Biden gets a boost

President Biden received his COVID-19 vaccine booster shot on live TV yesterday, days after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention endorsed booster shots for millions of Americans who received their second shot of the Pfizer vaccine at least six months ago. "Boosters are important, but the important thing we need to do is get more people vaccinated," he said. Referring to the roughly 25% of the country that remains unvaccinated, he added, "That distinct minority is causing an awful lot of damage for the rest of the country." States are taking various steps to deal with that damage.

• — Arizona. School districts in Arizona can enact their own mask standards as a result of a court ruling issued yesterday that found portions of four state budget-related bills unconstitutional. Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Katherine Cooper found the Legislature violated the Arizona Constitution when it packed numerous policy issues into its $12.8 billion budget package. The judge's ruling also affects laws regarding the teaching of controversial topics and election-related changes, among other provisions. —USA Today
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• — Massachusetts. Dozens of Massachusetts State Police troopers have resigned rather than receive the COVID-19 vaccine, and up to 20% of state police employees remain unvaccinated. Under Gov. Charlie Baker's executive order, all troopers are required to show proof of vaccination on or before Oct. 17, or they will be fired. Last week, a state judge denied a request from the state's police union to block the mandate. State Police Association President Michael Cherven said troopers should have "reasonable alternatives" to being required to get vaccinated, such as wearing masks and being tested regularly. —NPR
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• — New York. Gov. Kathy Hochul took executive action yesterday to allow medically trained National Guard troops to fill in for hospital workers who are refusing to get COVID-19 shots despite the state's vaccine mandate in healthcare settings. The mandate requires doctors, nurses, and other healthcare workers statewide to show proof of receiving at least one dose of coronavirus vaccine by midnight Monday in order to continue working. Hochul said she signed the executive order as a precautionary measure to quickly fill any potential staff shortages. —New York Daily News

Drutman: Why Senate bipartisanship is so elusive

"[P]artisans are the most hostile to compromise—especially those individuals whose racial, religious, and cultural identities line up most strongly with one party. But the partisan sorting that has aligned these identities so closely with one party over the last several decades is precisely the reason why voters have come down so hard on politicians who compromise. The more that national political conflict is centered on abstract moral issues and the identity of the nation, the more any compromise feels like a surrender. To recreate the conditions that allowed bipartisanship to flourish in the Senate once upon a time seems unlikely anytime soon." —Lee Drutman on FiveThirtyEight

Lee Drutman is a senior fellow in the Political Reform program at New America and the author of "Breaking the Two-Party Doom Loop: The Case for Multiparty Democracy in America."

MORE: GOP blocks debt limit hike, government funding —The Hill

Friends in high places

Allies of Rep. Liz Cheney are making a concerted effort to boost her re-election bid as she wages the fight of her political life against Trump-backed challenger Harriet Hageman. Former President George W. Bush will hold a fundraiser for Cheney next month, and backers say they expect more high-profile Republicans and traditional conservatives to pitch in as well. The Wyoming Republican has also received funding and support from former Speakers Paul Ryan and John Boehner, and Country First, a group formed by Rep. Adam Kinzinger, a fellow Trump critic within the GOP. "I think we won't know until the primary," says GOP strategist Doug Heye. "But very clearly, this is as much about one member of Congress as what the direction of the Republican Party is moving forward." —The Hill

MORE: Albert Hunt: Anti-Trump Republicans on the line in 2022 too —The Hill

Rubin: Prosecution is vital in Georgia

"There are powerful reasons for Georgia to prosecute someone for trying to fraudulently flip an election. The state has passed a statute allowing the Republican legislature, through the state board of elections, to displace voting officials in Fulton County (the most populous county, with the largest African-American electorate) in the administration of elections. This is widely believed to be a prelude to future efforts to reverse election results. Unless politicians understand such actions are illegal and will be prosecuted, the temptation to do so will be overwhelming in 2022 and 2024." —Jennifer Rubin in The Washington Post

Jennifer Rubin is an attorney and political opinion columnist at The Washington Post.

MORE: Trump committed 'multiple crimes' with Georgia election interference, analysis suggests —Newsweek

Hill: How Putin owns us

"The United States' vulnerability to the Kremlin's subversion has been amplified by social media. American-made technology has magnified the impact of once fringe ideas and subversive actors around the world and become a tool in the hands of hostile states and criminal groups. Extremists can network and reach audiences as never before on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, which are designed to attract people's attention and divide them into affinity groups. Putin has weaponized this technology against the United States, taking advantage of the ways that social media undermines social cohesion and erodes Americans' sense of a shared purpose." —Fiona Hill in Foreign Affairs

Fiona Hill is the Robert Bosch senior fellow at the Center on the United States and Europe in the Foreign Policy Program at the Brookings Institution and the author of "There Is Nothing for You Here: Finding Opportunity in the Twenty-first Century." She was a key witness in the first impeachment trial of Donald Trump.

MORE: Adrienne LaFrance: Facebook is an authoritarian state —The Atlantic

Focus on U.S.-Russian relations

The relationship between Russia and the U.S. has been on the rocks for years, and the U.S. departure from Afghanistan has created another potential vector for tensions. But it also creates an avenue for cooperation. To that end, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, discussed with his Russian counterpart last week an offer from Russian President Vladimir Putin to use his military's bases in Central Asia to respond to any emerging terrorist threats in Afghanistan. Milley raised the subject at the request of President Biden’s National Security Council staff.

• — While the U.S. and Russia share concerns about the threat of terrorism, the idea of working with Russia on counterterrorism is fraught with challenges. Congress enacted legislation several years ago that precludes close cooperation between the two countries' militaries as long as Russian troops are in Ukraine, unless the Defense secretary issues a special waiver. He has not done so.
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• — Some members of Congress remain suspicious of Moscow's motives. "Russia is more concerned with gathering intelligence on the U.S. and our allies than it is sharing information on terrorist threats," said a letter several senior Republican lawmakers sent to Defense Sec. Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday.

1. — The Biden Administration says it is prepared to cooperate with Russia in areas in which the two sides have common interests. while opposing Russian policies that go against U.S. interests. "We will pursue our own policies based on our own objectives," an unnamed administration official said. "The reality is Russia is an element of the equation in the region and so we are engaging with them." As always with Putin, caution is highly recommended. —The Wall Street Journal

Seib: Democracy is at risk, but we can do something

"[D]oubts about election integrity are like a deadly virus moving through the body politic. Politicians should beware: Like any virus, this one can't be contained on one side or the other of a partisan divide. Eventually it will infect and undermine all of democracy. There are a lot of important questions being debated in Washington right now—a potential government shutdown, the debt ceiling, tax increases, military spending, the coronavirus—but this virus is at least as important as any of them. … Sen. Manchin has argued that voting rights, more than perhaps any other item, ought to be established with bipartisan support, and he's right. Both parties, after all, exist only if Americans embrace the system that elects their nominees." —Gerald Seib in The Wall Street Journal

Gerald Seib is the executive Washington editor of The Wall Street Journal.

MORE: Star-Ledger Ed Board: The Arizona recount was no joke. It was a requisite step toward more election subversion —Star-Ledger

The most important thing we can do to shore up our democracy is to make sure that every citizen has the opportunity and the ability to vote. As a former member of the Republican Party county committee in Utah, I championed and worked hard to get vote-by-mail as a standard way to vote. We registered thousands of Republicans in mail voting. It allowed our seniors, those with disabilities, and those who work inconvenient hours to vote and to study the issues and the candidates in depth at their leisure.

Until this past election, Utah championed vote-by-mail as one of the best, most secure ways to vote. It wasn't until Trump decided it was "bad" that the Republican committee in Utah downplayed mail voting. Trump voted by mail, as did all of his family and all of his staff, but when other people voted by mail, it was "fraud." To me, the most important thing is to make sure that seniors, the disabled, and those who are working three jobs have the right to vote securely and easily. —Ronda R., Utah

I think Congress should pass the Voting Rights Act immediately. —Marci W., Utah

We need congressional term limits. —Todd H., West Virginia

Allow each state to enact their own election laws without interference from the federal government. The national government should not be allowed to control elections. —Russell G., Arizona

Voting rights protection at the federal level is of primary importance now. If our elected representatives won't stand up for this in these times, we are in for increasingly authoritarian rule. —Ann R., Washington
 

The views expressed in "What's Your Take?" are submitted by readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff or the Stand Up Republic Foundation.