Courtesy of Bastrop Advertiser
Aug. 5, 2021
By Joni Ashbrook
Have you ever wondered if you would have stood with African Americans during the civil rights movement?
In 1965, civil rights activists were marching from Selma, Ala. to their state capital to demand their constitutional right to vote when they were met by deputies on horseback swinging clubs and rubber tubing wrapped in barbed wire.
ABC newscaster Frank Reynolds interrupted programing to show the brutality happening in Selma. Those images shocked the American conscience and propelled President Lyndon B. Johnson to speak to Congress and the nation regarding “the dignity of man and the destiny of democracy.”
LBJ was successful in urging Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act.
It’s a good thing Fox News wasn’t around then or its viewers would have never seen that “Bloody Sunday” footage and it would have convinced them that it was just a “peaceful protest,” much like how it is handling the failed Jan. 6 violent coup by former President Donald Trump’s supporters.
In 2013, conservative Supreme Court justices gutted a crucial section of the Voting Rights Act. Later, Republicans arguably stole two Supreme Court seats from Democrats, then the court decimated the law.
Many GOP power grabbing tactics, including its controversial tsunami of voter suppression bills, would have been forbidden if the Voting Rights Act was still intact.
For example, a 2019 study by The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights reported that after the Voting Rights Act was first gutted, 1,688 nationwide polling places were shuttered. Texas closed the most – 750.
This causes long lines at the polling places that primarily serve Black and Latino voters. Those voters often wait more than seven hours, and now Georgia Republicans made it illegal to give food and water to people in line.
In the 2020 presidential election, Harris County officials made it easier for their diverse population to vote. They implemented 24-hour and drive-through voting centers.
Texas Republicans lost their lawsuit to toss out 127,000 drive-through votes, but now they want to ban both of those popular, secure ways to vote.
One of the GOP’s most insidious tactics is partisan gerrymandering. That’s a redistricting tactic that allows politicians to pick their voters, instead of voters picking them.
U.S. Rep. Ronny Jackson, R-Texas, recently admitted, “We have redistricting coming up, and the Republicans control most of that process in most of the states around the country. That alone should get us the majority back.”
Also, Republicans nationwide are looking for ways to gain greater control over the local mechanics of elections, and Georgia Republicans are testing the waters on how to take over running elections in Democratic strongholds.
These GOP legal tactics that comprise a “political insurrection” may not sound as treacherous as they truly are. If allowed to be implemented, our democracy would appear to be functioning, but quietly and legally it will be manipulated by partisan actors.
Americans can stop Republicans’ anti-democratic tactics. First, we must restore the Voting Rights Act then pass the For the People’s Act that would expand voting rights, curtail dark money in politics and ban partisan gerrymandering.
When I learned that civil rights leader Rev. William Barber of The Poor People’s Campaign and former Texas congressman Beto O’Rourke were going to march 27 miles from Georgetown to Austin in the spirit of the Selma March, I knew I’d walk. They called it the Moral March for Democracy.
The late civil rights icon John Lewis nearly died on Bloody Sunday, but he never stopped his non-violent pursuit of voting rights for all. He encouraged us to make “good trouble.” Thankfully activists today don’t face that level of brutality.
Republicans will block both bills, so we need more “good trouble” to pressure President Joe Biden and Congress to end the filibuster and pass them to save our democracy.
Ashbrook is a contributing columnist for the Advertiser. She is a retired school teacher and may be reached at [email protected].
