Since the 2020 presidential election, state Republicans have passed 18 voter suppression laws in 30 across the country. And there will be more coming out of GOP-held state legislatures before the end of the year unless Congress acts swiftly to protect our voting rights.
So far, I have seen more talk than action in the way President Joe Biden has handled our voting rights crisis. He’s advocated for voting rights legislation and asked Congress to take action, but he’s failed to do one very obvious thing that would change this fight: unequivocally support ending the filibuster.
The Jim Crow filibuster is the thing standing in the way of passing once-in-a-generation legislation like the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. If President Biden actually wants the Senate to pass those bills, he needs to use his influence as president to get the Senate to abolish the filibuster.
Anything less is a failure to meet this crisis.
Jonathan Bixby
Santa Barbara
