Will Congress use its unused 232-year-old power -- just in time to save our republic?

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Will Congress use its unused 232-year-old power — just in time to save our republic?
The Constitution gives Congress the power to overturn restrictive voting laws — and now is the time to use it

By THOM HARTMANN
PUBLISHED DECEMBER 27, 2021 6:00AM


The founders of this nation, and the framers who wrote our Constitution, created (as Ben Franklin famously said) a constitutional republic: a government "deriving its just powers from the consent of the governed" through citizens' (then white men) right to vote.

They referred to this as "republicanism" because it was based on the Greek and Roman republics (then thousands of years in the past but still remembered and idealized), and when put into law they called it "a Republican Form of Government."

Today that form of government is in crisis in America, as that core right to vote that defines republicanism is under attack by Republican legislators in red states across our nation.

"In emergency, break glass" is the almost-never-used option available should a building catch fire or otherwise be in crisis. There's a similar alarm and safety valve built into the U.S. Constitution that, like that glass in so many buildings, has never before been used to protect our republic.

....(snip)....

The Freedom to Vote Act is more urgently needed with every passing day, as multiple Republican-controlled states openly (and ironically) tear down actual "republican principles" of representative government by continuing to pass laws that pre-rig election outcomes. ................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2021/12/27/will-congress-use-its-unused-232-year-old-power--just-in-time-to-save-our-republic_partner/