GOP Voter Suppression: Democrats Losing Voting Rights Fight

Joe Manchin, the apparent leader of the Vichy Democrats, believes that the Lewis VRA is the best way to address the Jim Crow–sty

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Democrats– facing internal obstruction from conservative Democrats, like Sen. Joe Manchin, above—are failing in the war against Republican voter suppression, which is clearly targeting Black Americans and other voters of color.

The John Lewis Voting Rights Act—still languishing in Congress a year after its name was changed to reflect the passing of the legendary civil rights activist, Representative John Lewis—is a solution to a problem wholly invented by the Supreme Court. In 2013, Chief Justice John Roberts wrote the majority opinion in a case called Shelby County v. Holder, and in it he stripped away a key protection provided by the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Republican-controlled states used the opportunity Roberts gave them to further suppress the Black vote, and his decision is a far bigger reason Donald Trump was able to run an openly white supremacist campaign and win the presidency in 2016 than any tales of economically aggrieved white people in Ohio that you may have heard about. The John Lewis VRA is a good and sorely needed piece of legislation, as is HR 1, or the “For the People Act,” which addresses some of the voter suppression tactics employed by Republican states in the wake of Trump’s defeat.

But while the Democratic majority lacks the strength to pass this bill, Senator Joe Manchin, the apparent leader of the Vichy Democrats, believes that the Lewis VRA is the best way to address the Jim Crow–style voting restrictions now favored by the Republican Party. He’s even got one Republican, Lisa Murkowski, to go along with him. No word on the other nine it would take to pass the bill while still upholding the antidemocratic filibuster that Manchin claims is integral to “democracy.”

Unfortunately, at this point, even if Congress somehow passes the Lewis Voting Rights Act, it will not be enough to stop Republicans intent on suppressing the vote.

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