Before this politically fiery August comes to an end, its significance in civil rights history must be highlighted. It marks the 49th anniversary of the signing of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Sometimes justice takes a while, but this monumental piece of civil rights legislation tore down some of the last strangleholds of eugenics-based social policies. Jim Crow was righteously trampled as the nation marched toward equality.
But that march has taken some rough detours lately. Ferguson has become the epicenter of blame-anyone-but-yourselves liberalism. The city council is all white! The city council is all white! Well, the majority of Ferguson residents are black. So who is to blame? The Washington Post actually blames the abysmal 6 percent African-American voter turnout, in the city’s 2013 municipal election, on the vote not being held in an even-numbered year! Those complicated odd-numbered years! And let’s put aside the racist assertion that only black folk can politically serve black folk, and white folk only serve the interests of white folks. 1963 is calling and wants its rhetoric back.
Liberal groups like the ACLU, NAACP, Planned Parenthood, League of Women Voters, La Raza and others paint the false picture that our voting rights are being threatened by laws meant to strengthen the integrity of the voting system. Voter ID laws are demonized left and right…well, on the left at least. Yet, in every case where Voter ID laws have triumphed, voters do too. Voter turnout among minorities increased by 6 percent in Georgia and 8 percent in Indiana where these laws were in effect. A case brought by the ACLU in Georgia was thrown out of court by a federal judge because the ACLU could not produce a single witness who was unable to vote because of the state’s Voter ID laws.
Recently, the Wisconsin Supreme Court upheld, by 4-3, that state’s Voter ID laws (see ruling here). The ruling asserted that requiring a voter "to present acceptable photo identification in order to vote” is not unconstitutional. They also concluded, as the Supreme Court did in Crawford v. Marion County Election Board that “the burden of time and inconvenience associated with obtaining acceptable photo identification are not undue burdens on the right to vote.” In another ruling (see here) by the same court, with a margin of 5-2, the majority concluded that the “requirement to present photo identification is a reasonable regulation that could improve and modernize election procedures, safeguard voter confidence in the outcome of elections and deter voter fraud.”
But these rulings don’t stop the glaring contradictory nature of voter suppression propaganda. These same activist groups have no problem supporting the ultimate act of voter suppression—killing voters before they’re born. Abortion is an incredibly violent act of suppression. If anyone wants to talk about political influence or power, 56 million less human lives (including a hugely disproportionate 15-18 million in the black community) translates into a much smaller voting bloc. Of course, I don’t ever recommend that people should ever let pigmentation guide their vote…moral conviction before melanin.
Many claim voting rights are sacred. Well, human life is sacred. And voting is meaningless if you're dead. Which is quite ironic considering voter fraud often consists of the miraculous votes of those who've passed away. The dead have more of a right to vote than the millions of unborn who will never get that chance.
But “progressives” don’t see racism in a billion dollar abortion industry that kills for a living, but racism is everywhere else, especially in modern-day voting. Sadly, liberals render the charge of “racism” meaningless when it’s used at every turn. Poll taxes and literacy tests, an extension of eugenics-based social policies, were deeply racist. Those were real acts of voter suppression. Literacy tests were crazy, desperate ploys by Neanderthal politicians who often hung out with sheet-cloaked cowards. Take a look at Louisiana’s literacy test from the 60s. It was a series of 30 questions that the voter had to answer in 10 minutes—with zero mistakes. Good luck with that! Needless to say, those despicable efforts disenfranchised many blacks in the South.
The VRA crushed those practices and gave teeth to the law by allowing the federal government to prosecute those who tried to violate this vital civil rights legislation. Interestingly, the Democrat party boasts (falsely) of how it “worked to pass every civil rights law” in this country. The vote tallies for the Voting Rights Act of 1965 don't mesh with mainstream media's liberal narrative (check out this great infographic on that from The Radiance Foundation). You won't ever see or hear these numbers from CNN, ABC, NY Times, USA Today, the Daily Show or MSNBC. It takes citizen journalists to actually educate the public.
The GOP voted in overwhelmingly larger margins for all of the Civil Rights Acts (1957, 1960, 1964, 1968...not to mention being the sole party to pass the Reconstruction Amendments and pass every Civil Rights Act prior to those legislative feats). In the VRA, 94 percent of Senate Republicans voted for it; only 69 percent of Senate Democrats did. Whereas 6 percent of the GOP voted against the VRA, a whopping 24 percent of Democrats did.
Democrats have much less to boast about than they’d like us to remember. In the Senate, 54 percent of Democrats voted against an amendment to the VRA giving the Attorney General prosecutorial power to pursue those who used poll taxes to intimidate or deny any American's voting rights. Only 22 percent of GOP voted against the amendment. (Sadly, today’s Attorney General Holder and the Department of Justice have engaged in “grotesque” behavior, repeatedly, when it comes to protecting Americans’ civil rights.)
So, there you have it. A few more facts about an Act often talked about but never really discussed beyond the predictable fear mongering.
The Radiance Foundation supports the right of every American (of age) to vote and for the integrity of the ballot to be protected. That’s not voter suppression. That’s democracy.
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