Friday, June 28, 2013

In My Opinion...Heads In the Sand OR The Supreme Court Believes Racism No Longer Exists!

As an American voter, I am outraged this week by the US Supreme Court's majority decision in Shelby v. Holder to strike down Section 4 of the Voting Rights Act. Elections have consequences. Voting or not voting also have consequences! I cannot, however, say that I am surprised at the decision. There are good reasons why both Presidents Bush (George HW & George W) stacked the Supreme Court during their Presidencies with Supreme Court Justices (Souter and Thomas, then Roberts & Alito respectively) who when then time came would vote exactly the way they are expected to vote along ideological lines (see 2000 Presidential Election). It is no surprise that Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito & Justice John Roberts voted exactly as they were expected by those who put them in power.

I am most outraged that the majority deliberately chose to ignore the unjust and unfair voting laws passed just in the last 4 years in states like Florida, Texas, N.C. etc that were designed specifically to make voting more difficult and effectively disenfranchise African American, Hispanic, and minority voters in elections which have direct impact on Congress and the Presidency. 40 years of progress since 1966 does not equate to tearing down the voter protections which helped ensure fair elections for the past few decades regardless of race. The Republican party knows that there are far more registered strong Democrat voters nationwide and in states like Florida, so the only thing they can do to "level" the playing field is to prevent as many people from voting as possible. And THAT should make everyone angry regardless of your political bent. If there's one thing you can credit the DNC with, it's that volunteers on the ground in Organizing for America and Democrat leaning organizations in both Obama elections were trained to empower voters regardless of whether those voters indicated they would vote Republican or Democrat!
Photo of U.S. Supreme Court, Wash., D.C. courtesy www.huffingtonpost.com
Photo of U.S. Supreme Court, Wash., D.C. courtesy www.huffingtonpost.com

I 100% disagree with the majority opinion that, "things have changed dramatically” in the South in the nearly 50 years since the Voting Rights Act was signed in 1965." The reality is much closer to the minority opinion stating "40 years has not been a sufficient amount of time to eliminate the vestiges of discrimination following nearly 100 years of disregard for the 15th Amendment."

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