States rights, there's nothing wrong with that, right?
This past week, Senator Joe Manchin gave an interview to CNN regarding his view on the filibuster, and, more importantly, the ‘for the people’ voting rights act, or HR 1.
Among all the things he discussed, one thing he stated stood out to me, and reminded me of the rhetoric George Wallace who was famous for the quote
‘Segregation now, Segregation forever’
(although he later recanted these racist views, and it turns out he was a deciding vote of
‘no confidence’ when Richard Nixon called for his support during Watergate, contributing greatly to Nixon’s resignation, so there’s that for redemption, I suppose.)
Start at about 34 seconds
(if) you read the debates of the Constitutional Convention…. of the original 13 states, and you will find not a one of the states wanted to come into the Union, until first they were guaranteed that we were going to have a government of limited powers….
This argument was a retread of ‘States Rights’ that revisionist Civil War historians will say what the Civil War was really about, the rights of States to have self determination outside of the jurisdiction of the Federal Government, however, and also, any true historian will quickly point out that every State participating in the Civil War rebellion were doing so to ensure the continuation of slavery, and thusly the dissolution of the Union.
What we are seeing today in Georgia (and a lot of other states) are Republican legislators who can read the tea leaves and who know that unless they suppress the vote of the ‘masses’ meaning all of us, their policies can not prevail, and they, like the Whigs before them, are going to be relegated to a minority party.
This is why they fear the ‘For the People’ voting rights act, which would be encoded into Federal law.
You see, up until 2013, we had the Voting rights act which protected minority populations’ ability to have fair and free elections, without hold overs from Jim Crow, like reading tests or poll taxes, or even absurd rules like ‘if you can guess how many jelly beans are in this jar, you can have a ballot’ (not even joking).
But in 2013 Chief Justice John Roberts struck down the Voting Rights Act,
because — get this-
There Isn’t Enough Racism In America To Justify The Voting Rights Act
Well, that was 2013, and we did have a black President, so we will give him a pass for possibly thinking that.
But today, in light of the public murder of George Floyd, which launched the international
Black Lives Matter movement — is it still possible to think there isn’t enough racism to need a federal voting rights act?
Apparently Senator Joe Manchin does.
At about 6:32 into this interview (hat tip to Lauren Fox of CNN)
listen to how Senator Manchin criticizes then, yet somehow, pretzels his way into defending
‘States Rights’
Georgia has done some things that I thought were atrocious, but I also have been a Secretary of State and a Governor, I know the 10th amendment. I know my rights, as far as States rights, and I don’t think there should be an over-reaching, if you will, federal elections (law).
Okay, Senator, I will remind you that this was the specific argument that the south used to declare war on our Union, and probably in the mindset of the January 6th Insurrectionists.
But to make it more clear to you, I will let the late Rep. John Lewis describe how it is very, very and urgently necessary for the federal government to be put in charge when local ‘states rights’ run afoul of humanity.
from the start to about 51 seconds….
A group of us were trapped in a church in Montgomery, Alabama during the Freedom ride (of 1961)
and Martin Luther King Jr. made a call to Bobby Kennedy, the Attorney General and told him, we needed his help, and he needed to do something to save us.
Robert Kennedy spoke to his brother, the President of the United States, John F. Kennedy, and he placed the city of Montgomery, Alabama, under Martial law, and federalized the Alabama National Guard, to protect us.
The Freedom rides were part of the long struggle to secure voting rights for African Americans in the South. They were the inspiration behind the Voting rights act, thought of by JFK and MLK, and passed by Lyndon Johnson.
And when LBJ was about to pass the Voting Rights act, he was warned by an advisor, to paraphrase,
“if you pass this, the Democrats will lose the South for a generation”
to which he responded,
“but it is the right thing to do”
Which brings us to why Rep. James Clyburn is shocked to have fought alongside the late John Lewis, who literally bled and faced death to secure voting rights at the Pettus bridge, only to see another Democrat like Joe Manchin invoke ‘States rights’ to defend his position against a Federal voting rights law.
Why do we need a Federal voting rights act? Why did we need National Guards to escort black children to integrate a school in Little Rock Arkansas?
Or JFK to save black civil rights voting rights organizers like John Lewis from a church, for if they left, would most likely would have lost their lives to a lynch mob?
Why do we have the National Guard protecting the Capitol now? Maybe because local Capitol Police were overwhelmed by an insurrectionist mob?
Yet, you Senator Manchin are concerned about ‘States rights’?
Let's be clear Senator Manchin, the Civil War, the Civil Rights movement and the entire Republican voter restriction law plan, which is based on a lie of a ‘stolen election’ are all examples of how
‘States Rights’ have been and continue to be the fig leaf covering the naked racism of local republican legislatures, many of whom garnered their power through a process of gerrymandering.
Why do you want to protect ‘States rights’ over the ‘for the People act’?
It’s us, the people, who need their rights protected, not the ‘States’...
