What's the John Lewis Act and Why Is It So Important?

Don’t fall for the distractions, voter suppression is how fascists will take control

Hello Friends,

During the DNC convention, Kamala Harris repeated her intention to sign the John Lewis Act into law. More than anything else, I believe that if this law is passed, it will completely transform our country.

I wrote this article in March of 2023 after the the John Lewis act was blocked by the dishonest “moderates” in the Democratic party. Naturally, the media has completely failed to educate the public on the extent to which our FREEDOM TO VOTE has been DESTROYED by corrupt elements in our government.

It’s pretty basic.

We’re not a government “of the people, by the people, for the people” if the people are SUPPRESSED from the RIGHT to PARTICIPATE!

ZERO people in politics should be against voting. You need to be enraged about what’s going on (not violent, never violent, but LOUD).

How blocking the John Lewis Act was the most devastating recent attack on democracy

You might think that the worst recent assault on democracy came on January 6th, 2021 when a vicious, treasonous mob attacked the United States Capitol. Property was destroyed. People died.

Yes, that was a horrible day, but beyond the terrible impact it had on the lives of the participants, there won’t be a lasting effect.

To put it simply, the attack on the Capitol was a poorly organized clown show that never had any chance of success.

The real attack on Democracy, our freedoms, and the ability of the general public to retain a voice in our government happened when the moderates in congress joined forces with the fascists to show their continuing support for our well-established mechanism of voter suppression.

We must never forget that we had the seats necessary to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Act.

We had the seats, but not the votes…

Once again the American people stood up to demand change. We put the individuals in office we were told would represent our wishes. We won the elections and got our candidates sworn in. Then, we had to stand by and watch helplessly as they refused to do what we put them there to do.

Yes, January 6th, 2021 was a betrayal, but blocking an act that would ensure free and fair elections was a greater betrayal by far. It’s time that the American people stopped falling for the distractions and started to recognize the true malicious actors who are responsible for holding back our society.

The United States has rarely had free and fair elections

The United States has an appalling history of voter disenfranchisement. This would be the type of thing that children would learn about in schools if we lived in a free state. Instead, our children are inoculated with a near lethal dose of patriotism, and any whisper of the truth is banned under the false accusation that it represents CRT.

During the Jim Crow era, voters used to be handed a confusing grammar test that disqualified them if they got even one question wrong. Today’s tactics of voter suppression are more subtle, but no less effective.

Remember how the news was flooded with stories about voter arrests in Florida leading up to the 2022 midterms? That was no accident. The fascists were trying to scare voters into staying home.

It doesn’t take a lot of obstruction and intimidation to steal an election. It seems like in every presidential election, the choice is determined by a handful of swing counties. It takes a lot of erosion in the voting rolls to keep these elections close.

A secondary effect is that the competitive nature of our elections makes the DNC inclined to think they can’t win unless they run “centrist” candidates. The problem is that those candidates are often inclined to sabotage the aspirations of their own party.

What’s the point of working to elect a candidate that won’t support the will of the people?

How did we get here?

Well, of course the sitting fascists in Congress aren’t going to allow for voter protections. That’s a given. We should expect that.

The thing that’s inexcusable is when moderates trump up some reason why they refuse to do the right thing as well.

This should be really simple, people…

Voters elected a sufficient number of politicians to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act (VRAA). However, a few radical dissenters within the Democratic party decided to block it. We can’t sit around going, “Oh well, that’s just politics!”

No! There have to be consequences when politicians betray the party they claim to represent. The DNC establishment refuses to denounce actions like this. What does the nation gain by blocking the free and fair access to voting?

The only result that I can perceive is that fascists are validated, and spineless moderates get to retain their power.

Let the people vote!

Those of us sitting and watching this from the outside can’t buy into the narrative that any of this is somehow acceptable. We need to scream criticisms at the top of our voice.

This is voter oppression.

This is election fraud.

This is injustice.

LET THE PEOPLE VOTE!

Fraudulent Supreme Courts undermine our protections

I personally believe that our current Supreme Court is fraudulent. Conservatives were able to stack the court with radical justices because they abandoned the filibuster.

This isn’t the first time something like that happened and it won’t be the last time. Justice is always undermined with nefarious tactics. This is why you can never sit on your hands and indulge the delusion that justice has prevailed.

Justice hasn’t prevailed, justice is under constant attack.

We thought we scored a victory in the Voting Rights Act (VRA) of 1965, but that victory has subsequently been stolen from us. The Supreme court gutted the Voting Rights Act in 2013 and again in 2022.

Who was on the Supreme Court in 2013 you ask? It was made up of a familiar cast of villains: Roberts, Scalia, Kennedy, Thomas and Alito.

The 2013 decision made it possible for states to target and disenfranchise minority populations.

It was a decision that empowered racism courtesy of the Supreme Court. It was a deplorable decision.

It’s as simple as that. Of course, in defending the decision, fascists said things like “we only seek to protect the nation against tyranny.” But that’s what fascists always say.

How is it “protecting the nation against tyranny” to place obstacles in the way of people who want to vote? Come on!

The worst part is that this form of disingenuous argument has been so normalized that nobody even bothers to call it out anymore. Gutting the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was a travesty. The people who allowed that to happen should be ashamed of themselves.

Today, we have a chance to correct that wrong. That’s our obligation if we claim to stand for what is right.

What does the John Lewis Act do?

There should be absolutely nothing controversial about the John Lewis Act. Simply put, it’s an act that prevents the government from infringing on the people’s right to vote.

That’s it.

How can ANY politician or political entity in the United States DARE to oppose such a thing? Well, they can and do oppose it.

The John Lewis act empowers THE PEOPLE to stop gerrymandered districts and other forms of voter dilution. Read about it. You’ll scratch your head and say, “Wait… why don’t we have these protections already?”

We did have them, Republicans stole them from us.

Are you aware at how much voter suppression happens as a result of unfairly drawn districts? Florida managed to turn the state completely red with new districts. That’s largely why Republicans gained control of the House in 2022. This is why Republicans are regularly able to win more seats even though they get fewer votes.

Essentially, if the VRAA passes, oppressive Republican minority rule is going to evaporate overnight. Imagine that! Imagine a world where every reasonable policy isn’t opposed by a major political entity. Imagine a government that actually listened to the people’s will on popular issues.

Check any poll, progressive policies are what the people want, and we can’t have them because of voter suppression.

We need the VRAA, in part, because the Supreme Court was stacked by disregarding the filibuster. But when it comes time to disregard the filibuster to restore justice, moderates refuse to act!

Manchin and Sinema refused to get the VRAA passed

Why? Why would Democrats fail to unite behind an act that basically ensures they would never lose another election? The VRAA would be a transformative act that could propel the nation into the future. The only people it affects negatively are fascists, and centrist politicians who are only relevant in a slim majority.

It was in our grasp, but Manchin and Sinema killed it.

THEY SAID NO!

These are the moments where democracy dies. The attack on the Capitol was more dramatic and provided more sensational television, but when the moderates refused to pass the VRAA, it left the door open for fascists to have access to seats of power.

Today, instead of breaking down doors, the fascists can continue to redraw districts and disenfranchise voters. This allows them to steal seats! Instead of taking over Congress with violence, they’ll be welcomed in under a fraudulent veil of legitimacy.

Failing to pass the VRAA was a dagger in the heart of freedom, and it was barely even on the news!

Martin Luther King Jr. warned us about moderates

I keep referencing the words Martin Luther King Jr. spoke on the subject of moderates.

[The] great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens Councillor or the Ku Klux Klanner but the white moderate — Martin Luther King, Jr.

This quote is hard to understand at first, but keep meditating on it and you’ll see numerous examples of how it applies.

The straight up fascists are a distraction. They’re a fear tactic that’s deployed to keep us from recognizing the critical betrayals of the moderates. Sure, the fascists get all the headlines. They’re legitimately terrifying. But they’re a clown show. Their dumb indulgences in violence are easily repulsed.

Our nation isn’t going to fall because jerks carrying Confederate flags and Gadsden flags set off smoke bombs at the Capitol. Our nation is going to fall because we allow the will of the people to be buried in favor of allowing a free pathway for fascists to take seats of power.

That’s the real danger here! That’s what MLK was trying to tell us.

For all their bluster, White Supremacists and neo-Nazis can’t get anything done. They’re too ignorant. They’re too radical. They’re too incompetent. It’s not violence or terrorism that’s going to be our undoing, it’s the subtle erosion of our ability to vote.

We need to denounce the moderates who stand at the entrance to the halls of power holding open the door for the raging mob. The moderates are our greatest obstacle. They’re the ones who betray us from the inside! They’re saboteurs!

There is ZERO excuse for not passing the VRAA. All it does is RESTORE protections that were ALREADY IN PLACE from 1965 to 2013. For ten years, we’ve been living under the oppression of stolen rights. It’s time to stop being distracted and start to recognize the true threats to our society.

Empires crumble from within, and anyone can see that the United States already has more than a few cracks in the walls.

Demand that the VRAA gets passed. Don’t accept any concessions. This is the only hope we have of saving our country.

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