Biden raises refugee cap and vaccination target

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At the risk of sounding like a broken record, we need to have a serious discussion about the GOP. Anyone who thought the insurrection nearly four months ago might at last turn the tide against the Trumpified Republican Party was a victim of misplaced optimism. The most recent developments—a private "audit" of the vote in Maricopa, Co., Arizona, and the likelihood that Rep. Liz Cheney will imminently lose her leadership position in the party for contradicting the ex-president—tell us everything we need to know. There is no longer room in the GOP for truth, and increasingly, there's no room for center-right Americans who want to be part of a principled political movement rather than a personality cult. It's time for something new. —Melissa Amour, Managing Editor

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** Hope for refugees
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President Biden has raised the refugee admissions cap to 62,500 for the rest of this fiscal year. The move reverses part of an executive order he signed last month that eliminated certain refugee restrictions the previous administration had put in place—but kept the admissions ceiling at a record low 15,000. That decision, likely influenced by the surge of immigrants at the southern border, sparked a political backlash from immigration advocates and members of his own party. ([link removed])
* — The refugee system is run separately from that for asylum-seekers. Refugees flee their home countries and go through security and medical vetting before they are permitted to relocate to the U.S. Asylum-seekers must meet the same standard of persecution, but they make their claims once they reach U.S. soil. ([link removed])
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* — Historically, the U.S. has taken in nearly half of the world's refugees resettled by the United Nations, though under the previous administration, it fell behind Canada. The number of refugees around the world has since soared to 26 million, the highest since World War II, according to the UN. ([link removed])
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* — "The sad truth is that we will not achieve 62,500 admissions this year." Biden acknowledged that the increase is more symbolic than practical, as it's unlikely the U.S. will hit the cap this late in the year. However, it means the program can build up ahead of the next fiscal year and give waiting refugees hope. —The Wall Street Journal ([link removed])

MORE: Separated families to reunite in the U.S. as immigrant advocates push for more —NPR ([link removed])


** Vaccine politicization makes herd immunity 'unlikely'
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While the overall COVID-19 picture is improving significantly across the U.S., an emerging but striking divide in vaccination rates could mean the political division sparked by the pandemic could stick around for a while. The 22 states with the highest percentage of vaccinated adults all voted for Joe Biden in November, while 14 of the bottom 15 states voted for Donald Trump—and an estimated 30% of the total adult population remains vaccine hesitant. As a result, public health experts say the goal of reaching "herd immunity" to eradicate the virus probably isn't going to happen for a long time, if ever. —The Boston Globe ([link removed])

MORE: Biden aims for vaccinating 70% of adult Americans by July 4 —Associated Press ([link removed])


** Velasco: Cautionary tales from Latin America
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"The decline of parties throughout the region is partly the result of well-meaning reforms. It was thought that making the electoral system more proportional would better reflect society's increasing diversity; instead, it produced myriad tiny parties that represent no one. Introducing primaries was supposed to make parties more democratic internally; it did, but at the risk of making them vulnerable to being taken over by media-savvy celebrities. The gain in transparency that came with campaign finance reform also caused a collapse in party discipline, as party bosses lost leverage over publicity-seeking parliamentarians. Greater use of plebiscites has allowed small groups of activists to hijack the policy agenda." —Andrés Velasco on ([link removed]) Project Syndicate ([link removed])

Andrés Velasco is an educator, author, and a former presidential candidate and finance minister of Chile. He is currently the dean of the School of Public Policy at the London School of Economics and Political Science.

MORE: Ishaan Tharoor: Right-wing nationalists failed during the pandemic. But they weren't the only ones —The Washington Post ([link removed])


** 'We're not looking to escalate'
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Ahead of the first in-person Group of Seven meeting since 2019, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and British Foreign Sec. Dominic Raab delivered a message of multilateralism yesterday, hoping to build new alliances to counter challenges from China and Russia. Blinken said the U.S. would prefer more stable ties with Russia, depending on how President Vladimir Putin behaves, especially in regard to Ukraine. Raab said the G7 will look at a proposal to build a rapid response mechanism to counter Russian disinformation. Regarding China, Blinken said the goal isn't "to hold China down," but to defend "the international rules-based order," while Raab spoke of the need to stand up for open markets and democracy. —Reuters ([link removed])

MORE: Andrea Kendall-Taylor & David Shullman: China and Russia's dangerous convergence —Foreign Affairs ([link removed])
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** Fried: DeSantis attacks democracy in Florida
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"Almost systematically, [Florida Gov. Ron] DeSantis attacks [media] coverage, ignores their questions, and refuses to release data and information which should be publicly available. We've seen the same actions to consolidate power and silence media in countries like Cuba and Nicaragua, where Castro oversaw a rewrite of the constitution and Maduro has consistently silenced and undermined the independent press. And while the governor condemns the leaders of these countries, his actions speak louder than his words. DeSantis has been pulling from the authoritarian playbook—suppressing votes and opponents, attacking the media, and clamping down on constitutional rights." —Nikki Fried in ([link removed]) Miami Herald ([link removed])

Nikki Fried is Florida's commissioner of agriculture in the DeSantis cabinet.

MORE: Prachi Vidwans: U.S. democracy promotion needs a reboot —World Politics Review ([link removed])


** Focus on voting
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A new study by the Democracy Fund Voter Study Group sheds some positive light on the 2020 election. The study found that 73% of American voters were confident their vote was accurately counted. There was a predictable chasm in confidence, however—91% of Democrats said votes were counted as intended, compared to 21% of Republicans. Out of eight possible voting problems, such as difficulty obtaining a mail ballot, none were experienced by more than 3% of voters. Still, there's room for improvement, as twice as many Black voters (31%) vs. White (18%) or Hispanic voters (17%) reported waiting more than 30 minutes to vote. —Yahoo! News ([link removed])
* — Second thoughts in Florida. Some Florida Republicans are reacting with alarm after the GOP-dominated state legislature, with Gov. Ron DeSantis' support, passed a sweeping bill last week that puts new restrictions on the use of mail-in ballots. Not only are GOP lawmakers reversing statutes that their own predecessors put in place, but they're also curtailing a voting practice that millions of Floridians have used safely for decades—and that frequently resulted in Republican wins. —The Washington Post ([link removed])
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* — Transparency in South Carolina. Legislation introduced recently in the South Carolina House and Senate aims to let voters know how politicians determine who their constituents are, before the decennial district redrawing process starts this fall. Dubbed the FAIR Act, short for Fairness, Accountability, and Integrity in Redistricting, the bills ensure legislators follow their own rules—adopted a decade ago—while putting the process in writing for voters to check. —The Post and Courier ([link removed])
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* — RCV in Texas. Austin became the first Texas city to adopt ranked-choice voting on Saturday, as 60% of voters approved Proposition E, a ballot initiative to switch to the alternate voting format for City Council and mayoral elections. The amendment to the city charter is intended to eliminate runoff elections, which typically have far lower voter turnout than general elections. Well done, Austin! —Austin Monitor ([link removed])

MORE: Dozens of businesses speak out against voting restrictions in Texas —NBC News ([link removed])


** Collinson: Cheney's plight a sign of the times
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"Rep. Liz Cheney may well be sacrificing her own political career as one of the few GOP lawmakers with the guts to speak truth about Trump's anti-democratic attacks. A new effort is underway among the ex-president's acolytes in Congress to strip her of her No. 3 position in the House only three months after she comfortably retained it in a secret-ballot election. Cheney's ability to fight off a pro-Trump primary opponent in her home state of Wyoming is questionable. Her transgression is to simply keep pointing out the truth: that last year's election wasn't stolen by President Joe Biden." —Stephen Collinson on CNN ([link removed])

Stephen Collinson is a CNN political analyst.

MORE: Allies of GOP leader vow to oust Liz Cheney —The Hill ([link removed])

Ron DeSantis is a right-wing nut. He epitomizes a Trump supporter. He's also extremely dangerous to democracy. —John W., Georgia
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** The views expressed in "What's Your Take?" are submitted by readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff or the Stand Up Republic Foundation.
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