Josh Gerstein noted a few months ago, "In a political system where even the most trivial issues trigger partisan rancor, the Voting Rights Act has stood for several decades as a rare point of bipartisan consensus. Until now."
Quite right. The radicalization of the Republican Party has pushed GOP policymakers to extremes that would have been unthinkable up until very recently, and as hard as it is to believe, that includes new attempts to undermine the Voting Rights Act.
Yesterday, for example, Rep. Paul Broun, a right-wing Georgia Republican, pushed a measure to block Justice Department funding for enforcing part of the civil-rights era law. His Georgian colleague, Rep. John Lewis (D), a legendary leader of the civil rights movement, took some time on the House floor to explain that this isn't acceptable. The two-minute clip is worth your time.
Lewis described it "almost unbelievable that any member, but especially a member from the state of Georgia," would offer such an amendment. Defending the landmark legislation, and the systemic discrimination and voter-suppression tactics it helped overcome, the Democrat thundered, "People died for the right to vote! Friends of mine! Colleagues of mine!"
Lewis described Broun's proposal as "shameful." The far-right lawmaker, chastened, took the unusual step of withdrawing his own amendment before it could be voted on, though his office said Broun still "fully believes in the intent" of his idea.
I'm glad the Republican backed down, at least for now. But it doesn't change the fact that Broun pushed the measure in the first place, and he's one a growing number of right-wing GOP policymakers -- in Congress and at the state level -- who are openly hostile towards the Voting Rights Act. What's more, this comes against a backdrop of systemic voter-suppression efforts unlike anything we've seen since Jim Crow laws, offering striking evidence of just how far Republicans are willing to go in the 21st century.
It's heartening that John Lewis is there to fight for laws like the Voting Rights Act. It's dejecting that he still has to fight for laws that were celebrated by both parties in the recent past.
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The tactic doesn't seem unusual at all as the next logical progression of the party so extreme it is left with little else to give it a fighting chance to remain in power. For future options, observe the tactics of dictators. Vote!
If black people would vote for Republicans I am sure the Republicans would support their right to vote. Sadly Republicans never give black people, except for the millionaire black people like Herman Cain, any reason to vote for them. Taking away the right of blacks to vote is easier than actually doing something that blacks and whites find generally beneficial. You know, like actually supporting infrastructure rebuilding or maybe raising the minimum wage or maybe rebuilding urban schools or maybe finding ways to support solid families. Stuff like that.
Almost all black people used to be Republicans but Republicans drove them away by pandering to white racists because there are more white racists than black voters.
Actually, that's not why they switched. Blacks supported the Republican party after the Civil War, because it was the party of Lincoln. However, during the New Deal, FDR's policies were very beneficial to blacks, drawing them over to the Democratic party, which was also still the party of the South. Around the sixties, when it came time to vote on the Voting Rights Act, the Democratic party had to decide which half of their voter base they were to alienate. They voted for it, and kept black votes. The South proceeded to swing to the Republican party, who wasn't actively courting them.
Those who go after the right to vote are despicable, egregious sorts. Seemingly, Paul Broun runs with such a crowd! -Kevo
Representative Broun is one of the rightwingnuts who - among other things - supports a return to the gold standard. Indeed, the next step for these dangerous people IS armed insurrection...they are returning women to the status of chattel; they are destroying the rights of non-whites to vote and they are doing everything possible to bust every remaining union so that what is left of our middle class drops into helpless poverty and will work for scraps from them. The ARE fascists. Vote them all out in November!
That was good for a chuckle. Require a free photo ID, and Armageddon is upon us. Oh woe, oh woe, oh woe.
Heh.
Don't know where you live Shooter, but in my state that "FREE" Photo ID cost you $22.00. Try doing some research and turning off the faux noise machine and clear your head!
Sorry Mary, but I'm going to need a cite on that.
I didn't mean to agree with shooter. Georgia IDs are provided free of charge. But...
Oh, lookie. Here's a list of the documents the good citizens of Georgia have to present to get a driver's license or photo ID.
http://www.dds.ga.gov/secureid/accepteddocs.aspx
I believe the problem MIGHT have to do with providing birth certificates... Since many African Americans were born before the Civil Rights Act, they were often born at home. They had no birth certificates.
Also, I kinda bet older folk, who were born many years ago, would probably have no birth certificate either... plus, they'd have to dig up that marriage license.
Darn. Can't find those things? Then I guess you don't get to vote.
Or drive, or smoke, or drink, or cash a check, or fly, or food stamps... I have little doubt there are different ways to prove citizenship, and if someone is too feeble to get an ID, they are too feeble to vote. The best part is asking why something so basic and obtainable is a barrier. Could there possibly be another motive in the backround? Why, yes. Yes there could.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/05/09/2791658/fla-may-remove-thousands-from.html
Shooter does not understand that voting is a legal right which does not disappear if you do not have the correct paperwork in your pocket. That is, whether or not you have ID, you STILL have the right to vote, it does not go away. If you are a citizen you have the right whether you can prove citizenship or not. Thus restrictions on voting based on ID are unconstitutional.
Shooter does not understand that restricting voting based on ID has nothing to do with voter fraud. Anyone who claims concern over voter fraud to justify showing ID to vote is lying. I pity the fool who believes those lies. This is doubly a lie because most of the "concern" about voter fraud comes from Republicans, who have a long and ugly history of voter fraud at the highest levels. In fact trying to have people show ID to vote is itself voter fraud and flatly illegal.
Shooter has provided us evidence he strays from the reasoned, empirical based landscape, and instead is contented with the emotion-laded rhetoric coming from quarters not formally represented on this blog!
Heyy Shooter - get your misnomers and myth from FOX&Friends?
Oh, just to clarify - voting, a Constitutional right. All examples Shooter gives, legislative requirements produced by a majority of a sitting legislature in any given session, subject to change by future legislative actions!
Maybe, Shooter, you have a ways to go to be part of Jefferson's Collective Wisdom! -Kevo
Tsk. That's exactly the case. Only citizens can vote and if you can't prove you're a citizen, you're barred from the voting booth. Not to mention all those other activities mentioned above.
Shooter is unaware that his link is opposed to his assertion and is irrelevant to the topic. The link says people who are not citizens have been registered to vote. That is the failure of the Registrar of Voters who is supposed to confirm residency and citizenship. Showing ID has nothing to do with this.
"if someone is too feeble to get an ID" is not the law, which says exactly the opposite, as if Shooter had a clue.
That is a lie. A citizen has the right to vote whether they can prove citizenship or not.
ALL beside the point, children. There shall be no let or hindrance to access to the polls; no tax and no test per the Voting Rights Act.
Those who think that Voter ID might possibly be a good idea are entirely welcome to introduce a bill into Congress mandating a National Identity Card for all American citizens (as is done in other countries). That would be a whole other kettle of fish, so to speak. And this lady wishes them rotsa ruck getting such a thing passed.
Oh, and DNFTT!
That is the failure of the Registrar of Voters who is supposed to confirm residency and citizenship
How would the Registrar of Voters confirm residency and especially citizenship? I would think to confirm citizenship a person would probably need something like a birth certificate or similar documentation. So...although you are against an voter ID (which would require something like a birth certificate), you fault the Registrar of Voters for not confirming a person is legally allowed to vote - which would require the same type of documentation for an ID - AND this would of course be done before a person votes for the first time. If a person needs this type of documentation to prove they are a legal voter in the first place, then they could easily get a ID.
That crowd would be the crowd called "Republicans" I believe...
How the Registrar of Voters confirms residency and citizenship is not the topic. It is a deflection. Obviously if the Registrar registers someone not a citizen who then shows proper ID to vote then showing ID will not cure that fraud.
So voters are considered "guilty" (of being non-citizens) until proven innocent, is that it, Shooter?
It is 100 times easier to get a fake ID in this country, if you don't have a "qualified" birth certificate.
I live in Utah and "we" recently passed a law that states you have to have an "original" birth certificate to RENEW a licence. I had an original birth certificate that my mom received when I was born 27 years prior, but it was not a "qualified" birth certificate because there was a smudge near the mothers name. Nothing changed on that birth certificate from the time I presented it when I was 14 to get an ID or drivers licence at 17 and again at 22. So to RENEW my licence I had to pay $200 to get a "qualified" birth certificate from the state that had the same info as my original birth certificate minus a smudge near the mothers name.
for $200 I could have bought a real nice fake.
How blatant can this clown be? He's protecting the vote. Right. Let's just dial ourselves back to 1963 and hold it right there....
The phrase "
eternal vigilance is the price of freedom"
is still needed!
Lewis is a true American hero
John Lewis, Live long and strong, and keep fighting the good fight.
More sociological terrorism from the GOP I see.. Is there something in the water? Too many bowls of fruit loops?? What makes people so reckless where liberty and justice for all is concerned?
Anyone with a sense of history will know how, even though John Lewis' comment focused on friends and colleagues of his, he was also a very important part of the movement for voting rights. Please remember that this man sacrificed a great deal and risked his own life to gain support for equal voting rights.
If you don't remember or don't know, look up "Edmund Pettus Bridge" or "Selma March" to see the footage of Lewis and others being beaten up by police officers as they attempted to march from Selma to Montgomery, Alabama to demonstrate support for voting rights.
Thank you for the Post hoosierprof. Maybe Shooter will read it!
Well, there goes one more whimpering away and taking his amendment with him. I wonder what the word amendment means? Mending something or trying to fix something that is not broke. I believe they know we're on to their scheme and it just won't work, not without a fight. We the People are not going anywhere we will sit and wait until you people get your heads out of your you know whats and start working for the better of the people. Something they were hired to do but, refuse to do they instead are working on their hidden agenda which includes starving the masses and letting them die in the name of their almighty God called Money. Throw a little oil in there and you have a recipe called destruction of the very thing Our Father has fought so hard to protect and keep pure for our own existence.
In Fl. IDs are $25 and available at Motor Vehicles offices of which many are coincidentally being closed in time for the Nov. elections. Add that to fewer early voting days so that freedom rings less heartily in 2012.
Speaking of Republican extremism, isn't it about time you pointed out that the Republicans are wrong about absolutely everything? I mean really, name 1 thing they are right about. They are wrong about science, wrong about God, wrong about taxes, wrong about the debt, wrong wrong wrong about absolutely everything. They are what physicists call "not even wrong", meaning they can't even comprehend basic reality enough to actually form ANY opinions, even wrong opinions. Clinton told Bush to look out for Al Qaeda, Bush said, no I'm only worried about Saddam Hussein and made up the whole weapons of mass destruction lie just to start the war. They never ever had any conversation about the decision to go to war without being completely insane, and still to this day not 1 Republican will admit what an unbelievably horrible crime it was. Its like they are living in Bizzaro World from the Superman comics. They are absolutely insane, and there is nothing even close to that kind of insanity on the Democratic side. Go ahead, I dare you, name 1 thing the Republicans are right about.
Presidential race is essentially tied. This country is going down.
So it would seem, on the surface until you recall the Voting Rights Act "cost the Democrats the South" as was known at that time and has proven correct. The converse is also correct: the Voting Rights Act GAINED the Republicans the South, equally correct. You can never ascribe a moral motive to a Republican, everything they do is a lie for power so they can rob cash.
Yeah, but in 1956 African Americans tended to support to Republican party because of Eisenhower's federalizing troops to uphold the Brown decision in Little Rock (even though he disagreed with it). By 1960, when Kennedy called Mrs. King to express concern about the treatment of Dr. King in jail, and the passage of the Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts (1964, 1965), a vast majority of racial minorities have tended to support the Democratic party.
While it is true that Dems lost the South "for a generation" (as LBJ said) and then some, I'd rather belong to a party that has opted to put principles over a cheap effort to win over electoral support.
why are repiglicans afraid of the vote, oh yah they loose!
Photo ID's are not free. Taxpayers fund the cost unless the individual seeking such ID is required to pay for it. Get real it costs money to make a photo ID and someone has to pay for it.
Running an election is also not free. Perhaps we should charge people a fee to vote.
While states may have the right to control voting for state and local offices, it is highly questionable that they can regulate the manner of voting in federal elections. I believe the AG should step up and tell these states that they will have to accept other forms of identification that may not include a photo ID. This is a question of interpretation and enforcement of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and not state law.
FIRST we cut education funding so our next generation is not taught about the battle for the right to vote. Then the John Lewis's of the nation must someday pass away. Who is left to guard the liberty of the citizen--certainly not the Republican Party. Or its "shooter" members who casually dismiss attacks on voting rights as hysteria and dismiss the people affected as not worthy to vote anyway. As Pastor Niemuller said--when they came for me, no one was left to speak out.