Wednesday on CNN, former Obama administration National Security Adviser Susan Rice said the coronavirus pandemic was an “opportunity” to ensure every American could vote by mail.
Anchor Wolf Blitzer asked, “You’ve written an article, an opinion op-ed in The New York Times, and you say it’s not enough to just get back to normal. You also write this, ‘The coronavirus has laid bare our domestic divisions unequal economy and glaring racial and socioeconomic disparities as well as the fragility of our democracy.’ Ambassador, how should the United States use this crisis right now to address some of those problems that you mentioned fully exposed by the virus?”
Rice said, “Well, Wolf, I say that going back to normal isn’t acceptable because what we’ve seen what was normal has been extraordinarily costly and deadly for all Americans. And yet what we’ve also learned from this experience and for many of us it wasn’t learning it, it was just making it very obvious to those perhaps who didn’t see it is that we have a society that remains extremely unequal, in racial and socioeconomic terms and so many other ways. And yet as we have experienced throughout our history from frankly look at the Great Depression, look at World War II, look at the 1960s, out of every moment of crisis we have found a way to do things differently and better. The Works Progress Administration, the Civilian Conservation Corp in the Great Depression, the GI Bill after World War II, the Great Society, and the expansion and insurance of voting rights for all Americans in the 1960s.”
City in Anti-2A State Has 7 Times the Murders of Cities in State That Respects Gun Rights
House Ethics Committee Opens Investigation Into Democrat Rep Jimmy Gomez For Sexual Misconduct
WATCH: Young bear takes rough tumble from Denver tree after wildlife officers tranquilize it
The Green New Deal Is Back: Its Next Target – AI
American Airlines flight lands safely after laptop battery catches fire on board; passenger injured
Jury Slaps Down Burglar’s $10M Suit Against Urine-Tossing Business Owner Who Shot Him
El-Sayed under fire online after taking aim at Usha Vance, female Trump aide in weekend social media posts
Karoline Leavitt reveals next role after leaving White House press secretary post
Alaska Republicans scramble to educate voters on suspected Dem plant as ‘ballot fatigue’ threatens race
Virginia Dem admits system ‘failure’ after illegal immigrant accused in landlord killing escapes to Tajikistan
Ford Adds Thousands of Jobs in United States as Move Away from China Continues
NYC taxpayers could pay twice under Mamdani’s city-owned grocery store plan
Report: Meghan and Harry’s Brazen Attempts – and Embarrassing Rejections – at Becoming US Political Operators
Nevada brush fire spreads to 10,500 acres as governor declares state of emergency
Christian Club Files Lawsuit After School District Blocks Volunteer Mentors
She added, “This is a moment not only of crisis but inherent in that crisis is opportunity. And we need to take a step to broaden our social safety net to ensure that the most vulnerable have the health care, have the education, have the housing that they need. But in the immediate term because many of those things are going to take time and be ambitious. I recommend two critical steps that Congress could take in the next legislation that it passes. One is to ensure that every American has the ability to vote safely in our November election. We saw the fiasco in Wisconsin, which has cost scores of lives. And we have a real challenge to ensure that voters are able to access the ballot by mail, by longer periods of early voting, by safer polling stations, and that is the job of Congress to ensure. And secondly, Congress can make a down payment on this effort to build a more equitable society by expanding national service. And in particular, by creating something called a health force which can begin by hiring unemployed Americans and the like to be contact tracers when 300,000 of them are going to be needed for us to trace and open up safely.”
Story cited here.
