Over the past year, citizens from across the United States have pressured members of Congress to advance federal legislation to safeguard the country’s democracy. They’ve marched, called, written, risked arrest, and even engaged in hunger strikes.
In 2022, the Senate will have a chance to rise to the occasion by reforming the undemocratic filibuster to pass both the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. These two critical bills would protect the freedom to vote, reduce the role of big money in our elections and limit congressional gerrymandering.
The international community will be watching closely as the U.S. decides the fate of its democracy. After all, many abroad have offered grave warnings about the dangers our democracy faces. For example, International IDEA, a well-respected international democracy watchdog, listed America as a “backsliding democracy” for the first time last year. And two other internationally focused indicators — The Economist’s Democracy Index and Harvard and Sydney universities’ Election Integrity Project — gave U.S. elections low marks in recent years.
