Let’s actually protect our democracy

In his recent speech on voting rights, President Joe Biden argued, “To protect our democracy, I support changing the Senate rules, whichever way they need to be changed to prevent a minority of senators from blocking action on voting rights.” In the speech, which dramatically misrepresented voting reforms in Georgia (where it is still easier to vote by mail there than in New York), Biden argued that democracy cannot survive unless the federal government controls election rules for every state.

Yet in the virtual “Summit for Democracy” just a month ago, the president said democracy works “when people and parties that might have opposing views sit down and find ways to work together.” This voting rights example and others show how his administration doesn’t follow this advice, instead, it turns to executive power (or “changing the rules”) to advance policies it can’t pass democratically.

It began in the first weeks of his presidency, when Biden issued more executive actions than any modern president. Even The New York Times editorial board cautioned, “Ease Up on the Executive Actions, Joe.” The Times, hardly a frequent critic of Biden, correctly argued that these executive actions are a “flawed substitute for legislation” and are “not meant to serve as an end run around the will of Congress.”

That didn’t stop Biden, who continued using the COVID-19 pandemic as justification for an expansion of federal power. When a federally imposed moratorium on evictions was set to expire and Congress declined to address it, Democrats instead pressured bureaucratic agencies to take action. Biden supported this effort even though he admitted it was “not likely to pass constitutional muster.” (He was right—after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention put in place a revised moratorium on evictions, the U.S. Supreme Court blocked it shortly afterward.)

The pandemic has also served as a convenient justification for continuing to delay interest and required payments on federal student loans, costing the federal government $5 billion in lost revenue per month. (Biden recently extended the pause on student loan interest from Feb. 1 to May 1.) Despite this administration’s commitment to preserving such generous handouts for the wealthiest Americans, many Democrats still want more executive action on student loan forgiveness. To his credit, Biden has resisted (so far) calls from progressives in his party to unilaterally forgive $50,000 or more of student loan debt for each borrower, instead of recognizing that Congress needs to pass a law (unlikely when 70 percent of American adults don’t have student debt.)

The recent vaccine mandates are another example of this administration’s unwillingness to practice democracy, rather than just talk about it. Frustrated by the resistance of some Americans to the COVID-19 vaccines, the Biden administration used the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to create emergency rules mandating vaccines at all employers with more than 100 employees. Boosting vaccination rates is a key means of reducing the effects of COVID, but shouldn’t Americans at least have the right to decide whether they want to require it in their workplaces? And, isn’t the federal government—including the president of the United States and OSHA—bound by the Constitution?

The Supreme Court answered that question decisively when it struck down the vaccine mandate for employers.

As the high court continues to uphold limits on executive power, some Democrats advocate for packing it with more justices, in an effort to overcome the court’s current conservative majority. The recent debate over abortion, a current focus of the court, is set to become another key battle. After all, Roe v. Wade “struck down democratically enacted pro-life laws in nearly every state,” argued attorney Erin Hawley. “It removed from the democratic process an issue on which the Constitution is entirely silent and took away from “We the People” the ability to protect unborn life.”

Through all of these issues, there is an implicit acknowledgment that democracy is only worth defending if it results in policies that progressives support. This should be a warning for Christians, who still make up a strong majority (63 percent) of Americans, despite a decadeslong slide in the number of Americans who consider themselves religious. The Democratic Party has recently displayed more hostility toward evangelicals, part of its “religious illiteracy problem,” according to Michael Wear, former director of President Barack Obama’s 2012 faith-outreach efforts. “It’s much easier to make people scared of evangelicals, and to make evangelicals the enemy, than trying to make an appeal to them,” said Wear.

It’s also clearly easier for Biden and the Democrats to talk about protecting democracy than to actually defend it.