Voting Rights: Are Progressives Sleeping Again?
By Freedom
Social Security is important! The Media crisis is important! Fighting controversial bills (Bankruptcy Bill, ANWAR) is important! Working to block controversial nominations (Rice, Gonzalez, Meyers, Negroponte, Bolton, Wolfowitz, ...) is important! Denouncing hypocritical homophobe Busheviks is important! Getting to know Luntz playbook is important! Battling Fox and its goons is important! Working to get rid of Congressman Delay is important! ... Yet all that is NOTHING if come next election the people are not given the means to exercise their right to vote!
In the midst of these outrages, the White House is absent without leave. Legislation has been introduced at the national level to require machines that provide a paper record, and to ensure that election officials are nonpartisan, rather than partisan operatives like J. Kenneth Blackwell of Ohio. Bush is silent on the legislation. The Republican leadership in the Congress has already indicated that legislation will not go forward.
— Rev. Jackson |
The fight for the right to vote should never have left the forefront! True, the task facing progressives is daunting, having to tackle all those other challenges while making sure this one issue does not remain on the back burner. The fight for voting rights is one that they cannot afford to lose. The simple fact that the Bush people are for the status quo is proof enough that they know very well that a majority of Americans do not support what they stand for! So why are progressives sleeping at the switch on that issue? Except for Rev. Jackson ... but he will not be able to do this alone!
QUOTE FROM REV. JACKSON:
"Now in this divided nation, the undermining of voting rights — and the unwillingness of the majority party to defend them — is spreading. We saw it in Florida in 2000, where a partisan secretary of state, head of the Bush campaign in Florida, purged qualified black voters from the voting lists. We saw it once more in 2004, in Ohio. Once more the secretary of state in charge of the election was a rabid partisan and co-chair of the Bush campaign. Once more, African-American voters were disqualified improperly. Machines without paper records, made by companies headed by pro-Bush partisans, were adopted for use. When black registration went up, the number of machines in black districts went down, creating lines that lasted for hours.
"In the midst of these outrages, the White House is absent without leave. Legislation has been introduced at the national level to require machines that provide a paper record, and to ensure that election officials are nonpartisan, rather than partisan operatives like J. Kenneth Blackwell of Ohio. Bush is silent on the legislation. The Republican leadership in the Congress has already indicated that legislation will not go forward.
"A constitutional amendment to guarantee the right to vote, to ensure that residents of the District of Columbia have the same right to vote as residents of Baghdad, and to set up federal rules for fair elections has been proposed. The president is silent. The Republican leadership in the Congress has already indicated its opposition.
"And now the Voting Rights Act — which Bush knows well as a former governor of Texas — must be renewed and strengthened. The president claims ignorance. The Republican leadership in the Congress, dependent on its strength in the South, will determine its fate."
We must defend voting rights in America. For starters, all progressive websites should be carrying clear and obvious links to other sites working on the issue ... like this one for example!
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