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.”
Minnesota official’s voter guide message on Somali TV triggers viral backlash: ‘Not an accident’
US dual citizen extradited to El Salvador, accused of killing son’s mother and abandoning toddler: DOJ
Harris pushes Georgia Democrats to turn ‘pain into purpose’ in fight against ‘tyrant’ Trump
Watch: Shattered Glass on Ground as DOJ Agents Hit Minneapolis Fraudsters Hard, Launching Multiple Simultaneous Raids Around City
Trump Admin Exposes North Korean Tech-Hiring Scam, US Companies Were Funding the Country’s Weapons
National Democrats leave Mary Peltola to fend for herself amid Alaska Senate scandal
Breaking: Sir Patrick Stewart, Legend from Star Trek and X-Men, Has Died Due to Previously Undisclosed Health Issues
Judge grills AG’s office in Cornell sex assault case as ex-frat bro’s lawyer demands ouster over alleged bias
9 Alleged Cartel-Linked Train Bandits Arrested in California
Dem probes could ‘torture’ young Trump officials with crushing legal bills, subpoenaed conservative warns
Woman shot outside Virginia GOP headquarters in Richmond, party confirms
Report on alleged ‘second Dan Sullivan’ effort emerges after nearly 1 in 10 Alaskans voted
Why Lula’s reelection in Brazil is ‘not gonna make democratizing Cuba any easier’
Dead felon voting controversy grows as ‘Betty No Last Name’ surfaces in Spanberger’s rights restoration push
Bombshell: Ex-Wife Levels New Rape, Incest Accusations at Hugh Hefner, the Man Who Mainstreamed Pornography
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.
