If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
Widespread efforts to suppress voting by people of color and the poor through a rash of voter ID laws make it clear that we still need the landmark 1965 legislation today.
America is the world's leading democracy, but that doesn't mean there aren't improvements to be made. By modernizing registration, ending government dysfunction and combating Citizens United, we can put the people back in charge.
Pundits and politicians alike have tried to write off the African American vote. But every woman, man, youth and elder of my community knows, we've come too far, seen too much, stood too long, felt "sick and tired of being sick and tired" too often, fought too hard to turn back now.
My vote is not a Christmas gift, some toy or clothing item that I'm allowed to play with or wear from time to time. It is learned, informed and dedicated to the self-evident truth that fair and equal citizenship for American men and women is inherent in the American dream.
Thank you. Thank you for your class warfare, for your bull-headedness on taxes, your contempt for the poor and middle-class. On this Thanksgiving Day, I am so grateful that we can count on you to learn exactly the wrong lessons from your recent election debacle.
One thing was clear in the November 2012 election in the United States, and that is that the movement to establish more restrictive voter identification laws is politically polarized.
The efforts of Curry, Sharpton and others in Florida during the Operation Lemonade effort illustrate the power and potential of what a diverse and committed coalition can do in the face of significant man-made barriers.
"Demographics" has become a code word for "change," a way of euphemistically talking about diversity. But demographics didn't win the election. Diversity isn't something that is coming but something that is already here.
Earlier this fall, the Senate Judiciary Committee held an important hearing on "The Citizens United Court and the Continuing Importance of the Voting ...
While electronic secessionist petition mania spreads across the fringes of 30 states this week, the confederacy of state's rights champions might want to click over and check out Arizona's recent election.
Voting reforms like these should not be stuck in the long lines of partisan bickering, but should be passed to ensure that every eligible citizen who wants to participate in the process may cast a ballot on the next Election Day.
However skilled Obama is as a politician -- and despite the presence of many principled progressives and liberals in Congress -- we cannot expect Congress to enact more than modest reforms until we tame the corporate plutocrats' power.
The GOP is going to be duking this one out for a while -- at least until their inner jumping beans settle down.
Regardless of which candidate they went with, in this election Americans cast an unequivocal vote for democracy. We must honor that mandate by shielding this fundamental right through new laws that ensure that our election process will be free, fair and accessible to all.
For more than two years Republicans have campaigned and legislated against the right of certain groups of people to vote. The Republicans' strategy failed because it awakened the most powerful force in a democracy: the determination of the voters themselves.
On Tuesday November 6, 2012 I did what many supporters of President Obama did; election protection. We were sent mostly to battleground states to make sure the rules were followed and every voter got to vote.
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