As Democracy Summit approaches, Biden must make the Freedom to Vote Act his priority
In 1961, a diplomat from Sierra Leone named William Fitzjohn was refused service at a diner near Hagerstown, Md., because of the color of his skin. This incident -- one of many -- gained international notoriety and was a major embarrassment to President John F. Kennedy. Wanting to expand freedom around the world and intending to have the United States lead by moral example, Kennedy made passage of Civil Rights legislation a priority not just to ensure civil rights at home, but to give the United States credibility abroad as America sought to expand American democracy and its values.
Indeed, Secretary of State Dean Rusk testified on behalf of the civil rights legislation before the Senate Commerce Committee on July 10, 1963. Rusk said in part that "racial discrimination here at home has important effects on our foreign relations...the United States is widely considered the home of democracy and the leader in the struggle for freedom, for human rights, for human dignity...so our failure to live up to our proclaimed ideals are noted -- and magnified and distorted."
And in June of 1963, in a speech to the country, Kennedy made clear the connection between civil rights at home and the promotion of freedom abroad. Kennedy said "Today we are committed to a worldwide struggle to promote and protect the rights of all who wish to be free... We preach freedom around the world, and we mean it, and we cherish our freedom here at home, but are we to say to the world, and much more importantly, to each other that this is the land of the free except for Negroes; that we have no second class citizens except Negroes; that we have no class or caste system, no ghettoes, no master race except with respect to Negroes..."
As the White House gets ready to host a Summit for Democracy on Dec. 9, President Biden is failing in his efforts to restore faith in American Democracy at home and abroad by standing on the sidelines as The Freedom to Vote Act is being blocked by a filibuster in the Senate. A recent survey conducted by the Pew Research Center of the world's most advanced economies found a median of just 17 percent saying democracy in the U.S. is a good example for others to follow, while 57 percent think it used to be a good example but has not been in recent years. And just this year the Economist's Intelligence Unit placed American Democracy in the "flawed" unit, ranking it at number 25, citing erosion of trust in institutions, deep dysfunction in the functioning of government, and social polarization that makes consensus nearly impossible.
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/as-democracy-summit-approaches-biden-must-make-the-freedom-to-vote-act-his-priority/ar-AARzsmv
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