Things for Democrats to do starting on Day 1

Now that Joe Biden has been elected president and the party held onto majority control of the House of Representatives, attention turns to a pair of runoff elections in Georgia to fill two seats in the U.S. Senate. Should Democrats manage to win those seats, they will find themselves in control of two branches of the federal government.

If that happens, there will be a lot of pressure from the various factions inside the party to implement their specific agendas immediately. 

Far from being philosophically united, the Democratic Party is comprised of a few semi-conservatives and a fair number of centrists, plus leftists, far leftists, farther leftists and extreme leftists. There are the Clintonites, the Bernie Bros, AOC and her Gang of Three (known as The Squad) and the Elizabeth Warren policy wonks, just to name a few of the factions. All of them will have issues they want addressed by the president starting as soon as the inauguration speeches end.

But first things must come first.

Before an all-out effort is made to ram through Medicare for All, a Green New Deal, sensible gun control legislation, free college tuition, criminal justice reform, an end to systemic racism, an effort to slow global climate change and many other programs that liberals support, the president and Congress need to address the Number 1 priority – making sure the Republican Party can never steal another election and that nobody as unqualified, un-American, disengaged and mentally unstable as Donald Trump could ever be elected president again.

The first package of legislation – I’ll call it the Safeguard and Guarantee Our Free and Fair Elections Program – should include at least the following components:

* Restoring the parts of the Voting Rights Act that the Supreme Court stripped away in 2013. The intent, clearly, was to suppress minority voting and to deny to people of color rights they had enjoyed since 1965.

* Eliminating burdensome voter ID laws that serve the same purpose, making it difficult for African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans to vote without the “proper” form of identification.

* Addressing the issue of gerrymandering that has tilted representation in favor of Republicans by creating voting districts that look like runaway Rorschach tests.

* Appropriating the funds necessary to investigate voter interference from foreign countries and making whatever security measures are necessary to prevent it from happening again. This would include identifying the guilty countries and assessing strong sanctions against them.

* Making it illegal for unauthorized “poll watchers” to be within one mile of any place of voting, which would include drop boxes, mail boxes, courthouses and precinct locations, and arresting violators on the spot, especially those carrying assault rifles and hand grenades.

* Making mail-in voting the standard for all citizens regardless of the status of Covid-19 and setting strict regulations to prevent voter fraud, even though very little fraud is ever proven. This would include restoring the Postal Service to its pre-DeJoy condition and appointing a Postmaster General who would make handling election mail the top priority for his or her employees.   

* And finally, introducing a Constitutional Amendment to abolish the Electoral College and assure that the winner of the popular vote is elected president. (I know this will be difficult if not impossible, but as an alternative, I propose legislation that would require all electors in all states to cast their votes for the candidate who received the most votes nationally and not just in their particular state. Otherwise, as it stands now, every vote cast for the winner of the popular vote is nullified if the voter chooses the losing candidate in his or her state.)

The second round of priorities would include legislation to require all candidates for president to undergo a thorough psychiatric examination by at least three independent psychiatrists, provide tax returns for at least the last 20 years and be able to pass the same basic citizenship test given to immigrants who apply to become Americans. (They might also be required to watch the Schoolhouse Rock video of “How a Bill Becomes a Law.) Never again should we be governed by a man or woman who lacks even a rudimentary understanding of how the country works.  

Round 3 would be a package of bills to (1) eliminate any roadblock to indicting a sitting president who commits one or more crimes, (2) limit the president’s pardon power and (3) strengthen the Emoluments Clause to prevent a president from using the office as a profit center and a mechanism to “promote his brand.” Throw in some anti-nepotism requirements as well, and the stipulation that no relative, friend or donor can serve in the White House if they couldn’t pass the security clearance required to become a dishwasher in the Capitol cafeteria.

And Round 4 would include two major bills. One would change Senate rules to require a vote of 60% (or better yet, two-thirds) to confirm a Supreme Court justice who is going to serve a lifetime appointment on the nation’s highest court. I mean, c’mon, any job guaranteed for life that has a profound impact on the lives of so many everyday citizens demands stronger, bi-partisan support than a simple majority of the particular party in power. The second bill would seek to overturn Citizens United and bring campaign finance rules under control.

I could go on and cite a whole long list of examples where Republicans have cheated to win elections, but here are just a few off the top of my head:

* Texas Governor Greg Abbott launched a plan to suppress voting by limiting each county to a single drop-box for mail-in ballots, regardless of the size or population. This applied the same regulation to the smallest rural county as it did to Harris County, where Houston is located, with a population of 4,767,540.

* In California, the Republican Party admitted to placing 50 bogus drop boxes for mail-in ballots in various targeted locations, an obvious act that could lead to voter fraud. They wanted to place 100 but got stopped before they could finish.

* In Georgia in 2018, Secretary of State Brian Kemp, the state’s top elections official — while still serving in that office — allegedly manipulated ballots and suppressed voting to make himself the governor, effectively stealing the election from the more popular candidate, Stacy Abrams, by a margin of 50% to 49%.

* Nationally, Senate Republicans blocked an effort by Democrats to unanimously pass three election security-related bills that would require campaigns to alert the FBI and Federal Election Commission about foreign offers of assistance, as well as legislation to provide more election funding and ban voting machines from being connected to the internet. And don’t even get me started on all of the other bills that would have addressed election issues that have been blocked by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.

Please don’t get me wrong. I wholeheartedly support Medicare for All, sensible gun laws, college tuition assistance, criminal justice reform, combatting global climate change and many other programs that liberal politicians support. (As for systemic racism, I’m not sure we can ever end that, but we should certainly give it our best shot.) The thing is, the Democrats’ majority in the Senate would be as tenuous as it gets, meaning they may only have two years in which they control the White House and both houses of Congress, so their first priority has to be making sure Democracy is restored and the power of the Republican party to chip away chunks of it is diminished as much as possible if not eliminated altogether.

Then, once power has been restored to the people who actually care about America, the party can begin to address those other issues that liberals support…and they can do it knowing that the voters are behind them and want to be given back the government they deserve.