Demonstrators call on the US Senate to pass the For the People Act, outside the Supreme Court in Washington DC, June 9, 2021.(Caroline Brehman/CQ Roll Call/AP)

UPDATE, JULY 15:

I joined Turkey’s ANews on Wednesday night for a 10-minute discussion of the critical moment over voting rights, at state and national level:

The Trump-fed instability over elections and the Trumpist ascendancy in the Republican Party has led to the GOP attempt at state level to make it much harder to vote.

ORIGINAL ENTRY, JULY 14: With Republicans in Washington blocking protection of voting rights as Republicans in State legislatures impose restrictions, I spoke with Monocle 24’s Georgina Godwin on Wednesday about a crisis for the American system.

Listen from 20:23:

We look at the effort in Texas to curb the vote, following measures in 17 other Republican-controlled states, which has only been prevented by the journey of Texan Democrats to Washington. We consider how and why Republicans in the US Senate are preventing any final consideration of bills to protect and expand voting rights.

We ask, following President Joe Biden’s speech yesterday, if anything can be done to fulfil his appeal, “Help prevent this concerted effort to undermine our election and the sacred right to vote.”

Biden on Voting Rights Restrictions: “Have You No Shame?”

There has been almost no voting fraud in US election recent years. Instead, Republicans are scared they will continue to lose ground in legitimate elections. So they are trying to tilt the playing field and they don’t really care about the core provisions of democracy that we supposedly have in the US.