Ohhh, hell. And you thought the voter-ID bill was bad. Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has gutted the Voting Rights Act, GOP lawmakers in the North Carolina General Assembly are getting ready to make voting in future elections as hard as they please for Democrats. That’s what the Los Angeles Times is reporting today. Specifically, the Times says that GOP leaders here are planning to eliminate early voting, Sunday voting and same-day registration. Just like that.
- David Sachs/SEIU (flickr Creative Commons)
- A February rally in front of the Supreme Court as justices heard Voting Rights Act cases
The Supreme Court’s decision last week means that nine states and parts of six others, including 40 of North Carolina’s 100 counties, no longer have to pre-clear election-rules changes with the U.S. government. Because as we all know, racism is a thing of the past in America. All of a sudden, now that North Carolina doesn’t need to get a passing grade from Uncle Sam, Senate Rules Committee honcho Tom Apodaca announces on Monday that the long-discussed voter-ID bill – as well as “broader election changes” – won’t be ready this week after all because lawmakers are still working on it.
I bet they’re working on it. And I bet they could kick themselves for not beating Texas to the punch. In Texas, home of most crappy ideas about government that’ve arisen in the past decade or more (as dutifully and humorously explained in Gail Collins’ book As Texas Goes), the legislature waited two whole hours following the Court’s decision to announce plans to carry out a massive gerrymandering, er, redistricting plan and to implement the most restrictive voter-ID law in the country.
So here we go, once more with the GOP, forward into the past. This time, it’s the Old South’s dismal, discriminatory past. The Voting Rights Act isn’t even cold and buried yet, and the race to deny voting rights to minorities is already on. Chief Justice Roberts said that the Voting Rights Act wasn’t needed anymore since “things have changed” in the Southeast. One thing that apparently hasn’t changed at all is many Southern conservatives’ prejudices and their willingness to write their biases into law. As Stephen Colbert remarked, yes it’s amazing how much things have changed – espeically since the Voting Rights Act required voting rights justice for everyone, not just for white people. It’s the law that changed things, Justice Roberts, not that the urge to screw over minorities has miraculously died off.
Here is an excerpt from the L.A. Times story that is relevant today, to say the least:
Rosanell Eaton, 92, remembers the humiliation for blacks who sought to cast ballots in North Carolina before the Voting Rights Act. In 1939, she . . . rode to the courthouse in Franklin County, N.C., to register. Three white men, probably illiterate, demanded that she recite the preamble to the U.S. Constitution. Eaton, the valedictorian at her rural high school, recited the preamble word for word.“They were so ignorant they didn’t know if I said it right or not – but they registered me,” she said. Last week’s Supreme Court decision “starts taking us right back to the old days,” she said. “Now it’s easier for these Republicans to do anything they want to us, without the controls we had.”
Related Stories
50 years of progress down the toilet
This article appears in Jun 26 – Jul 2, 2013.
What amazes me is the number of people who are being victimized by the new crop of extreme Republicans who just keep voting for them anyway because people love to choose up sides and will then follow the chosen side no matter where it goes.
>> people love to choose up sides and will then follow the chosen side
Says the guy who voted for the DroneBomber/PhoneTapper/GitmoForceFeeder/DiplomaticPlaneDiverter/CyberTerrorist-In-Chief.
Says the guy (OUA) who seems to harbor a delusional, conspiracy-theoried view of the POTUS. Maybe it’s just because the president is a black man? Why not just admit it? Then you could stop slash-listing those nonsense issues.
OUA:
You do realize that those things were all begun during the Cheney Administration, don’t you?
I am extremely disappointed that the current President doesn’t seem to have the stones to undo the crimes initiated by the previous administration, but he was still the better choice among the candidates available in the last election.
Those of us my age remember when the Democrats were the Conservatives and the Republicans were the Progressives. Unfortunately, for the last 40 years the Republicans have been moving ever farther to the right. They are now so far right that the Democrats look like Liberals to them.
If you had the strength of your convictions, why would you not fight for the right of EVERYONE to vote.
The only voter suppression comes from the demoncrat party: Let’s start with the recent IRS scandal of voter suppression by singling out the Tea Party orgs that filed with the IRS with their unwarranted questionnaires and sitting on their filings for how many months prior to the November 2012 elections? You need to do some homework Mr Grooms:
Democrats opposed:
The Emancipation Proclamation
The 13th Amendment
The 14th Amendment
The 15th Amendment
The Reconstruction Act of 1867
The Civil Rights of 1866
The Enforcement Act of 1870
The Forced Act of 1871
The Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871
The Civil Rights Act of 1875
The Freeman Bureau
The Civil Rights Act of 1957
The Civil Rights Act of 1960
The United State Civil Rights Commission
Democrats fought to expand slavery while Republicans fought to end it.
Democrats passed those discriminatory Black Codes and Jim Crow laws.
Democrats supported and passed the Missouri Compromise to protect slavery.
Democrats supported and passed the Kansas Nebraska Act to expand slavery.
Democrats supported and backed the Dred Scott Decision.
Democrats opposed educating blacks and murdered our teachers.
Democrats fought against anti-lynching laws.
Democrat Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia, is well known for having been a “Kleagle” in the Ku Klux Klan.
Democrat Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia, personally filibustered the Civil Rights Act of 1964 for 14 straight hours to keep it from passage.
Democrats passed the Repeal Act of 1894 that overturned civil right laws enacted by Republicans.
Democrats declared that they would rather vote for a “yellow dog” than vote for a Republican, because the Republican Party was known as the party for blacks.
Democrat President Woodrow Wilson, reintroduced segregation throughout the federal government immediately upon taking office in 1913.
Democrat President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s first appointment to the Supreme Court was a life member of the Ku Klux Klan, Sen. Hugo Black, Democrat of Alabama.
Democrat President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s choice for vice president in 1944 was Harry Truman, who had joined the Ku Klux Klan in Kansas City in 1922.
Democrat President Franklin D. Roosevelt resisted Republican efforts to pass a federal law against lynching.
Democrat President Franklin D. Roosevelt opposed integration of the armed forces.
Democrat Senators Sam Ervin, Albert Gore, Sr. and Robert Byrd were the chief opponents of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.
Democrats supported and backed Judge John Ferguson in the case of Plessy v Ferguson.
Democrats supported the School Board of Topeka Kansas in the case of Brown v The Board of Education of Topeka Kansas.
Democrat public safety commissioner Eugene “Bull” Connor, in Birmingham, Ala., unleashed vicious dogs and turned fire hoses on black civil rights demonstrators.
Democrats were who Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and the other protesters were fighting.
Democrat Georgia Governor Lester Maddox “brandished an ax hammer to prevent blacks from patronizing his restaurant.
Democrat Governor George Wallace stood in front of the Alabama schoolhouse in 1963, declaring there would be segregation forever.
Democrat Arkansas Governor Faubus tried to prevent desegregation of Little Rock public schools.
Democrat Senator John F. Kennedy voted against the 1957 Civil rights Act.
Democrat President John F. Kennedy opposed the 1963 March on Washington by Dr. King.
Democrat President John F. Kennedy, had Dr. King wiretapped and investigated by the FBI.
Democrat President Bill Clinton’s mentor was U.S. Senator J. William Fulbright, an Arkansas Democrat and a supporter of racial segregation.
Democrat President Bill Clinton interned for J. William Fulbright in 1966-67.
Democrat Senator J. William Fulbright signed the Southern Manifesto opposing the Supreme Court’s 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education decision.
Democrat Senator J. William Fulbright joined with the Dixiecrats in filibustering the Civil Rights Acts of 1957 and 1964.
Democrat Senator J. William Fulbright voted against the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
Southern Democrats opposed desegregation and integration.
Republicans showed strong support for:
The Civil Rights Act of 1964
The Voting Rights Act of 1965
The 1968 Civil Rights Acts
The Equal Opportunity Act of 1972
Goals and Timetables for Affirmative Action Programs
Comprehensive Employment Training Act of 1973
Voting Rights Act of Amendment of 1982
Civil Rights Act of 1983
Federal Contract Compliance and Workforce Development Act of 1988
Republicans enacted civil rights laws in the 1950’s and 1960’s, over the objection of Democrats.
Republicans founded the HBCU’s (Historical Black College’s and Universities) and started the NAACP to counter the racist practices of the Democrats.
Republicans pushed through much of the ground-breaking civil rights legislation in Congress.
Republicans fought slavery and amended the Constitution to grant blacks freedom, citizenship and the right to vote.
Republicans pushed through much of the groundbreaking civil rights legislation from the 1860s through the 1960s.
Republican President Dwight Eisenhower sent troops into the South to desegregate the schools.
Republican President Eisenhower appointed Chief Justice Earl Warren to the Supreme Court, which resulted in the 1954 Brown vs. Board of Education decision.
Republican Senator Everett Dirksen from Illinois, not Democrat President Lyndon Johnson, was the one who pushed through the civil rights laws of the 1960’s.
Republican Senator Everett Dirksen from Illinois wrote the language for the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
Republican Senator Everett Dirksen from Illinois also crafted the language for the Civil Rights Act of 1968 which prohibited discrimination in housing.
Republican and black American, A. Phillip Randolph, organized the 1963 March by Dr. King on Washington.
I am old enough to remember the Jim Crow laws that were instituted by demoncrats. The demoncrat party has a whole lot of blood on their hands and never apologized for it ’til this very day.
Interesting; Mr. Wallace calls intense investigation of the tax exemption request of a political action group “voter suppression” as if the IRS kept anyone from voting. He then looks deep into history and uses actions taken before they sold their soul to the Right Wing fanatics as evidence of their position as defender of freedoms, completely ignoring what the party is doing RIGHT NOW.
It is true that the Republican Party was in the vanguard of emancipation and civil rights. Unfortunately they have abandoned that high road in favor of pandering to big money donors and various personal prejudices.
This Republican Party is NOT the party of Lincoln, Eisenhower, or even Reagan. It has become something ugly and dangerous.
That’s right, William Wallace, let’s pretend that the ideals and goals of the Democratic and Republican parties have not changed one bit since the 1960’s (and ’70’s and ’80’s). I’m guessing that Mr. Grooms is aware of all the historical events that you listed. I’m also guessing that people are aware that political parties can change their views and allegiances over time, like from the interests of the general populace to the interests of the wealthy, the powerful, and the established elite. And how is the IRS doing THEIR JOB – by investigating political organizations masquerading as social welfare organizations so that they can get tax exemptions/benefits – how is that “voter suppression”?
Cole: Re: political parties changing: I seriously doubt Grooms knew any of what I posted because he is probably brainwashed and he11 bent on his ideology regardless of any truthfulness. Anyway, yes they do change. Your democrat party has drifted so far to the left you might as well call it the Communist party USA http://www.cpusa.org…. not a whole lot of difference to speak of. The Republican party has never officially changed its position on slavery, voting rights for blacks. Go ahead and try to rewrite history if you want. But your party has done far less and the record proves it. Just to sample to illustrate: http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/j…
Judge Thomas has been called racial epithets more the once from the egregious left and probably won’t be the last.
Side note: Anybody else remember that imbecile Frank Griffin who used to post on here all the time with his ignorant, racist, FOX-approved views? It’s too bad he got scared away from this site because of all the smart liberals constantly pointing out how wrong he was, because I for one remember how he would always say there was no way Obama would get reelected. I wish he had hung around long enough to eat those as usual incorrect words.
Leo, I remember Frank Griffin all too well. He’d swallow whatever Rush, Beck or other far-right doofs doled out and then regurgitate it in CL’s comments sections. Matter of fact, one of his favorite memes was the one “William Wallace” posted here about the Democratic party being anti-black and the GOP championing civil rights. As someone here pointed out, yeah, that was relevant and true information 50 years ago; since the South went Republican after the Civil Rights Act was passed, however, the GOP has gradually drifted farther and farther to the right until now it’s been taken over by the extreme rightwingers that the GOP used to use as sucker voters. That is, they would promise the far right the moon, i.e., outlawing abortion, but never really tried to deliver it, for fear that the party would lose its reliable far-right voting base. Well, those suckers got sick of it and now own the party, more or less. Alas, that kind of awareness of history is beyond the likes of William Wallace and Frank Griffin, if they’re not in fact the same person.
Why would someone need to register to vote on election day? It’s not like you don’t know there’s a voting opportunity coming up. What is wrong with Voter ID requirements? You need ID to do everything but you don’t need one to vote? That’s just assinine. Early and absentee voteing should be considered on a case by case basis requiring proof of hardship (Military, out of town on busines, in the hospital, etc). Polls are open 7AM to 7PM. I can’t imagine anyone wouldn’t be able to get to polling place within that 12 hours.
does anyone reading this not have an id?