The Republicans in Congress have halted the renewal of the Voting Rights Act. Those of us who lived through the Civil Rights Movement are shocked that any political party would deny Americans the right to vote even in the 21st century. However, the right wing Republicans are apparently trying to turn back the clock so that people who are not their supporters will not vote for Democrats.
This whole movement in the Republican Party is frightening. Will we be seeing more people questioned about their ability to vote? We've already had interference in Ohio with voting. If the Republicans maintain power, will they strip more people of their right to vote? Why are Republicans against voting rights?
The Orlando Sentinel has an an opinion about why we should be concerned about this latest ploy by the Republican Congress. Here are some excerpts:
.....Congress has failed to renew key parts of the Voting Rights Act. They've had time to vote on flag burning and gay marriage, mind you, but not on this.
Here we Americans are preaching about, and dying for, democracy in Iraq and other foreign lands. But we have shown ourselves to be hanging-chad-challenged when it comes to carrying out elections. Think Florida. Think Ohio. Think Georgia, the state of my birth, where new rules requiring state-issued photo identification are expected to make it harder for rural, elderly and minority people to vote....
..."It is unfortunate and disappointing that we have encountered a setback in the passage of the Voting Rights Act reauthorization," said Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., in a statement, adding, "Georgia is the last place that should seek to relieve itself from the commitment to fully empowered, equal participation that democracy implies."
Lewis should know. This is a man who nearly lost his life fighting for the right to vote in Georgia and throughout the South. He was beaten in Alabama during a March 1965 demonstration that was designed to force that state to permit blacks to vote without having to jump such hurdles as being able to recite segments of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution....
..."The evidence shows that voting discrimination in America is not dead, and the Voting Rights Act must retain its original power in order to assure that democracy prevails in every hill and valley, every city and suburb, on every fertile farm and every desert plain in America," Lewis says....
Where does Deborah Pryce stand in all this? Pryce is a Republican leader and is responsible for this hold up of the Voting Rights Act. Why are Pryce and the Republicans against the Voting Rights Act? Why are they against your right to vote? Isn't it time that Pryce and the GOP stop denying us our rights?