How Biden Can Repair US’ Global Leadership

Storer H Rowley AS President Joe Biden marks his one-year anniversary in office, America’s ability to project US power, policies and moral leadership abroa...

Storer H RowleyAS President Joe Biden marks his one-year anniversary in office, America’s ability to project US power, policies and moral leadership abroad has been steadily undermined by a slow-motion coup at home that threatens to undo US democracy.Attempts by the Biden administration to pass serious new laws on climate change have faltered with the stalling of the “Build Back Better” bill. After the chaotic US pullout from Afghanistan, America’s allies are still wary about whether US democracy is strong enough to back tough bipartisan foreign policy initiatives. Russia and China are behaving more aggressively in the world, threatening Ukraine and Taiwan, respectively.At home, the bigger threat comes from within — a self-inflicted stain of domestic division, deepening authoritarianism and political deceit that tarnishes once-strong US leadership abroad. A defeated, twice-impeached former president continues to spout the lie that the 2020 election was stolen from him, and he has found a receptive audience among the vast majority of Republicans. If their voter suppression and nullification strategies succeed, America is headed away from constitutional norms and back to Jim Crow, even minority rule. Many Americans don’t seem to care.“This is democracy’s hour of maximum danger,” historian Jon Meacham said recently. “We’re as close to losing the constitutional republic that a lot of us have taken for granted for a long time, as we have been since Fort Sumpter.”How does the administration lead by its democratic example when US allies — not to mention rivals like China, Russiam and North Korea — can plainly see the insurrection incited by Donald Trump that led supporters to attack the US Capitol a year ago on Jan. 6 is still brewing. Only 21% of Republicans in a recent poll said they believe Biden’s election was legitimate.The most urgent threat to America today is a tidal wave of 34 voter suppression laws passed in 19 mostly GOP-led states, and overall, some 440 such laws were introduced in 49 states last year. Most troubling are new anti-democratic measures introduced by partisans that would go further and actually interfere with election results or reject them entirely. This anti-constitutional movement is deeply damaging to US credibility in promoting global democracy.When one side is lying to hold on to power, citizens must call out the truth. The courts have all ruled against Trump’s fact-free accusations, and audits have found no evidence of fraud that could have changed the outcome of the Nov. 3, 2020, election. The Jan. 6 House Select Committee is finding new evidence of the Trump team’s concerted effort to halt the peaceful transfer of power for the first time in US history. Many brave Republicans have opted for truth and joined Democrats in the fight. US Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah, and others have said they want to hear all the evidence. Global leaders in democracies and autocrats will be watching closely.Next Biden must make a crucial pivot on voting rights. If Democrats can’t get their key voting rights legislation passed, Biden must use his executive authority to do everything he can to bolster federal power to ensure free and fair voting.Words and laws matter. The Justice Department has just levied the first round of seditious conspiracy charges for Jan. 6 rioters. Good, but they must also hold accountable not just the foot soldiers, but the leaders of Jan. 6 insurrection. Those who hatched the plot should not be above the law, no matter how high they were in government.Just as he did in Georgia recently, Biden needs to speak loudly, call out the lies and visit states where GOP legislatures are trying to rig the next election through voter subversion laws intended to replace local election officials, gerrymandering or new laws that co-opt who gets to count the votes.Biden should also spotlight and encourage bipartisan campaigns for more civility in politics like the one launched by Reps. Debbie Dingell and Fred Upton in Michigan, a Democrat and a Republican, respectively, who have had enough of the outrage, hatred and violence.Ultimately, it’s up to the American people to act as good citizens to defend their democracy and push for truth and civility in our politics. This should be a major theme of the 2022 midterm election campaigns.When Winston Churchill urged his nation’s World War II generation to unify, fight and defeat Nazi Germany, he said that if the British Empire and its Commonwealth should last 1,000 years, he hoped people would still say, “This was their finest hour.” Today, the clock is ticking, and many Americans wonder if our constitutional democracy can last 1,000 more days.(Storer H Rowley, a former national editor and foreign correspondent for the Chicago Tribune, teaches journalism and communication at Northwestern University.)