Those Democracy-Saving Laws May Not Help

Here is a topic I don’t see enough discussion of. We hear a lot today (for good reason) that voting rights and the protection of democracy is the issue. Social spending, climate, immigration, infrastructure … they’re all important but they all rest on having a working democracy where voting determines who runs the government. All true. But the laws we’re actually talking about, the ones that are written and ready to pass (if Sinema and Manchin would let them come to a vote) or even in concept don’t actually address the main issue that has everyone’s attention. They’re critical. Don’t get me wrong. But they don’t actually address the catalog of situations in which you hold a vote, count the votes and then simply set the votes aside if you don’t like the result.