General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsTop Senate Republican rejects call for voting-rights fix
Posted with permission.
http://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/top-senate-republican-rejects-call-voting-rights-fix?CID=sm_fb_maddow
Top Senate Republican rejects call for voting-rights fix
04/28/15 10:00 AM
By Steve Benen
It was just last month when much of the nations attention turned to Selma, Alabama, where Americans saw former President George W. Bush stand and applaud a call for Congress to restore the Voting Rights Act with a bipartisan bill. Many wondered if, maybe sometime soon, Congress Republican majority might agree to tackle the issue.
Voting-rights advocates probably shouldnt hold their breath. Soon after the event honoring those who marched at the Edmund Pettus Bridge a half-century ago, Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn (R-Texas) dismissed the very idea of working on the issue. I think Eric Holder and this administration have trumped up and created an issue where there really isnt one, the Texas Republican said.
Asked if Congress should repair the Voting Rights Act formula struck down by the Supreme Court, Cornyn replied, simply, No.
Yesterday at the National Press Club, another key GOP senator echoed the sentiment.
It depends on what you want to fix, he said. If you want to fix more minorities voting, more minorities are already voting.
The Iowa Republican said the original intent of the Voting Rights Act is no longer applicable because in the last 50 years, its made great progress.
As a factual matter, its true that lots of voters from minority communities vote. Its also true that the nation has made great progress as compared to a half-century ago.
But given every relevant detail, Grassleys posture is tough to defend.
Between the Supreme Courts ruling on the Voting Rights Act and a coordinated Republican campaign, half the nations states have adopted measures making it harder to vote since 2011. Ari Berman recently added that from 2011 to 2015, 395 new voting restrictions have been introduced in 49 states.
To see the Voting Rights Act as some kind of quaint relic, no longer needed or valuable in todays society, is to deny the basics of recent events. The organized assault on voting rights in recent years is unlike anything Americans have seen since the Jim Crow era, making the Voting Rights Act critically important.
Whats more, the Supreme Courts ruling on the VRA came with a call from the majority justices for lawmakers to craft a new formula for federal scrutiny. There was, in other words, an expectation that Congress, which reauthorized the VRA repeatedly and easily over the decades, would respond to the court ruling with a revised policy.
And yet, here are leading Senate Republicans effectively responding, two years later, Nah, lets not bother to do anything at all.
randys1
(16,286 posts)What we know is the republican party is a criminal organization which is organized to deny democracy and voting rights.
This is their reason for existing other than killing government.
We CANNOT allow this.
It must not stand.
395 voting restrictions since the decision, ALL of them designed to stop voting.
Why is most of America not paying attention?
Infuriating.
Fred Sanders
(23,946 posts)Gothmog
(144,919 posts)If the voting rights act is restored, then the GOP could not continue to steal elections