Biden’s speech assailing “merchants of fear and peddlers of lies” was refreshingly candid about the threats posed to democracy. They include the violent Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, Donald Trump’s scandalous falsehoods about the 2020 election — “The ‘big lie’ is just that: a big lie,” Biden said — and the mobilization of that lie to rationalize voter suppression.
Yet he declined to take the logical next step. If matters are as urgent as Biden said they are, there is no excuse — none — not to alter the Senate’s filibuster rule, which is getting in the way of legislation to protect voting rights, block gerrymanders and make access to the ballot convenient for every voter nationwide.