Congress must act to protect the right to vote

Congress must act to protect the right to vote
BY JESSE JACKSON
January 3, 2022

Jan. 6, 2022 marks one year since the deadly riot at the U.S. Capitol, incited by a
president voted out of office by the vast majority of the American people. What is now
clear is that Donald Trump and his zealous aides and complicit right-wing legislators
were deadly serious about overturning the results of that vote and keeping Trump in
office. They failed but have since launched a systematic campaign in states across the
country to make it possible to succeed the next time.
Trump’s bumbling gang of the incompetent, the craven, the corrupt and the certifiable
are often difficult to take seriously. That is a mistake. Over the past year, Republican
officials have taken up the cause and moved steadily to rig the rules in their favor.
The overwhelming majority of Republicans now believe Trump’s Big Lie that the 2020
election was stolen, despite it being rejected by the courts, by Trump’s own attorney
general, by professional Republican election officials and even by the partisan audits
that Republicans have wasted millions on. Craven Republican legislators repeat the Big
Lie, too fearful of Trump’s wrath to tell the truth.
That Big Lie has been used to justify a systematic attempt to rig the rules against the
majority. Republican state legislators have introduced hundreds of bills to make it more
difficult to vote, particularly for minorities and the young. In states like Wisconsin and
North Carolina and Texas, partisan gerrymandering draws districts designed to enable
the minority party to win a majority of the seats in the state legislatures and
congressional districts.
The Big Lie has been used to terrorize election officials and to replace professionals with
partisans committed to a certain outcome, not a fair election count.
Even worse, in states like Georgia, Republicans in state legislatures have given
themselves the power to reject election results if they don’t like the outcome.

This legislative offensive is bolstered by the threat and presence of violence. Election

officials who tell the truth have their lives and families threatened. A staggering one-
third of Republicans say that violence may be necessary to achieve their political ends.

This assault on democracy is fueled by a racial backlash against the growing electoral
power of people of color. This isn’t the first time that democracy has been assaulted.
After the Civil War freed the slaves, the 15th Amendment was passed to prohibit
discrimination in the right to vote. When coalitions of Black and white people emerged
to threaten the privilege and power of the plantation South, the reaction was fierce.
Armed bands — the Ku Klux Klan and others — terrorized Black people and their allies.
Laws were passed and enforced to make it virtually impossible for Black people to
register and vote. When Union troops were removed from the South, a form of apartheid
called segregation became the law of the land. It took another 100 years before the civil
rights movement succeeded with Lyndon Johnson’s leadership to end segregation and
pass the Voting Rights Act to limit the suppression of the vote.
Now, as Congress reconvenes this January, it must act to protect the right to vote — to
protect the democracy — against the seditious reaction that now threatens it. Bipartisan
support is desirable but unlikely, with few Republican legislators willing to stand up
against the Big Lie or to protect our democracy.
Democrats must act — and act immediately against this threat. That will require ruling
that protection of the right to vote is too important to allow it to be sabotaged by a
minority wielding the filibuster. Democrats should unite to pass the John Lewis Voting
Rights Advancement Act, which revives the Voting Rights Act. It should pass the
Freedom to Vote Act — endorsed by the conservative Democrat Sen. Joe Manchin —
that would end partisan gerrymandering, create automatic voter registration, guarantee
15 days of early voting, make Election Day a holiday so working people will find it easier
to get to the polls, limit dark money in politics and facilitate voting by mail. At least in
federal elections, the two bills would go a long way to making certain that elections are
free and fair.
No one should be deluded. A minority party — grounded in the white South — is intent
on taking and keeping power, despite the will of the majority — even if democracy itself
is destroyed in the process. This is no time for petty politics. It is time for Congress to
act to defend free elections and the right to vote before it is too late.