House Republicans, led by Southern Republicans, have squashed a vote to renew the Voting Rights Act of 1965, an act designed to prevent the massive disenfranchisment of black voters by Southern states. Southerners claim their states are unfairly singled out. Not unfairly! Do we need another lesson in history, or have we forgotten already?
Have things changed in 40 years? Sure. Is it time to pretend that racial gerrymandering or other attempts to squeeze out blacks will not return? Not at all. In fact, that is the primary electoral strategy of Southern Republicans. In the South, the parties are fairly divided by race, with 90% of blacks voting Democrat, and lopsided 70%+ whites voting Republican. If given half a chance, expect Southerners to return to old habits. We have rules to prevent people from misbehaving - we don't remove the rules because we think they've stopped.
We always knew that the aim of Southern Republicans was to turn back the civil rights clock to the 1950s. As Trent Lott said in praise of Strom Thurmond, if he had been president in 1948, "we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years." As Bill Clinton responded, "This is nothing Republican haven't been saying at church barbecues throughout the south for years."
Democrats need to humiliate the Republican party for this outrage.
Friday, June 23, 2006
True Colors - Confederate and Ugly
Posted by The Law Talking Guy at 10:12 AM
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3 comments:
Absolutely LTG! And I'd also point out that the people who are currently behind this move by Southern Republicans defected from the Democratic Party to the Republicans in the first place over exactly this issue.
I think the Democrats should call the Republicans on this by offering to extend the Voting Rights Act and apply it in the same way to all 50 states. The Southerners claim it's punative...OK, let's keep the rule but make everyone comply. It wouldn't hurt to apply this law to Ohio anyway.
The real problem Republicans have is not entirely race based. In essence, their election strategy depends on the distortion of the franchise for everyone!
// posted by Raised By Republicans
The rule is a remedy for past discrimination. It's not punitive except insofar as it is punitive to require somebody repeatedly caught driving drunk to install a breathalyzer in the car. No reason to apply that to everyone.
If Southern politics stops being race-based in the next 20 years, we can drop the extra checks.
// posted by LTG
I agree with you but the Southern claim is that they aren't opposing voting rights, only that their states are "unfairly" singled out. OK, apply the same level of monitoring to everyone. They'd still oppose it, claiming that tired old "states' rights" proxy for their racist populism.
// posted by RBR
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