The state of our democracy

The view from southern Wisconsin

Photo by Merrill Goozner, August 1, 2021

As we pause to give thanks for the many blessings and bounty this nation has afforded many of us, I thought I’d share a picture taken during a recent trip through southern Wisconsin. It seems an apt metaphor for the state of our democracy, given yesterday’s verdict in Kenosha.

Wisconsin is an open carry state. Wisconsin’s Republican-controlled legislature is heavily gerrymandered. Its righwing Sen. Ron Johnson is leading an effort to seize control of the state’s voting apparatus ahead of the 2022 and 2024 elections, a template for voter suppression laws in other states.

Meanwhile, Senate Republicans continue to filibuster votes on S.2747, the Freedom to Vote Act, H.R. 1, the For the People Act, and H.R. 4, the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which together would end political parties’ abuse of the electoral process and put the federal government back on the side of protecting individual voting rights. H.R. 4 passed the House on Aug. 24 by a 219-212 margin without a single Republican vote. Over 200 people, including the head of the League of Women Voters, were arrested in Washington earlier this week protesting the Senate’s failure to take up these bills.

If you do nothing else politically this holiday season, please consider taking a few moments to contact your Senators. Ask them to repeal that chamber’s antiquated filibuster rule and pass legislation that will restore and preserve our democracy, which faces its gravest threat since the Civil War.

I will be taking the next week off to be with family and friends. My sincerest thanks to everyone who reads and supports this newsletter.

p.s. The New York Times this weekend published an eye-opening story on the struggle to control cobalt mining in Congo. Cobalt is one of the key minerals in the manufacturing of lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles and smaller electronic devices. It underscores the importance of gearing up recycling, which I covered in an article published here and in The New Republic late last month.