The Latest from the Prospect
 â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â â
Â
View this email in your browser
**JANUARY 17, 2022**
Kuttner on TAP
A Sobering MLK Day
That arc of the moral universe is looking especially long right
now-but one can also tell a more hopeful story.
This was supposed to be the week President Biden and the Senate
leadership would celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day by announcing a
plan to suspend the filibuster and at last enact voting rights. Instead,
the legislation appears blocked, at least for now. These failures feed
on themselves, producing the picture of a failed administration.
But it took several tries to enact the original Voting Rights Act of
1965, which in turn came a century after African American men were
supposedly guaranteed the right to vote. It's too easy to pronounce
both voting rights and the Biden administration dead in the water, as
the media seem to revel in doing. There is also a hopeful story to tell.
Let's get the dismal story out of the way first. Biden's two
signature plans are stymied-voting rights and Build Back Better. The
omicron surge has everyone panicky, and taking out frustrations on the
administration's not-always-clear policies. The partisan Supreme Court
piles on.
Politically, attention keeps getting focused on Democratic disarray,
personified by Sens. Manchin and Sinema, rather than on the Republicans
who are the main source of the unremitting blockage. The economy is
having its most robust economic growth and job growth in decades, but
inflation that is mainly the result of supply shocks gets most of the
attention.
Without voting rights legislation, Republican voter suppression will
only increase, all but guaranteeing a blowout in the 2022 midterms.
Right?
Well, maybe. If we let it happen.
The alternative story is that the blockage of voting rights will produce
a massive mobilization, as it did in 1964 and 1965. That mobilization is
one of the prime reasons we celebrate Dr. King.
In those years, there was an outpouring of young people to make sure
people voted. The same could happen in 2022.
The 1965 Voting Rights Act, for which John Lewis bled, has been gravely
weakened by the Supreme Court's gutting of its preclearance provision.
But the Justice Department still has plenty of residual powers to
challenge flagrant suppression of the right to vote.
Don't we owe it to John Lewis and Martin Luther King Jr. to keep
struggling until we overcome?
****
~ ROBERT KUTTNER
To receive this newsletter directly in your inbox, click here to
subscribe.Â
Follow Robert Kuttner on Twitter
**Robert Kuttner's latest book is**
The Stakes: 2020 and the Survival of American Democracy
.
[link removed]
Making China's Case: Manchin, Sinema, and the Six Supremes
By demonstrating America can't ensure the right to vote or to survive
a pandemic, they're bolstering the argument that authoritarian regimes
work better than ours. BY HAROLD MEYERSON
There Is a Bully Pulpit
And
thanks to the Supreme Court, Biden will need to use it. BY DAVID DAYEN
Three Great Fed Appointees, Led by Sarah Bloom Raskin
Biden's superb stream of progressive financial regulatory nominees
continues. BY ROBERT KUTTNER
[link removed]
Â
Click to Share this Newsletter
[link removed]
Â
[link removed]
Â
[link removed]
Â
[link removed]
Â
[link removed]
YOUR TAX DEDUCTIBLE DONATION SUPPORTS INDEPENDENT JOURNALISM
The American Prospect, Inc.
1225 I Street NW, Suite 600
Washington, DC xxxxxx
United States
Copyright (c) 2022 The American Prospect. All rights reserved.
To opt out of American Prospect membership messaging, click here
.
To manage your newsletter preferences, click here
.
To unsubscribe from all American Prospect emails, including newsletters,
click here
.
