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Karen Hobert Flynn is the president of Widespread Trigger. She wrote this for InsideSources.com.
Latest headlines, from the Jan. 6 committee’s hearings to the Supreme Court docket rolling again the suitable to reproductive well being care, profoundly implicate the liberty that many will have fun this Independence Day.
Opponents of democracy — a system that works finest when it empowers folks to have an equal say in selections that have an effect on their futures — have waged a well-coordinated assault on it. Freedom should be fortified, it should be protected on the poll field, and it must not ever be taken with no consideration.
Freedom faces threats on many fronts. On Jan. 6, 2021, the U.S. Capitol was attacked by a violent, racist mob bent on stopping the peaceable switch of presidential energy. It was an assault on a free and honest election. We discovered final week in chilling sworn testimony that former President Donald Trump not solely assembled, infected and set unfastened the mob, however he did it realizing that some within the crowd had been armed.
For the reason that assault, legislatures in lots of states have embraced Trump’s election lies to cross restrictive voting legal guidelines to make it tougher for Individuals — notably in Black and brown communities — to have a say in selecting their elected leaders.
In the meantime, racial and partisan gerrymanders have seen politicians cherry-pick their voters. Slightly than precisely reflecting inhabitants adjustments and making certain honest illustration, many maps had been drawn for partisan political benefit, leaving thousands and thousands with out a voice in their very own authorities.
Concurrently, a Supreme Court docket supermajority ignored precedent to impose its ideological agenda on the nation whereas ruling repeatedly to favor the rights of politicians, firms and people in energy over reproductive rights, the rights of individuals of colour, and on a regular basis folks. The courtroom’s ruling in Dobbs, overturning Roe v. Wade, permits states to disclaim girls the suitable to make selections about their very own our bodies. During the last decade, the Supreme Court docket issued a collection of rulings undermining consultant democracy — gutting the Voting Rights Act and ushering in limitless special-interest cash.
Regardless of withering assaults, freedom and democracy will not be useless. We’re at a crucial juncture, however these assaults are galvanizing Individuals who nonetheless imagine in freedom and democracy.
Whereas some states have handed legal guidelines limiting voting, others have expanded voting entry. Federally, the Home has repeatedly handed payments to strengthen voting protections and set honest nationwide voting requirements. These payments, together with the Freedom to Vote: John R. Lewis Act, have been blocked by Republican filibusters within the Senate.
Past laws, we should proceed to amplify fact and accountability. The Jan. 6 committee is performing an excellent service for the nation. It has laid naked the months-long, multi-layered felony conspiracy by Trump and his henchmen to overturn the 2020 election. The scope of what the committee has uncovered is breathtaking, and the nation is taking discover.
Prison investigations of those that tried to overturn the election are ramping up. A grand jury in Georgia is weighing proof in opposition to Trump for his efforts to coerce its secretary of state into falsifying election outcomes.
Lately, the Justice Division executed search warrants associated to lawyer John Eastman relating to his plan to place ahead false slates of electors to overturn the election, and to Jeffrey Clark, the lawyer who Trump deliberate to make appearing lawyer normal due to his willingness to disregard the details and echo Trump’s lies.
These investigations of the tried coup in 2020 come at a time when plans are being laid to attempt the identical factor in 2024. That’s the reason it’s crucial that these accountable are held accountable.
Whereas there may be a lot trigger for concern, there are answers. Our first recourse is the poll field, and we should maintain our elected officers accountable — whether or not they aided Trump’s efforts to steal the election, echoed the Huge Lie, or voted to substantiate activist Supreme Court docket justices. We want accountability for the Supreme Court docket, together with new legal guidelines to strengthen ethics and recusal requirements. We discovered from the Jan. 6 committee that Justice Clarence Thomas’ spouse, Ginni, was knee-deep in Trump’s coup try. But, not solely did Justice Thomas fail to recuse himself from circumstances associated to the revolt however he was the lone justice who voted to disclaim handing crucial White Home information over to the Jan. 6 committee.
Now just isn’t the time to sit down and watch how these assaults on our freedoms play out. It’s time for Individuals to face on the ramparts and solid our ballots to defend our democracy.
