It's Time, Again, to Become a More Perfect Union
Lyndon Johnson signing the Voting Rights Act in 1965, the last major attempt to ensure Americans’ right to vote.
It’s Election Day in the U.S. today. A year away from the election that really matters, of course, but I encourage everyone to exercise your right to vote nevertheless.
That right to vote is the most foundational aspect of any democracy. Yet, ever since the founding of our republic, there has been a tension around who, exactly, has that right. In fact, the U.S. Constitution does not explicitly grant the right to vote, instead punting the question of who can vote to the states.
That apparent oversight was probably for the best, since, at the time, the only group the framers of the Constitution could have agreed on would have been white, male, land-owning Protestants. Since our founding, we’ve had an inherent contradiction in our government. While we pay lip service to the right of every American to vote, the reality is that people with wealth and power are threatened by the prospect of true democracy, so they’ve outlawed, intimidated, or otherwise suppressed the rights of “others" to vote. Instead of codifying discrimination into the Constitution, this critical question of who has the right to participate in our democracy was left unanswered. In our quest to become a more perfect union, our country has become, very gradually, more democratic over the ensuing 232 years.
Of course, those rights have been slow to come and hard fought. It took almost a century and a civil war for the 15th Amendment which, ostensibly, prohibited "race, color, or previous condition of servitude” as a basis for denying voting rights. Though Jim Crow laws, discriminatory voter registration requirements, and outright violent intimidation would effectively disenfranchise millions of voters for nearly another century. Women didn’t get the right to vote until the suffrage movement finally won the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920. The 24th and 26th amendments to the Constitution outlawed poll taxes, age discrimination and other voter suppression measures. And it wasn’t until the passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965 that the federal government truly sought to end racial discrimination in voting.
But is our last and best effort to improve voting rights really from the 1960s?? Anyone paying attention to the latest elections can attest that voter disenfranchisement is still rampant today. Purging voter roles, closing voting locations particularly in minority communities, imposing onerous voter registration requirements, and ridiculous partisan gerrymandering are just some of the nefarious tactics that states — particularly Republican-governed ones — have implemented to discourage Americans from voting. Further, voter manipulation in social media, foreign interference in our elections, and massive influxes of dark money by both parties have exacerbated voter pessimism about our electoral process.
It’s time to again strive to become a more perfect union by protecting voting rights and ensuring fair, impartial elections. In January, the Democratically-controlled House of Representatives passed as its very first piece of legislation H.R. 1, a comprehensive voting rights and campaign finance reform bill. This bill hasn’t even been put up for debate by Mitch McConnell’s Republican-controlled Senate.
Although McConnell has irresponsibly disparaged the legislation as a “radical, half-baked socialist proposal,” it is difficult for anyone who claims to believe in democracy to argue against H.R.1 (dubbed the “For the People Act of 2019”) based on the merits. Among it’s provisions, the legislation would:
Create a national voter-registration program to ensure fairness and consistency
Make Election Day a federal holiday to ensure everyone can get to the polls
Replace partisan gerrymandering with non-partisan commissions to draw electoral districts
Limit states’ unlawful efforts to purge voting rolls
Introduce voluntary public financing for campaigns
Implement stricter limits on foreign lobbying
Require presidential candidates to disclose their income-tax returns so we the people know if our top elected official has financial conflicts of interest, rather than having to fight this battle in the courts
Overturn the Supreme Court’s unfortunate Citizens United decision, which has unleashed virtually unlimited spending by corporations, labor unions, and other organizations to contort our political process to their benefit
Require Super PACs and other "dark money" organizations on both ends of the political spectrum to disclose their donors
Restructure the Federal Election Commission so it is actually effective at eliminating corruption in our elections
These measures would continue the long, hard work of ensuring every American’s right to vote, while making our elections more fair, well-informed and transparent. Opposition to this bill is nothing short of opposition to the democratic process and the ideals that make our country great. Senator McConnell, who has personally benefitted so much from the status quo, is right about one thing with respect to H.R. 1 which he characterized as a “political power grab.” It is a power grab — a power grab for average citizens trying to participate in our democracy.
Sign this petition to show your support for H.R. 1.