An Address to the DNC Black Caucus in Atlanta, GA
INTRODUCTION
These are troubling times and there’s an important question before each of us – and before the Black Caucus and the whole DNC. What time is it? Is it sunrise heading toward high noon or sunset moving toward midnight?
In the natural flow of the universe it’s a question beyond our control. The sun rises and sets in a regular 24-hour cycle.
But when it comes to “time” in history, we may not be able to determine our future, but we do have the ability to make choices that will influence whether we are moving toward the bright sunshine of high noon or the darkness of midnight. Our freedom may be limited, but our freedom is real.
So we have choices to make! How are we going to use the freedom we have? We can choose a path that has a greater chance of leading us toward high noon or we can choose a path that is almost certain to lead us toward midnight – but the choice is ours!
And here’s the real choice we must make. We must move from freedom and equality under the law, de jure equality, to freedom and equality in fact, de facto equality!
I. FROM SLAVERY TO FREEDOM
They tell us that America is a nation of immigrants and a nation that welcomes refugees. Immigrants choose to leave their native country and come to America for a better opportunity. Refugees come to America to escape tyranny, violence or oppression. Africans were bought and brought to America, a strange land, against our will as slaves. We didn’t choose to come here for a better opportunity; we didn’t come here to escape tyranny in our motherland; no, we were bought and sold in the marketplace of international trade. It wasn’t a choice.
But we never accepted our condition. There were always some of us who resisted our circumstance. We developed a variety of sophisticated and unsophisticated ways of resistance in our attempt to be free as individual human beings and to gain our freedom as a people. Sometimes we prayed and acted non-violently. Sometimes we used violence and vengeance. In the process we created freedom fighters and gained martyrs – Rev. Nat Turner in Virginia, Denmark Vesey in South Carolina, and White allies like John Brown at Harpers Ferry in 1859. Later came W.E.B. DuBois, Booker T. Washington, Roy Wilkins, James Farmer, Whitney Young and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
America elected its first Republican President in 1860, Abraham Lincoln – who was called “that Black President who represents that Black Republican Party” – but he had a mixed record on slavery and mixed feelings relative to African Americans, but as a political moderate he held steadfast to one central conviction – he would not permit slavery to expand into the new western territories.
After his election, eleven states chose to leave the Union of the United States and form a Confederate States of America in order to protect the institution of slavery, which led to a 4-year American Civil War to end slavery.
Slavery had been kept in place legally with the 10th Amendment – states’ rights and local control - and the primacy of private property over human and civil rights.
At the end of the war African Americans legally gained their freedom in the highest law of the land through ratification of the 13th Amendment in 1865. Thus ended slavery. We were in legal slavery for 246 years, from 1619-to-1865.
II. FROM FREEDOM TO EQUALITY - UNDER THE LAW
The goal was always both freedom and equality, but freedom was the prerequisite for equality. As Dr. King often said, “the greatest of America is the right to fight for the right.”
Once we gained our freedom from slavery – which had been protected by the 10th Amendment’s ideology of states’ rights - we then had to turn our sights on negating the primacy of private property rights over human and civil rights.
We accomplished that goal with the ratification of the 14th Amendment in 1868, which legally provided “equal protection under the law” and “due process.”
The 14th Amendment’s legal principle of “equal protection” also allowed Thurgood Marshall to argue his case before the Supreme Court and allowed Chief Justice Earl Warren to decide that “separate but equal” was “inherently unequal” in Brown in 1954.
Without the 14th Amendment Brown is not possible, and without Brown the 1964 Public Accommodations Act is not possible. The latter tore down the cotton curtain of apartheid in the South and ended legal de jure segregation – no more black and white drinking fountains; we could eat at any public restaurant; travel on any public transportation; and “theoretically” attend desegregated public schools. We were continuing to use our freedom to fight for legal social equality.
In 1870, we again used our freedom to fight for legal political equality with the addition of the 15th Amendment. The 15th Amendment was the third of the Reconstruction Amendments added after the Civil War whose specific purpose was to bring the former slaves into the political mainstream of American society by law. But the 15th Amendment only outlawed discrimination in voting on the basis of race, color or previous condition of servitude. It did not provide every American with an affirmative fundamental individual right to vote! And that’s a problem we overlooked in the struggle for our right to vote.
The problem is, while the 15th Amendment outlawed racial discrimination in voting, we left the former Confederates and their 10th Amendment ideology of states’ rights and local control in charge of our right to vote. As a result the Confederates wrote the enabling legislation. That’s how we wound up with voting laws that required us to recite the Constitution, tell election officials how many bubbles were in a bar of soap, pay poll taxes, be locked out of white-only primaries, denied participation because grandfather clauses and more. Confederate Democrats were the political tricksters.
It took us another 95 years of using our freedom to change the politics, which involved the beating of John Lewis on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, Dr. King’s march from Selma-to-Montgomery, Congress writing and LBJ signing the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Other voting laws had been written, but none were truly effective.
The 1965 Voting Rights Act’s Section 4 formula, and Section 5 Preclearance provision, prevented discrimination in advance of voting. The Shelby decision negated Section 4 and thus gutted the Voting Rights Act. It left us with the car but took away the key, and the indication is that the 113th Congress will not “fix” the destruction of Shelby. And, even if they do, it will be a compromised bill that will leave the 1965 Voting Rights Act much weaker than before Shelby. How do you design a bill that leaves Texas, Alabama, Georgia and Florida out of coverage? Shelby represents moving toward midnight.
That leads me to our second mistake with respect to voting. We not only left the Confederates and states’ righters in charge of our voting laws after we passed the 15th Amendment, we left the Dixiecrats and now the Republicrats – who changed uniforms but didn’t change their states rights ideology – in charge of our voting laws after we passed the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
You do have the right to vote, but it’s a Georgia, Alabama and Illinois right to vote, not a citizenship or American right to vote. And since voting is a state right, with virtually no enforceable national standards, we have ended up with multiple and varied election systems in the 50 states (plus DC), 3,143 counties, 13,000 local voting jurisdictions that administer 186,000 precincts, all organized in what amounts to a “separate and unequal” voting system, controlled and managed by state and local election officials. Prior to Shelby, 86% of Section 5 Preclearance objections involved local, not national or state, voting issues. But if separate and unequal was unacceptable for education in 1954 it’s equally unacceptable for voting in 2014!
With the resignation of the Democratic state senator in Virginia - so his daughter could get a judgeship and he could get a job - the House and Senate in every former Confederate state is now in the hands of right-wing Republicans – every one of them – and 9-of-11 have right-wing Republican Governors! With 57% of all African Americans now living in the South, only Virginia and Arkansas have moderate - not liberal or progressive - Democratic Governors. And since it’s the states and local election boards that determine our voting laws and operational practices, we’re again getting obstacles put in the path of voters and partisan voter suppression – i.e., laws that allow Texas to permit gun registration IDs but not student IDs for voting; North Carolina passing laws that reduce early voting and move polling places off of campus to make it more difficult for students to vote; and Florida to eliminate voting on the Sunday before elections. Southern politics are being nationalized and national politics are increasingly southern in operation. Wisconsin has reduced the number of days for early voting. And remember when Ohio’s African American Republican Secretary of State rejected voter registration forms that weren’t of a particular “thickness.” Now Cincinnati has moved its downtown voting location to the outskirts of town.
All of this is only possible because we have a 10th Amendment states’ rights and local control national voting system.
But we have a choice, the choice of moving America forward toward high noon with vision and positive action or watching America continue to move backward toward midnight with silence and inaction.
III. FROM FREEDOM TO EQUALITY - IN FACT
With constitutional amendments, legislation and judicial decisions, legally we have achieved a large degree of social and political freedom. And those same constitutional amendments - and the many laws that followed built on their foundation - have essentially given us equal protection under the law!
The challenge before us now is to use our freedom and our equality under the law to continue to move America further down the road to freedom and equality in fact!
With respect to equal protection under the law, we’ve moved from slavery in 1619, to ending slavery in 1865, to segregation in 1896, to equality in 1954, to social equality in 1964, to political equality in 1965.
Now we must insist on the full meaning of “equal protection under the law“ by moving from freedom to equality - in fact – full equality of social, political and economic opportunity. How do we do that?
During the 1983 southern crusade that eventually led to my 1984 presidential candidacy, I met with former Governor George Wallace. One of the things he told me was this: “keep your message down where the goats can get it.” In other words, make your message simple and clear. That’s what Democrats need in 2014, 2016 and beyond. What do I mean?
Medicaid: There are millions of poor Americans living without health insurance, but Republicans hate President Obama so much that they are willing to deny their constituents health insurance under the Medicaid part of the Affordable Care Act - and deny their state’s economy and hospitals billions of dollars. In the 1960s Dixiecrat Governors stood in schoolhouse doors to deny their citizens an education. Today Republicrat Governors are standing in hospital doors to deny their citizens health care and deny their hospitals and states money.
No state could exist without federal funds – but especially southern states where over 40% of every state budget depends on federal monies. They welcome federal dollars for the military, for highways, airports, water ports, business development and more, but they reject federal funds for the poor. Because of photosynthesis, our growth remains stunted. Democrats must revive broken spirits and keep hope alive among the despised and dispossessed. Those who live in the shadows must rise and vote for their share of services. An agenda for the people in the shadows must be our focus!
Minimum Wage: The Dow Jones is soaring above 17,000, but wages remain stagnant and working class family income is declining. If the $7.25 minimum wage had only kept pace with inflation the current minimum wage would be around $12/hour. Workers should be allowed to work themselves out of poverty!
Students: In the name of “fiscal responsibility” we’re closing thousands of public schools, eliminating trades education within our schools and turning students away from community and 4-year colleges. As a result, we’re building first class jails and leaving in place deteriorating second and third class schools. We must fight for a public educational system of equal high quality for every student, including teaching the wide range of trades that are necessary to rebuild America. We’ve gone from paying students to go to school with Pell Grants to putting students in debt in order to go to school. The $1.2 trillion in student debt is greater than the nation’s credit card debt. We need to increase the money for student scholarships with nearly 500,000 students in need of support. Our future as a competitor in the world economy depends on it.
The Vote: As noted earlier, we have a states’ rights and local control voting system with few national standards in place. Shelby undercut our most effective tool for non-discrimination in voting, the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and the result has been a Republican attack on the most fundamental right in a democracy – the right to vote. What must we do? What’s the Democrat’s response to this partisan Republican suppression campaign on our voters?
I support all legitimate efforts to “fix” the damage done by Shelby - if it can be fixed - but I’m also tired of this patchwork approach to voting rights. Instead of hustling to protect our right to vote every few years, we need a more permanent solution, and I think that more permanent solution is to add a right to vote amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Let me repeat. We do have a right to vote, but it’s a state right, a Georgia right, not a constitutional or citizenship right.
Ironically, the Supreme Court in Heller ruled that the 2nd Amendment does contain a fundamental individual right to a gun, but the Constitution does not contain a similar fundamental individual right to vote.
In a democracy, the right to vote is a moral imperative, the most fundamental legal right and is protective of all other rights. 119 nations elect their public officials using some form of democratic elections with 108 of them having the right to vote in their constitution, but the United States is one of the 11 nations - including Azerbaijan, Chechnya, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, Pakistan, Singapore and the United Kingdom - that does not explicitly contain a citizen's right to vote in its constitution.
President Barack Obama already knows this. Professor Barack Obama, as a teacher of constitutional law at the University of Chicago, opened all of his constitutional law classes by informing his students that the fundamental individual right to vote is not explicitly in the Constitution. He said it always surprised his students. His involvement and use of the bully pulpit to educate the American people on this issue would dramatically change the political climate around voting.
The right to vote may be in the Constitution implicitly, but it’s not there explicitly. Wouldn’t voters and voting rights lawyers be in a stronger position if it were there explicitly? It would seem illogical and ridiculous to argue that it’s better to have the right to vote in the Constitution implicitly rather than to have it there explicitly. And in light of Shelby and all the partisan voter suppression efforts going on in the states controlled by Republican governors and legislatures - to borrow a phrase from former half-Governor Sarah Palin - couldn’t one ask, “How’s that implicit right to vote thing working out for ya?”
The Affordable Care Act is violating of the National Voter Registration Act – the Motor Voter Law. Motor Voter requires all offices in a state that provides public assistance to be designated voter registration agencies and provide the specific opportunity to register and vote. This applies to all Exchanges created by the Affordable Care Act – but voter registration is not occurring through the ACA!
The vote is the maypole around which all other social, political and economic issues revolve. Voting rights, voter registration, voter turnout and voter outcomes affect every area of our lives.
It you don’t believe me, look at Ferguson, Missouri, a 70% African American city, that has a white mayor, 5-out-of-6 of its city council members are White, all 7 of their school board members are White, they have 53 policemen, 3 Black, and Ferguson’s firemen reflect the same demographics. Why? Partly because they had a 12% turnout in their last election, including only a 6% turnout among African Americans.
Montgomery, Alabama is 58% Black with a right-wing White Republican as mayor. In Chicago, we have the way if we have the will. The current mayor won with 330,000 votes, but there are 668,000 registered Black voters alone! When we vote - alongside our allies, with a focus on a morally sound agenda - we can determine the White House, the Senate, the House, the Governor, state legislatures and local elections. And when we don’t, our voting rod turns into a snake and bits us.
To the degree that we vote and exercise our political power we will gain respect, justice and programs that reflect our agenda and meet our needs.
CLOSING
Are we at dawn moving toward the sunlight of noon or at sunset moving toward the darkness of midnight?
The choice is ours.
If we vote in record numbers, as we did in 2008 and 2012, we can elect a President Barack Obama – twice. In 2014, if we come out and vote in record numbers, we can maintain control and gain seats in the Senate - and win control of the House.
If we vote, like we did in 1986 after the 1984 Jackson campaign, where we gained 8 Senate seats, recaptured control of the Senate and won unexpected victories like Harry Reid in Nevada, Alan Cranston in California, Wyche Fowler in Georgia, Bob Graham in Florida, John Breaux in Louisiana and Richard Shelby in Alabama – who showed his gratitude by later changing uniforms, but not his Dixiecrat ideology.
Democrats need to keep hope alive by fighting for Medicaid in every state, fighting to raise the minimum wage for workers, fighting to make a college education affordable for all students who are qualified and wish to attend, and fighting to add a right to vote amendment to the U.S. Constitution in the face of partisan Republican attempts to suppress our voters.
If we are faithful over these few things, God will bless us and make us responsible for many others.
The spirit of many of our people is broken, so we must work to keep their hope alive! Too many of us are depressed and cynical, so we must revive minds and keep hope alive! Our task is daunting, but if we have a mind to work we can keep hope alive!
Keep hope alive! Keep hope alive! Keep hope alive!
These are troubling times and there’s an important question before each of us – and before the Black Caucus and the whole DNC. What time is it? Is it sunrise heading toward high noon or sunset moving toward midnight?
In the natural flow of the universe it’s a question beyond our control. The sun rises and sets in a regular 24-hour cycle.
But when it comes to “time” in history, we may not be able to determine our future, but we do have the ability to make choices that will influence whether we are moving toward the bright sunshine of high noon or the darkness of midnight. Our freedom may be limited, but our freedom is real.
So we have choices to make! How are we going to use the freedom we have? We can choose a path that has a greater chance of leading us toward high noon or we can choose a path that is almost certain to lead us toward midnight – but the choice is ours!
And here’s the real choice we must make. We must move from freedom and equality under the law, de jure equality, to freedom and equality in fact, de facto equality!
I. FROM SLAVERY TO FREEDOM
They tell us that America is a nation of immigrants and a nation that welcomes refugees. Immigrants choose to leave their native country and come to America for a better opportunity. Refugees come to America to escape tyranny, violence or oppression. Africans were bought and brought to America, a strange land, against our will as slaves. We didn’t choose to come here for a better opportunity; we didn’t come here to escape tyranny in our motherland; no, we were bought and sold in the marketplace of international trade. It wasn’t a choice.
But we never accepted our condition. There were always some of us who resisted our circumstance. We developed a variety of sophisticated and unsophisticated ways of resistance in our attempt to be free as individual human beings and to gain our freedom as a people. Sometimes we prayed and acted non-violently. Sometimes we used violence and vengeance. In the process we created freedom fighters and gained martyrs – Rev. Nat Turner in Virginia, Denmark Vesey in South Carolina, and White allies like John Brown at Harpers Ferry in 1859. Later came W.E.B. DuBois, Booker T. Washington, Roy Wilkins, James Farmer, Whitney Young and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
America elected its first Republican President in 1860, Abraham Lincoln – who was called “that Black President who represents that Black Republican Party” – but he had a mixed record on slavery and mixed feelings relative to African Americans, but as a political moderate he held steadfast to one central conviction – he would not permit slavery to expand into the new western territories.
After his election, eleven states chose to leave the Union of the United States and form a Confederate States of America in order to protect the institution of slavery, which led to a 4-year American Civil War to end slavery.
Slavery had been kept in place legally with the 10th Amendment – states’ rights and local control - and the primacy of private property over human and civil rights.
At the end of the war African Americans legally gained their freedom in the highest law of the land through ratification of the 13th Amendment in 1865. Thus ended slavery. We were in legal slavery for 246 years, from 1619-to-1865.
II. FROM FREEDOM TO EQUALITY - UNDER THE LAW
The goal was always both freedom and equality, but freedom was the prerequisite for equality. As Dr. King often said, “the greatest of America is the right to fight for the right.”
Once we gained our freedom from slavery – which had been protected by the 10th Amendment’s ideology of states’ rights - we then had to turn our sights on negating the primacy of private property rights over human and civil rights.
We accomplished that goal with the ratification of the 14th Amendment in 1868, which legally provided “equal protection under the law” and “due process.”
The 14th Amendment’s legal principle of “equal protection” also allowed Thurgood Marshall to argue his case before the Supreme Court and allowed Chief Justice Earl Warren to decide that “separate but equal” was “inherently unequal” in Brown in 1954.
Without the 14th Amendment Brown is not possible, and without Brown the 1964 Public Accommodations Act is not possible. The latter tore down the cotton curtain of apartheid in the South and ended legal de jure segregation – no more black and white drinking fountains; we could eat at any public restaurant; travel on any public transportation; and “theoretically” attend desegregated public schools. We were continuing to use our freedom to fight for legal social equality.
In 1870, we again used our freedom to fight for legal political equality with the addition of the 15th Amendment. The 15th Amendment was the third of the Reconstruction Amendments added after the Civil War whose specific purpose was to bring the former slaves into the political mainstream of American society by law. But the 15th Amendment only outlawed discrimination in voting on the basis of race, color or previous condition of servitude. It did not provide every American with an affirmative fundamental individual right to vote! And that’s a problem we overlooked in the struggle for our right to vote.
The problem is, while the 15th Amendment outlawed racial discrimination in voting, we left the former Confederates and their 10th Amendment ideology of states’ rights and local control in charge of our right to vote. As a result the Confederates wrote the enabling legislation. That’s how we wound up with voting laws that required us to recite the Constitution, tell election officials how many bubbles were in a bar of soap, pay poll taxes, be locked out of white-only primaries, denied participation because grandfather clauses and more. Confederate Democrats were the political tricksters.
It took us another 95 years of using our freedom to change the politics, which involved the beating of John Lewis on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, Dr. King’s march from Selma-to-Montgomery, Congress writing and LBJ signing the 1965 Voting Rights Act. Other voting laws had been written, but none were truly effective.
The 1965 Voting Rights Act’s Section 4 formula, and Section 5 Preclearance provision, prevented discrimination in advance of voting. The Shelby decision negated Section 4 and thus gutted the Voting Rights Act. It left us with the car but took away the key, and the indication is that the 113th Congress will not “fix” the destruction of Shelby. And, even if they do, it will be a compromised bill that will leave the 1965 Voting Rights Act much weaker than before Shelby. How do you design a bill that leaves Texas, Alabama, Georgia and Florida out of coverage? Shelby represents moving toward midnight.
That leads me to our second mistake with respect to voting. We not only left the Confederates and states’ righters in charge of our voting laws after we passed the 15th Amendment, we left the Dixiecrats and now the Republicrats – who changed uniforms but didn’t change their states rights ideology – in charge of our voting laws after we passed the 1965 Voting Rights Act.
You do have the right to vote, but it’s a Georgia, Alabama and Illinois right to vote, not a citizenship or American right to vote. And since voting is a state right, with virtually no enforceable national standards, we have ended up with multiple and varied election systems in the 50 states (plus DC), 3,143 counties, 13,000 local voting jurisdictions that administer 186,000 precincts, all organized in what amounts to a “separate and unequal” voting system, controlled and managed by state and local election officials. Prior to Shelby, 86% of Section 5 Preclearance objections involved local, not national or state, voting issues. But if separate and unequal was unacceptable for education in 1954 it’s equally unacceptable for voting in 2014!
With the resignation of the Democratic state senator in Virginia - so his daughter could get a judgeship and he could get a job - the House and Senate in every former Confederate state is now in the hands of right-wing Republicans – every one of them – and 9-of-11 have right-wing Republican Governors! With 57% of all African Americans now living in the South, only Virginia and Arkansas have moderate - not liberal or progressive - Democratic Governors. And since it’s the states and local election boards that determine our voting laws and operational practices, we’re again getting obstacles put in the path of voters and partisan voter suppression – i.e., laws that allow Texas to permit gun registration IDs but not student IDs for voting; North Carolina passing laws that reduce early voting and move polling places off of campus to make it more difficult for students to vote; and Florida to eliminate voting on the Sunday before elections. Southern politics are being nationalized and national politics are increasingly southern in operation. Wisconsin has reduced the number of days for early voting. And remember when Ohio’s African American Republican Secretary of State rejected voter registration forms that weren’t of a particular “thickness.” Now Cincinnati has moved its downtown voting location to the outskirts of town.
All of this is only possible because we have a 10th Amendment states’ rights and local control national voting system.
But we have a choice, the choice of moving America forward toward high noon with vision and positive action or watching America continue to move backward toward midnight with silence and inaction.
III. FROM FREEDOM TO EQUALITY - IN FACT
With constitutional amendments, legislation and judicial decisions, legally we have achieved a large degree of social and political freedom. And those same constitutional amendments - and the many laws that followed built on their foundation - have essentially given us equal protection under the law!
The challenge before us now is to use our freedom and our equality under the law to continue to move America further down the road to freedom and equality in fact!
With respect to equal protection under the law, we’ve moved from slavery in 1619, to ending slavery in 1865, to segregation in 1896, to equality in 1954, to social equality in 1964, to political equality in 1965.
Now we must insist on the full meaning of “equal protection under the law“ by moving from freedom to equality - in fact – full equality of social, political and economic opportunity. How do we do that?
During the 1983 southern crusade that eventually led to my 1984 presidential candidacy, I met with former Governor George Wallace. One of the things he told me was this: “keep your message down where the goats can get it.” In other words, make your message simple and clear. That’s what Democrats need in 2014, 2016 and beyond. What do I mean?
Medicaid: There are millions of poor Americans living without health insurance, but Republicans hate President Obama so much that they are willing to deny their constituents health insurance under the Medicaid part of the Affordable Care Act - and deny their state’s economy and hospitals billions of dollars. In the 1960s Dixiecrat Governors stood in schoolhouse doors to deny their citizens an education. Today Republicrat Governors are standing in hospital doors to deny their citizens health care and deny their hospitals and states money.
No state could exist without federal funds – but especially southern states where over 40% of every state budget depends on federal monies. They welcome federal dollars for the military, for highways, airports, water ports, business development and more, but they reject federal funds for the poor. Because of photosynthesis, our growth remains stunted. Democrats must revive broken spirits and keep hope alive among the despised and dispossessed. Those who live in the shadows must rise and vote for their share of services. An agenda for the people in the shadows must be our focus!
Minimum Wage: The Dow Jones is soaring above 17,000, but wages remain stagnant and working class family income is declining. If the $7.25 minimum wage had only kept pace with inflation the current minimum wage would be around $12/hour. Workers should be allowed to work themselves out of poverty!
Students: In the name of “fiscal responsibility” we’re closing thousands of public schools, eliminating trades education within our schools and turning students away from community and 4-year colleges. As a result, we’re building first class jails and leaving in place deteriorating second and third class schools. We must fight for a public educational system of equal high quality for every student, including teaching the wide range of trades that are necessary to rebuild America. We’ve gone from paying students to go to school with Pell Grants to putting students in debt in order to go to school. The $1.2 trillion in student debt is greater than the nation’s credit card debt. We need to increase the money for student scholarships with nearly 500,000 students in need of support. Our future as a competitor in the world economy depends on it.
The Vote: As noted earlier, we have a states’ rights and local control voting system with few national standards in place. Shelby undercut our most effective tool for non-discrimination in voting, the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and the result has been a Republican attack on the most fundamental right in a democracy – the right to vote. What must we do? What’s the Democrat’s response to this partisan Republican suppression campaign on our voters?
I support all legitimate efforts to “fix” the damage done by Shelby - if it can be fixed - but I’m also tired of this patchwork approach to voting rights. Instead of hustling to protect our right to vote every few years, we need a more permanent solution, and I think that more permanent solution is to add a right to vote amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Let me repeat. We do have a right to vote, but it’s a state right, a Georgia right, not a constitutional or citizenship right.
Ironically, the Supreme Court in Heller ruled that the 2nd Amendment does contain a fundamental individual right to a gun, but the Constitution does not contain a similar fundamental individual right to vote.
In a democracy, the right to vote is a moral imperative, the most fundamental legal right and is protective of all other rights. 119 nations elect their public officials using some form of democratic elections with 108 of them having the right to vote in their constitution, but the United States is one of the 11 nations - including Azerbaijan, Chechnya, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Libya, Pakistan, Singapore and the United Kingdom - that does not explicitly contain a citizen's right to vote in its constitution.
President Barack Obama already knows this. Professor Barack Obama, as a teacher of constitutional law at the University of Chicago, opened all of his constitutional law classes by informing his students that the fundamental individual right to vote is not explicitly in the Constitution. He said it always surprised his students. His involvement and use of the bully pulpit to educate the American people on this issue would dramatically change the political climate around voting.
The right to vote may be in the Constitution implicitly, but it’s not there explicitly. Wouldn’t voters and voting rights lawyers be in a stronger position if it were there explicitly? It would seem illogical and ridiculous to argue that it’s better to have the right to vote in the Constitution implicitly rather than to have it there explicitly. And in light of Shelby and all the partisan voter suppression efforts going on in the states controlled by Republican governors and legislatures - to borrow a phrase from former half-Governor Sarah Palin - couldn’t one ask, “How’s that implicit right to vote thing working out for ya?”
The Affordable Care Act is violating of the National Voter Registration Act – the Motor Voter Law. Motor Voter requires all offices in a state that provides public assistance to be designated voter registration agencies and provide the specific opportunity to register and vote. This applies to all Exchanges created by the Affordable Care Act – but voter registration is not occurring through the ACA!
The vote is the maypole around which all other social, political and economic issues revolve. Voting rights, voter registration, voter turnout and voter outcomes affect every area of our lives.
It you don’t believe me, look at Ferguson, Missouri, a 70% African American city, that has a white mayor, 5-out-of-6 of its city council members are White, all 7 of their school board members are White, they have 53 policemen, 3 Black, and Ferguson’s firemen reflect the same demographics. Why? Partly because they had a 12% turnout in their last election, including only a 6% turnout among African Americans.
Montgomery, Alabama is 58% Black with a right-wing White Republican as mayor. In Chicago, we have the way if we have the will. The current mayor won with 330,000 votes, but there are 668,000 registered Black voters alone! When we vote - alongside our allies, with a focus on a morally sound agenda - we can determine the White House, the Senate, the House, the Governor, state legislatures and local elections. And when we don’t, our voting rod turns into a snake and bits us.
To the degree that we vote and exercise our political power we will gain respect, justice and programs that reflect our agenda and meet our needs.
CLOSING
Are we at dawn moving toward the sunlight of noon or at sunset moving toward the darkness of midnight?
The choice is ours.
If we vote in record numbers, as we did in 2008 and 2012, we can elect a President Barack Obama – twice. In 2014, if we come out and vote in record numbers, we can maintain control and gain seats in the Senate - and win control of the House.
If we vote, like we did in 1986 after the 1984 Jackson campaign, where we gained 8 Senate seats, recaptured control of the Senate and won unexpected victories like Harry Reid in Nevada, Alan Cranston in California, Wyche Fowler in Georgia, Bob Graham in Florida, John Breaux in Louisiana and Richard Shelby in Alabama – who showed his gratitude by later changing uniforms, but not his Dixiecrat ideology.
Democrats need to keep hope alive by fighting for Medicaid in every state, fighting to raise the minimum wage for workers, fighting to make a college education affordable for all students who are qualified and wish to attend, and fighting to add a right to vote amendment to the U.S. Constitution in the face of partisan Republican attempts to suppress our voters.
If we are faithful over these few things, God will bless us and make us responsible for many others.
The spirit of many of our people is broken, so we must work to keep their hope alive! Too many of us are depressed and cynical, so we must revive minds and keep hope alive! Our task is daunting, but if we have a mind to work we can keep hope alive!
Keep hope alive! Keep hope alive! Keep hope alive!
