Biden promotes democracy as U.S. faces challenges
WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden is convening global leaders Thursday to pledge strong new commitments to democracy, even as the U.S. itself is facing some of the gravest threats in years to its democratic traditions and institutions at home.
As the president launches the administration’s inaugural Summit for Democracy, determined to show the world democracy can still work, the nation that’s long been considered a shining example is seen by various measures as a backslider.
Local elected officials are resigning at an alarming rate amid confrontations with angry voices at school board meetings, elections offices and town halls. States are passing laws to limit access to the ballot, making it more difficult for Americans to vote. And the Jan. 6 attack at the Capitol has left many in one U.S. political party clinging to Donald Trump’s false claims of a stolen election, eroding trust in the accuracy of the vote.
America must do better, critics at home and abroad insist.
“Can our democracy overcome the lies, anger, hate, and fears that have pulled us apart?” Biden asked during a joint session of Congress at the start of his presidency, months after the Capitol insurrection.
“America’s adversaries — the autocrats of the world — are betting we can’t.”
It’s an unsettling moment for the world’s leading democracy as authoritarianism grows around the globe, raising questions about the United States’ ability to lead by example and intensifying pressure on the Biden administration to not only promote democracy abroad but do more to shore it up at home.
As allies gather for the two-day virtual summit, the White House is approaching the meeting “from a place of humility,” understanding that no democracy is perfect, not even the U.S., according to a senior official granted anonymity to discuss the thinking at the White House.
At the forum, intended for some 110 participating countries to announce new commitments for strengthening democracy, Biden plans to speak about the importance of voting rights at home, much as he did at an anniversary celebration of the capital’s Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, the official said. At the time, the president called voting “that fundamental right” and decried efforts to curtail it as “the most un-American thing” imaginable.
The president has also said that passage of his ambitious domestic agenda — the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill he signed into law, as well as the roughly $2 trillion Build Back Better Act of social and climate change initiatives moving through the Senate — will demonstrate how democracy can improve people’s lives.
“The United States has a thriving democracy, but it’s been hurting in recent years,” said Michael Abramowitz, the president of Freedom House, whose annual report marked a 15th consecutive year of a global democratic slide.
“Right now, we’re going through a phase in America where it’s very difficult to get things done and to really prove that democracy can deliver,” he said.
One early test will come Thursday as the U.S. House moves to approve the Protecting Our Democracy Act, the third in a trio of bills alongside the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Act that Democrats in Congress have put forward.