Compel Congress To Preserve Voting Rights
Republican stunts desecrate the Constitution.
March 6, 2023
Black Americans, poor men, all women, and 18-to-21-year-olds fought for voting rights for more than a century.
Courageous and dedicated people won those struggles, yet here we are again.
Incredibly, 58 years after the Selma Bloody Sunday, Republicans still endanger our voting rights.
I clearly remember the Black voting rights struggle in the 1960s. I remember the Selma to Montgomery marches and the Edmund Pettus Bridge. I remember the 1965 Voting Rights Act. I remember the movement for the 18-year-old vote in the later sixties and early seventies. I voted for the first time in 1972, just three months after the 26th amendment passed.
I’ve never missed an election.
REPUBLIC OR DEMOCRACY?
In 1787, as the founders finished drafting the United States Constitution, Benjamin Franklin was asked what kind of government they had created. He replied “A republic, if you can keep it.”
Article IV, Section 4 of that constitution says,
“The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government….”
Encyclopedia Britannica defines “republic” as a form of government in which a state is ruled by representatives of the citizen body, as opposed to a democracy in which citizens directly participate in public decisions. However, the US retains democratic principles in that, in addition to voting, every citizen can participate in public affairs. We can all attend and speak at public government meetings, hold our own meetings and demonstrations on public issues, and lobby our elected officials for whatever we want.
REPUBLICANS
Republican politicians love to gloat that America is not a democracy, but a republic.
Then they trip over themselves to wrest that republican government from the Americans whom they think don’t deserve it.
Now, they flout the Constitution and obstruct the republican process of voting because they don’t want most of us to vote.
Their stunts clearly violate the Constitution’s guarantee of a republican form of government by:
- Requiring that all voters produce identification to vote.
- But they only accept a few specific forms of ID.
- And then making it impossible for poor, elderly, disabled, minority, and many student voters to GET those documents;
- Limiting voting times, locations, and days to a very narrow window, when most of the “undeserving” voters can’t get there;
- Making it illegal to offer food, water, or any other kind of help to voters who stand in line for hours waiting to vote.
- And more.
These tricks prevent voters from choosing the representatives they want.
They thwart a government that represents the public wishes.
Thus, they are illegal.
CONGRESS AND VOTING
Republicans claim that states are responsible for creating and enforcing voting procedures.
But Congress had to step in six times to protect voting rights, with the 14th, 15th, 19th, 23rd, 24th, and 26th amendments, and several more with legislation.
In the 117th Congress, the House passed the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act on August 24, 2021 and sent it to the Senate, where a Republican filibuster killed it because they don’t want you to vote.
At this writing, no voting rights bills sit before the 118th Congress.
It doesn’t look good for the republic, folks.
LEGALITIES
Article VI of the US Constitution says “This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land; and the Judges in every State shall be bound thereby, any Thing in the Constitution or Laws of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.”
The United Nations adopted its Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948.
The US Senate waited until 1992 to ratify that treaty. But they did ratify it, and that Declaration is now federal law.
Article 21 of the UDHR says:
“Everyone has the right to take part in the government of his country, directly or through freely chosen representatives…. The will of the people shall be the basis of the authority of government; this will shall be expressed in periodic and genuine elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret vote or by equivalent free voting procedures.”
Therefore, the Republicans continuously and ruthlessly violate both the US Constitution and International Law.
So what do we do about it?
THE PROBLEM
Democrats are often inept and disorganized. But their agenda is always and only about helping people.
Republicans are single-minded and forceful. But their agenda is always and only about greed and selfishness.
Republicans are great at marketing. Democrats think it's beneath them.
Democrats are great at governing. Republicans think it's beneath them.
THE SOLUTION
The Democrats had better get their act together or they’ll lose every election, and every progressive program opportunity, for two generations.
They need to craft a strong, succinct message.
They need to believe that message.
Then they need to sell it to the public.
They need to shout it from the rooftops, online, on every TV news program, and wherever people gather.
They need to hammer home the point that Republicans violate their right to a republic.
THEN they need to teach the public why and how to lobby to get it done, because our schools don't bother to teach what Americans need to know.
MESSAGE
This is the message that we need to Democrats need to make when voting rights issues go to court:
Americans died defending our right to vote. Respect their sacrifice.
Martin Luther King said “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.”
And sometimes that bend needs a push.
Republicans might obstruct your voting, but you can still speak.
Contact all of your senators and representatives today.
Give them the message. Tell them to re-introduce the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.
Tell them to knock off the stunts.
Contact your state senators and legislators too. Tell them to protect your voting rights.
Like all bullies, Republicans are weak crybabies.
They can’t take pressure.
Pour it on.
For More Information
Read the Constitution. All of it.
Senate Contact Information
House of Representatives Contact Information
State Government Officials
League of Women Voters: Voting Rights
Why We Need More Lobbyists
Learn How To Lobby
Contact Pat for email notice of all new Community Matters articles.
Our Constitution guarantees us a republican form of government.
In a republican government, the public chooses their representatives.
Joe Manchin, Kyrsten Sinema, and all Republican senators defy the Constitution to maintain their own power and illusion of supremacy.
They are liars and hypocrites.
Their agenda is always and only about greed and selfishness.
Their stunts prevent voters from choosing the representatives they want.
They thwart a government that represents the public wishes.
Thus, they are illegal.
Patricia A. O'Malley
Social Policy & Programs Consulting ~ Community Matters
412-310-4886 ~ info@patomalley-consulting.com
Copyright Patricia A. O'Malley ~ All rights reserved
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Patricia A. O'Malley
Social Policy & Programs Consulting
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