their move backfired badly, as maps imposed by the courts pit several Democratic incumbents against each other in newly drawn districts.

This setback has ramifications for politics on the national level as well as for Congressional and State Senate races in the Empire State.

Democrats had hoped that the gerrymandered New York maps would allow their party to pick up three additional Congressional seats in the state and give them a better shot at maintaining their Congressional majority in the midterm elections.

Now, the Democrats could lose some seats in New York. Furthermore, two high-profile members of Congress representing parts of Manhattan, Jerry Nadler and Carolyn Maloney, will have to run against each other in a newly combined district.

President Biden is under great pressure from Bernie Sanders and other progressives to cancel student loans. A sweeping bailout would help struggling borrowers, but it would be an undeserved gift for many affluent Americans not in dire straits. Such a radical step would be unfair to the two-thirds of American taxpayers who do not go to college, who would not benefit from the program, and it would put a dent in the government’s finances.

Instead, President Biden should consider three targeted approaches: income-repayment plans, allowing student loan borrowers to declare bankruptcy, and forgiving loans for graduates of for-profit colleges.

If President Biden does decide to cancel student loans, he should limit the relief to $10,000 per borrower and impose an income cap of $75,000. That would cut the cost and direct more benefits to lower- and middle-income Americans.

Progressive Democrats have a new rallying cry— “Cancel Student Debt!”—as they put pressure on President Biden to forgive $1.5 trillion of student loans. These are the same folks who came up with that catchy phrase, “Defund the Police”, which Republicans have used to bash Democrats.

Many young Americans are struggling to pay their student loans, but forgiving the debt across the board would not be a good approach. There are less expensive, more targeted solutions than a sweeping bail-out…particularly since a broad forgiveness program would help many affluent Americans. That might trigger a backlash among white working-class voters, which could hurt Democrats in the midterm elections.

If President Biden does decide to cancel student loans, he should limit the relief to $10,000 per borrower and restrict the program to Americans earning less than $75,000.

A political earthquake is shaking up France’s presidential election, as the country veers sharply to the right. In the first round of the election, Emmanuel Macron, the incumbent, beat Marine Le Pen, the leading far-right candidate…but by less than five points.

France is very different from the United States, of course, but there are some striking similarities in their recent political trends. Working-class voters and small business owners have abandoned traditional parties, flocking to politicians who demonize immigrants and attack globalization and “out of touch elites”.

And the French might just elect as their next leader a politician who openly admires Vladimir Putin and despises NATO and the European Union. Marine Le Pen, the leader of the National Rally party, has even refused to endorse sanctions against Russia, despite the horrors in Ukraine. If she became President, NATO could lose one of its main pillars.

Vladimir Putin has unleashed World War III. Conquering Ukraine is just his first step. Putin wants to destroy NATO and recreate the Soviet Empire, with its string of puppet regimes in Eastern Europe. Putin is driven by a deep hatred of the West and the United States. Putin believes that he is man of destiny, chosen to restore Russia to its former imperial glory.

This is 1939, and Ukraine is Poland. But this time, the Russians are the fascist invaders, and this time, the messianic, power-mad dictator has nuclear weapons at his disposal.

Americans have to understand that our country must go on a war footing. We must increase our military spending, and significantly. This is not another Cold War; the shooting has already started. We are in a hot war.

Vladimir Putin claims that Ukraine has always been part of Russia…but Ukrainians do not agree. Putin alleges that Ukraine discriminates against Russian speakers, but the country’s President speaks Russian. Although 30% of Ukrainians speak Russian, few of them want to live under Russian rule. Putin’s aggression and bullying have backfired, and he has driven Ukrainians to embrace the West. Putin’s says NATO is a threat to Russia, but that is standing reality on its head, and NATO membership remains just a dream for Ukraine anyway. Putin’s Big Lies about Ukraine are not gaining traction or helping his cause.

Vladimir Putin may invade Ukraine, claiming that his smaller neighbor is threatening Russia’s security….and that Ukraine belongs to Russia anyhow. This is an eerie parallel to Hitler’s invasion of Poland in 1939. How will the West react this time?

Biden has warned Putin the US will impose harsh financial sanctions if Russia attacks Ukraine, but will that deter Putin? The US should sell or give Ukraine anti-aircraft and anti-missile systems, quickly. The US should also consider launching large cyberattacks on Russia if an invasion takes place.

If Russia conquers Ukraine, that will encourage China to invade Taiwan and, with its credibility shattered, the US will lose its role as superpower.

How can President Biden save his Build Back Better (BBB) program after Sen. Joe Manchin rejected it? Biden has to convince the public and Manchin that Covid, not government spending, has caused inflation. For Republicans, “inflation” is the new “socialism”, but that’s bogus. Manchin also worries (too much) about BBB’s impact on the deficit. Biden should address Manchin’s concern by leaning on Sen. Krysten Sinema to reverse her position and support repealing the Trump tax cuts. If Biden has to threaten to primary Sinema, so be it. BBB’s family support payments and climate change provisions are critical for our country’s future.

Politicians on both sides are gerrymandering election districts to stack the deck in their own favor. But most extreme gerrymandering attempts are taking place in states dominated by Republican legislatures. The U.S. Senate must pass two key voting rights bills…and soon. Schumer and other Democratic Senators must stop dithering and abolish the filibuster, at least for proposals, like these two measures, that would protect fundamental rights like voting. If not, fair and free elections could go the way of the dinosaur in many states. And very quickly.

This is crunch time for our democracy.  The Senate has a chance, perhaps its last, to ensure that we have fair elections throughout the nation. The Senate must pass two proposed voting rights laws. To do that, the Senate must modify the filibuster rule, too, by allowing a carve-out for laws that protect the right to vote. If the Senate fails to act, then the American experiment in democratic government may come to an end, and soon.  

Democrats must pass Joe Biden’s $4 trillion plan, which would re-invigorate the U.S. economy, reduce inequality and fight climate change. The tax increases would be reasonable and would not be a drag on the economy. Conservatives’ complaints about huge tax and spending increases, inflation and “socialism” are nonsense. So are Sen. Joe Manchin’s claims that the plan is “fiscal insanity”. If Congress does not pass Biden’s plan, the U.S. will stagnate and the divisions in our society will grow even sharper.

Has Biden crippled his Presidency with the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan? Probably not, but Biden has badly tarnished his brand. The President should have postponed the U.S. ‘s exit until December, evacuated all 200,000 of its Afghan allies, and then ended American air support for the Afghan forces.

The Supreme Court adopted a tortured rationale for upholding two Arizona laws that reduce minority voters’ ability to cast their ballots, in its Brnovich v. National Democratic Committee decision. Justice Kagan showed that the two laws had an unfair impact on Blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans. The Court is basically giving a green light to Republican lawmakers in states like Georgia who are enacting voting restrictive laws. (We discussed the background for the decision in Part 1).

The Supreme Court has struck another blow against voting rights, by upholding two Arizona laws that make it harder for minority Americans to cast their ballots.  The Court’s ruling in Brnovich v. Democratic National Committee is very bad news for the Department of Justice’s lawsuit challenging Georgia’s new laws restricting voters. So far this year, 14 states have enacted laws designed to suppress minority voters.  The practical result of the Brnovich decision is that lower Federal courts probably won’t be able to block such abuses of political power. 

Donald Trump falsely claimed that the 2020 election was “rigged” and “stolen”.  Sadly, there is a great risk that the 2022 and 2024 elections will be rigged and stolen…by Republicans. Democratic leaders in Congress do not seem to have an effective strategy to counter the Republicans’ drive to establish one-party rule in most states. So Democrats will have to fight this on the state level, by mounting massive voter registration drives.

President Joe Biden has mapped out a strategy to make the United States more competitive and block, or at least slow down, China’s drive to dominate the world economy. The $6 trillion price tag for Biden’s proposals is expensive, and he may not be able to get his program through Congress. But if he fails, make sure that your children start studying Chinese, because the U.S. could lose its role as the global leader. Meanwhile, Sen. Mitch McConnell continues to act as though he is China’s best friend, sabotaging any attempts to repair our physical infrastructure and the tattered social safety net for less affluent families. 

As Republicans move to expel Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) from her leadership post in the House, the warning lights are flashing red for American democracy. Republicans are punishing Cheney because she has committed the cardinal sin of contradicting Donald Trump and defending the 2020 election results as legitimate. In the Party’s upper echelons, this is now considered treason.

In this fraught moment, Liz Cheney is the enemy of the tyrant, so she is my friend, politically speaking. Democrats should support her and the small band of other brave Republicans in Congress who are resisting the Party’s slide into an authoritarian cult.

You may have heard, from Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Wall Street Journal, and other purveyors of alternative reality that there is nothing sinister, nothing wrong at all, about the new voting law that the Georgia legislature passed on March 25. The state is just making its practices more uniform and expanding voters’ access, they claim.

That is sheer, utter nonsense—a whitewash, if you will.

The Republicans in Georgia were shocked when Joe Biden won the state’s electoral votes and its voters elected two Democratic Senators. The Republicans are desperately trying to prevent more Democratic victories. So they are cheating, tilting the playing field, creating obstacles for Blacks and urban Democratic voters in Georgia.