Today (August 6) marks the 50th anniversary of the passage of the Voting Rights Act.
Not one Republican running for president supports its renewal, despite the fact that every Republican president before now has.
Even W. Bush signed legislation renewing it and pledged that his administration would defend it in court.
That none of the candidates holds this position, including Jeb Bush, tells us all we need to know about how far right the Republican Party has moved.
That Republicans will not pass legislation to renew the Voting Rights Act and bring its provisions in line with the Supreme Court ruling of two years ago is a slap in the face to every person of color.
That Republican controlled state legislatures, including the states of some of the current and former governors running for president (Ohio, Wisconsin, and Texas), have passed laws that are intended to turn back voting rights the 1965 Act guaranteed is anti-American, anti-democratic, and morally disgusting.
You wonder what has happened to the conservative movement in this country when their idea of protecting freedom and democracy is to put obstacles in the way of the right of all Americans to vote.
Of course, the justification for these restrictive laws is that there is widespread voter fraud so let me say what I have said several times: The claim of voter fraud is itself the biggest fraud of all.
Not one shred of evidence has ever been produced to prove widespread voter fraud, which is also one of the reasons most of these laws are being reversed by the courts, as the Texas voting law was this week by a U.S. Appeals Court.
Here is what the facts say. Voter apathy is a far more serious threat to our form of government than voter fraud.
Fifty years ago our nation took a giant step forward in becoming the country many Americans believed at the time we already were. Since then every administration, Republican and Democratic, has stood for ensuring we didn’t go back.
It is nothing short of shameful that Republicans today do not share that commitment.
My question is, if you do not support the right of every American citizen to vote unencumbered by unnecessary and ineffective voting regulations, how can you possibly expect anyone to believe you stand for freedom and justice for all?
It seems to me the only fair conclusion anyone can reach is that you don’t, that, instead, you are standing in the way of our nation continuing to make strides toward becoming the kind of nation many of us believe we can be.
Which leads me to think that before any of these Republicans wanting to become president gets the nomination, they would be well to decide if they are truly committed to the right of all Americans to have a say so in the election they want to win.
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