Why didn't Democrats do anything to stop Republican voter suppression in the eight years Obama was

[yurbud]

in office?

Cross check wasn't exactly a secret.

Now it's too fucking late until at least 2020. By then the GOP will figure out how to stop a hell of a lot more of us from voting.

[JTFrog]

1. Thanks Obama.

[uponit7771]

6. +1

[sfwriter]

2. Thank you.... I've wondered that as well. EOM

[mopinko]

3. the party's fundamental failing.

they got away w suppressing 100 times the margin we needed.

it's disgusting.

[uponit7771]

4. Elections are a states level issue ... the president can't federalize elections except for the laws

... against impeding peoples 14th amendment rights.

Now, we he COULD have done is just go for to the right on the issue and start jailing people for even thinking about voter suppression and had the DOJ investigate the shit out of GOP state gov who tried to implement voter suppression...

Outside of going way far right on the issue to swing it back where it was supposed to be what else LEGALLY could he have done?

tia

[yurbud]

14. bully pulpit, especially during State of the Union or something. Bring up some black grandma GOP

purged from voter rolls, especially if she had lived through Jim Crow, and just shame the shit out of the GOP on national TV.

[uponit7771]

17. Come on people, we went over the Bully Pulpit bullshit already... it means nothing to people who ...

... don't give a shit about laws.

You think "bully pulpits" would ever effect someone like Benedict Donald?

No, folk like him and the rest of the GOP don't give a shit about what people say or do... they care about votes ... bout it ... and now they steal them.

Lets talk about PRACTICAL LAW... not intangible influence

[yurbud]

41. You get practical laws by getting people in red or at least purple states to see the problem

and compel their legislators to act accordingly or be replaced by those who will.

[haele]

24. Bully Pulpit doesn't sway RepubliCon and Tea-partiers who are capturing state governments.

If nothing else, they double-downed, fighting the Supreme Court to remove all Voting Rights laws. And they did a good job of that.
They succeeded, because if it doesn't affect him or someone he knows personally, SC Justice Kennedy "can't imagine whatever would go wrong" if protections are removed in the post-racial, post-sexist, everyone's-a-reasonable-adult-and-besides-its-good-for-business bubble he lives in.

The Democratic party was still operating in a 1980's/1990's mode; letting the Blue Dogs and Yellow Dogs fight with the Progressives over ticky-tacky shit under the illusion the Republican party still had independent members; even when the last true moderate Republican - Jim Jeffords - broke from ranks and became Independent because he couldn't handle the blind lockstep talking points Republicans were forced to swallow no matter how they felt about it since 2000.
When Democratic leadership downplayed the danger because "we know these people and they aren't really like that" - even if their votes have consistently shown that no matter how good and considerate a person seems one on one, there is no "free will" in the Republican Party unless that person is willing to be primaried by someone even more crazy-brain-dead - the country ends up where we are now.
The Republican Party is a slot-machine that for the most part pumps out a steaming pile of shit on anyone that doesn't put the max amount of coins in the slot and pulls the lever at the right time for a slim chance at a jackpot. And of course, the Party always makes money off that machine.

Haele

[yurbud]

42. excellent analysis. Now we have to get Democrats to fight it and not just wait for Jim Crow loving

whites to die out.

[mcar]

32. Oh FFS

We heard the Obama detractors on this board scream about the "bully pulpit" for the last 8 years.

Do you recall what they said every time he gave a speech about anything, i.e using the bully pulpit?

"Talk is cheap," they would sniff.

[betsuni]

5. Why didn't Democrats do anything to stop me from eating cold pizza for breakfast?

I'm gassy now. Thanks, Obama!

[ismnotwasm]

25. Why didn't The Democrats cure the common cold?

Now I got the sniffles.

Thanks, Obama!

[bettyellen]

7. They had to win (and in fact did) individual court cases against Crosscheck - some of these were so

Last minute as to give the voters no chance to correct their registration. We won a case in Florida and in NC I believe. I know there were others where we did not win.

[onenote]

8. They tried.

But there were a number of significant obstacles. For example, in 2008, the SCOTUS upheld Indiana's voter-ID law. And in 2013, the SCOTUS gutted the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Despite these setbacks, challenges to various voter suppression efforts have continued in the courts, sometimes successfully, sometimes not. And various pieces of legislation to address voter suppression have been introduced:

http://billmoyers.com/2015/06/25/congressional-democrats-introduce-ambitious-new-bill-to-restore-the-voting-rights-act/


https://www.brennancenter.org/press-release/congressional-democrats-introduce-transformative-automatic-voter-registration-bill

The reason that these efforts didn't go anywhere? Because it was already too late -- the repubs have controlled at least one chamber of congress since 2011.

[yurbud]

16. good to know. A bill like that should have been waiting on Obama's desk on day 1.

[onenote]

18. List of voting rights bills introduced in Obama's first year in office

including one introduced before he was inaugurated.

https://www.brennancenter.org/analysis/voter-registration-legislation-111th-congress

[yurbud]

44. You know what's weird, is when politicians do the right thing, it is often hard to hear about

I wondered why the hell certain questions weren't asked before the Iraq War, and couldn't find any news articles on it, so I went through the congressional record and did find a handful of people who did ask exactly the right questions, not just about whether Saddam had WMD, but if he had them, why would he do something as suicidal as use them.

Is it a matter of pols just hoping the press will cover something, or sending out press releases and no one biting on it or what?

[yallerdawg]

9. That's right.

[JHan]

21. Yep!

[gratuitous]

10. You mean besides all the lawsuits?

Many of which Democrats won. However, Republican-dominated legislatures successfully dragged their feet because while a court can issue all kinds of rulings, it's still up to the parties involved to comply with those rulings in a timely manner. Republicans can, for example, enact HB2 in North Carolina in a matter of hours, but they can't be bothered with following a court order in the same calendar year.

[Gothmog]

11. The DOJ has sued repeatedly to block voter suppression efforts

The DOJ was a major player in the Texas voter id law suit including paying for many of the key expert witnesses. The DOJ filed an amazing brief on the intentional discrimination issue that will be argued in January.

AG Holder and President Obama rebuilt the the DOJ civil rights division and voting rights division after W destroyed these sections. It too W 8 years and nearly being sued to degraded the voting rights section and hopefully Trump will not be successful in gutting these efforts before 2020.

I volunteer in the voting rights area and I cannot think of anything that the DOJ or President Obama could have done to fight the GOP voter suppression

[RegexReader]

12. to fight the repugs from adding ballots

a voter ID law would stop them from inserting phantom ballots into the system. If every vote counted equals the number of voters signed in at the district, it would be impossible for phantom ballots being generated.

[TheDebbieDee]

13. Does no one remember AG Holder's and DOJ'S

attempts to stop NC's new voter requirements only to have the Supreme Court rule that southern states didn't need DOJ approval to make changes to voter requirements anymore...

And the day after the ruling, TEXAS announced a laundry list of rules for voters meet in order to vote?

I'm the only one who remembers this?

[Deuce]

20. I agree...that ruling was the enabler of a lot of voter suppression.

[BeyondGeography]

27. No, you're not alone

Holder did a lot. The OP is lame:
http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/eric-holders-fight-voting-rights

[yurbud]

43. thanks for the reminder

[Raine]

15. THAT is what I would like to know.. nt

[QC]

19. He doesn't have a magic wand!!!

[ananda]

22. I know.

Only I would start with Florida 2000 and
ask why Democrats haven't been more
determined and persistent in their activism
for voter rights.

In other words, it's a complete mystery to me.

[TheFrenchRazor]

34. yep; there absolutely needs to be all paper ballots, all hand-counted. nt

[NCTraveler]

23. Solid information in many of the replies. Nt

[KatyBR]

26. Because these happened in STATES controlled by the Republicans

Same reason we can't get recounts in these states.

[bermudat]

28. Does anyone remember during the Bush years

when the CEO of Diebold promised a Republican win?
Got to give it to the repugnantcans, they are up front
with their cheating.

[TheFrenchRazor]

35. yep, and the fraud machines just keep on counting... nt

[wiggs]

38. I remember that it was a HUGE issue for dems before they took

control. John Conyers had basement hearings on vote integrity and delivered thousands of signatures asking the republicans to do something about it.

To the OP point...dems afterward did nothing when they had the power.

[Tiggeroshii]

29. They tried. And in that effort the Voting Rights Act was effectively repealed.

After that, the states could basically do anything they want to suppress voting on a completely legal basis. Cross Check was legal. And it was well established by the courts, that it was.

This was the first election we've seen since the 60s without the voting rights act in tact.

This was all the aftermath of that decision.

[LisaM]

30. They tried. It was one of Eric Holder's biggest efforts.

They've had some successes, but are dealing with a war on multiple fronts, not to mention that when the Voting Rights Act was overturned, everything changed.

This really is a problem Obama and Holder tried to solve.


http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/eric-holders-fight-voting-rights

https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/eric-holder-vows-to-aggressively-challenge-voter-id-laws/2012/07/10/gJQApOASbW_story.html?utm_term=.eeb1a5b433a8

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/eric-holder-tpm-interview-voting-rights

[suston96]

31. Why.........?

Because most state legislatures and municipalities were/are in the control of Republicans.

That will continue for a long while.

The only thing left may be an "orange revolution".

Google "orange revolution" to refresh your memory regarding that incredible event in the Ukraine a few short years ago.

[doc03]

33. Because Democrats only vote in Presidential elections

the Republicans took over statehouses and made the rules.

[TheFrenchRazor]

36. well yes, repugs have a lot more statehouses, for whatever reason. nt

[mathematic]

37. "Not a dime's worth of difference"

Low info ideologues strike again.

[mahatmakanejeeves]

39. Because these things happen in state legislatures.

Sometimes you're just plain outnumbered, and there's nothing you can do about it.

[stillcool]

40. because the states

that don't like people to vote and run crappy elections are run by Republicans. Keep electing the same people, keep getting the same thing. The US Congress is the last place I would want to standardize elections. That's how we got computerized, paperless voting. If I was concerned that my vote wouldn't be counted I would contact my state government....before the next election. Not after.