Two years after Capitol riot, democracy still under attack
Two years ago, America’s democracy was brutally under attack.
Apostles of Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, beating police officers who dared stand in their way. The ignorant insurrectionists foolishly believed they could stop Congress from certifying that Joe Biden had won the 2020 presidential election, ousting the man they worshipped.
As I wrote last year, who thought such a stupid plan would succeed?
The Capitol was repaired and reopened for business. The broken windows and doors were replaced. The rioters’ debris is rotting in a dump. And some rioters are rotting behind bars.
Democracy, though, remains under attack. It’s occurring in more subtle ways. But they are equally dangerous.
Right-wingers are trying to ban books on topics they disagree with. They are trying to roll back voting rights. They are fighting to keep many Americans subject to vile violations of their rights because they are gay or transgender. And they want women to bear the children of rapists.
More than 1,600 books were banned in public schools from July 2021 to June 2022, according to PEN America, a century-old nonprofit that promotes access to literature.
It found that 41% of those titles had LGBTQ themes or characters. Forty percent had prominent characters of color and
21% were about race and racism. Four percent had characters and stories reflecting religious minorities such as Jews and Muslims.
The Morning Call’s Jenny Roberts reported last year that the Lehigh Valley thankfully has not been inundated with attempts to restrict what students read.
Voting by mail has been under attack since Trump lost the 2020 election and falsely alleged there was widespread fraud through mail ballots. In Pennsylvania, some Republicans have tried to stop mail voting, both with legislation and court challenges.
Their plans have worked just as poorly as the plans of the insurrectionists at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Last year, the state Supreme Court ruled the mail voting law is constitutional. And legislation to overturn the mail voting law that was enacted in 2019 has not been approved.
There’s virtually no chance that will happen in this legislative session, either, with a Democratic governor and a state House that should be split evenly soon, when vacant seats are filled.
Mail voting in Pennsylvania isn’t perfect. That’s largely because the GOP has focused its efforts on killing it instead of fixing its shortcomings.
Mail voting has been under attack in other states as well, including in Arizona, where until Trump’s tantrum in 2020, it was noncontroversial and widely championed by Republicans.
There is no reason to roll back mail voting. More states should adopt it to make it easy for people to vote.
More states, including Pennsylvania, also should enact laws to ensure that every citizen has the protections they are entitled to under the U.S. Constitution — to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
It is still legal in Pennsylvania to discriminate against people because of their gender identity and sexual orientation. While it’s illegal to use race as a reason to deny someone housing or access to public accommodations, it’s OK to do that if someone is transgender or gay.
They are not covered by the federal civil rights law. Or by a state law.
Repeated attempts have been made to fix that problem, on both levels. The U.S. House twice passed the Equality Act, which would expand the civil rights law. But Republicans have used the filibuster to block it in the Senate.
State lawmakers from both parties have introduced anti-discrimination bills that have been buried by the Republican legislative leaders.
Freedoms of women have been restricted in states that have passed laws prohibiting or restricting abortions, even in cases where they were raped or their health is at risk because of pregnancy complications.
Thirteen states have banned all abortions since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year.
Pennsylvania’s law remains the same, with abortions allowed until the 24th week of a pregnancy. Republican state lawmakers are laying the groundwork, though, for future restrictions.
Last year, they took the first step toward trying to amend the state Constitution to clarify that it does not guarantee any rights relating to abortion. That would pave the way for future legislation — whether next year or next decade, whenever the political winds become favorable — to outlaw abortion.
For the Constitution to be amended, the Legislature would have to pass the same legislation this year or next year, and voters would have to approve the change through a referendum.
With the state House likely soon to be politically even and with a Democrat turned independent named House speaker, the chances of that legislation passing this year are not promising.
But that won’t stop the attacks from coming.
Americans must continue to be vigilant and defend democracy.