'Help is on the way'

President Biden announced a series of measures yesterday aimed at ramping up coronavirus vaccine allocation and distribution to the states. Biden's ambitious goal is to fully vaccinate 300 million Americans—nearly the entire U.S. population—by the end of summer or early fall. To achieve that, the government will purchase 100 million more vaccine doses from Pfizer/BioNTech and 100 million more from Moderna. "We now have a national strategy to beat COVID-19. It's comprehensive. It's based on science, not politics. It's based on truth, not denial, and it is detailed," he said. —CNN

• — Racial equity. Biden signed four executive actions yesterday aimed at advancing racial equity. The orders direct the Department of Housing and Urban Development to take steps to redress racially discriminatory housing policies; end the use of private prisons; reaffirm the federal government's "commitment to tribal sovereignty and consultation;" and combat xenophobia against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. —NPR
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• — Climate. Biden is signing a series of sweeping executive orders today on the nation's climate policy. The orders include a moratorium on new oil and gas leasing on public lands, directives to federal agencies to end fossil fuel subsidies, a call for creating a task force to plan for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the creation of a Civilian Climate Corps, and a declaration making climate change a national security priority for the first time. —Los Angeles Times
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• — Immigration. In the first legal challenge to Biden's immigration agenda, a federal judge in Texas yesterday temporarily blocked his 100-day pause on deportations. It's a setback, but sources say they expect Biden will let Congress take the lead on forging reform, with the White House providing guidance, as needed. If progress means moving components through Congress one at a time, or in smaller packages, Biden is reportedly amenable to that. —Politico

Vanden Heuvel: The fight for democracy has just begun

"[I]t would be a mistake to think the fight to preserve and revive our flawed democracy concluded on Inauguration Day. In fact, it has only begun. The Capitol siege was just the latest and most brazen instance of politicians leading efforts to delay democracy when it threatens their power—by suppressing the votes of political opponents, giving corporate funding undue influence over the people's representatives, and structuring Congress so that favored factions can hold on to outsize power." —Katrina vanden Heuvel in The Washington Post

Katrina vanden Heuvel is a columnist at The Washington Post covering national politics and foreign policy.

MORE: Lynn Schmidt: After the inauguration, new hope for peaceful Wednesdays —St. Louis Post-Dispatch

A bad sign for Senate conviction hopes

Forty-five Republicans, including Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, sided with Sen. Rand Paul yesterday on his point of order, arguing that an impeachment trial of a former president violates the Constitution. Just five Republicans—Sens. Susan Collins, Lisa Murkowski, Mitt Romney, Ben Sasse, and Pat Toomey—joined Democrats in tabling Paul's proposal, clearing the way for the trial to move forward. Seventeen Republicans would have to join the Democrats to reach the two-thirds supermajority required to convict Donald Trump of inciting the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. —The Wall Street Journal

MORE: U.S. terrorism alert warns of politically motivated violence —Associated Press

Berman: How ranked-choice voting supports legislative independence

"[Sen. Lisa] Murkowski was the first GOP senator to demand Trump's exit after the deadly riot. The speed and bluntness with which she spoke out against the former president surprised her allies, who saw in her words the first reverberations of how Alaska voted in November. Murkowski wasn't on the 2020 ballot, but in passing a ballot measure to change the way the state elects its leaders, Alaskans effectively gave their long-serving senator a fresh infusion of political freedom: She no longer needs to worry nearly so much about a conservative primary foe defeating her next year." —Russell Berman in The Atlantic

Russell Berman is a staff writer at The Atlantic covering politics.

Douthat: Right-wing populism's doubtful future

"[F]or the immediate future, no populism is likely to emerge [on the right] that isn't primarily about fealty to Trump, and no national majority can be forged on the basis of that fealty—not by Trump himself, and not by [Sens. Josh] Hawley or Ted Cruz or any other too-clever courtier hovering beside the Mar-a-Lago throne. So a populist imperative will remain, but until Trump himself recedes—someday, someday—its fulfillment will be pushed ever further out of reach." —Ross Douthat in The New York Times

Ross Douthat is a writer and an opinion columnist at The New York Times.

MORE: Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz sees Wyoming as testing ground for Trump-style populism —Casper Star-Tribune

Focus on social media

To witness the deleterious effect of social media on our public discourse, one need look no further than newly elected Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene's Facebook page. Over the years, Greene repeatedly indicated support for executing prominent Democratic politicians and frequently posted far-right conspiracy theories. In April 2018, Greene wrote conspiratorially about the Iran nuclear deal. When a commenter asked Greene, "Now do we get to hang them ?? Meaning H & O ???," referring to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former President Barack Obama, Greene replied, "Stage is being set. Players are being put in place. We must be patient. This must be done perfectly or liberal judges would let them off." Hoo boy. —CNN

• — Facebook is still in denial. Greene is far from the only Facebook user to use the platform to spread hate and conspiracy theories. Even now, three months after the social media giant pledged at long last to ban all content that "denies or distorts the Holocaust," a new report from the Anti-Defamation League says Holocaust denial content remains on the platform. —USA Today
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• — Just a "political ploy"? That's what Republicans are calling a proposed FBI investigation of the role played by the partially defunct social media platform Parler in the Capitol insurrection. House Oversight Committee Republicans accuse Democrats of seeking to silence conservative speech by singling out Parler, a favorite destination of the right, for scrutiny. They say that any probe also should include Facebook and Twitter, which were used by the rioters as well. —Newsweek
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• — Parler's loss is Telegram's pain. The shutdown of Parler and the purging of users from Facebook and Twitter following the insurrection led to 25 million new users joining the messaging platform Telegram. It's causing an identity crisis for the app. Long the platform of choice for global democracy movements resisting authoritarian tyrants, Telegram is now flooded with far-right conspiracy theorists, racists, and violent insurrectionists. —The New York Times

Gathara: The first step to reform is finding humility

"[T]here are many lessons here for the U.S. But the most important that comes to my mind is the importance of humility. That is not a characteristic often associated with the U.S. Many Americans seem to view Trump's presidency as an aberration instead of the predictable consequence of systemic dysfunction. As a result, the country appears to be blind to its need for fundamental reform. Change always requires faith in the possibility of a better tomorrow. But for a nation such as the U.S. that always thinks of itself as being at the top, the risk is that the only way forward is down." —Patrick Gathara in Financial Times

Patrick Gathara is a political commentator based in Nairobi.

MORE: Irene Butter: I witnessed the rise of Nazism firsthand. We must act now to protect American democracy —CNN

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