By John Johnson II
Republicans, after a thorough defeat during the 2020 Presidential Elections, lost, not only the Presidency to Joe Biden but had to witness America’s election of its first Black woman Vice President. The onslaught didn’t stop here! They lost control of the Senate and failed to overtake the House. Political operatives would describe this as a shellacking.
Republicans recognized that another autopsy wouldn’t resuscitate its Party. They learned that a party without a vision of hope for its people and an awareness of voters’ needs, and intellect, would have little chance of ever winning again a major election.
Consequently, they abandoned steps to become a party of, for, and by the people! Rather, they’ve embraced the racists and voter suppression tactics once nullified by the voters Rights Act of 1965.
The Act of 1965 contained two vital Sections – 2 and 5. They outlawed literacy tests and targeted states with a history of voter discrimination. Sadly, the Supreme Court on June 25, 2013, gutted Section 5, of its protective provision. Those states once targeted for discrimination resumed their old practices.
There’s an ugly scenario evolving from past Jim Crow tactics, the Supreme Court’s decision and today’s rogue Republican governors’ passage of voter suppression legislation. Simply put, their actions have had a negative impact on Black voters’ rights .
Republicans, though they can no longer use illegal “Literacy Test,” are making it a crime to give water or food to voters. Will it constitute a crime to render first aid, which could merely be providing water?
America again stands at the crossroads of passage of the Emmett Till’s Anti-lynching Act and the S.4263-John Lewis Voting Rights Advance Acts, as well as House (H. 1) and (S. 1). Unsurprisingly, Senator Rand Paul is the lone voter holding up passage of Emmett Till’s Act.
For decades, Congress has refused to pass anti-lynching legislation. Why? The NAACP reported that during the 18th and 19th centuries, approximately 4,743 lynching’s occurred. Of this total, 3,446 were Black, which represents 78.7%.
John Lewis’s Act literally remains on the gallows along with its voters’ rights protections provisions. Rogue Republicans, along with a few Democrat sympathizers, are threatening not to provide bipartisan support. And they’re daring democrats to touch the “Jim Crow” filibuster relic.
President Biden and fellow Democrats won’t be deterred by McConnell’s threats because the stakes are too high. Biden has vowed to be on a mission to save the soul of America. Consequently, America doesn’t have a soul to save if its people can’t vote freely. It’s a fact, Joe Biden wouldn’t be President today if the legislations Republicans are now passing were in effect in 2020.
Infrastructure is a vital component of the President’s soul savings list of priorities. Also, he’s acknowledged through speeches that while voters’ rights are the cornerstone of our democracy, America can’t remain number one in the world if it continues to ignore its infrastructure.
Former President Theodore Roosevelt made famous, “Speak softly and carry a big stick.” President Biden does speak softly, but the Senate’s Parliamentarian recently handed him a “big Stick.”
President Biden’s big stick contains three more opportunities for him to use Budget Reconciliation to pass his legislative initiatives. Republican naysayers, especially McConnell, had better head for the fences or learn to duck.
Voters’ rights will survive all Republicans’ attacks!
