President tells Americans to fight for their right to vote

In some ways, the 50^th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act could not have come at a better time, at least for the Democrats. As the country prepares itself for another year stuffed full of political posturing and campaigning, both Republicans and Democrats are on high alert for those key issues they can use to get voters excited enough – or angry enough – to turn out and turn up at the polls in 2016. Democrats are betting that the issue of voter disenfranchisement, for which they blame Republicans, will be one of those key issues guaranteed to ignite the base.
Were it not for the upcoming election year, the recent anniversary may have been celebrated more as simply an historical marker deserving of recognition as Americans are encouraged to appreciate how far the country has come since President Lyndon Johnson’s landmark achievement. Instead, in his weekly address to the nation on Saturday, Aug. 8, President Obama used the occasion to not simply remind people of the importance of voting, but to remind them of how much the Voting Rights Act has been under attack – and where those attacks have been coming from.
Obama singled out those questionable voter suppression initiatives that have been championed by right-leaning legislatures such as requiring voters to produce a driver’s license or other form of photo identification at the polls to make the process of voting more difficult and intimidating when it should be more open and welcoming. According to Politico, “Voting rights activists say that 15 states with 162 electoral votes will have new voting restrictions in 2016.”
“So, in theory everybody is in favor of the right to vote,” said Obama. “In practice, we have state legislatures that are deliberately trying to make it harder for people to vote.”
Obama’s proposed remedy for this problem is the passage of an updated Voting Rights Act that would confront – and hopefully roll back – these new efforts designed at impeding voting rights. However, given the current makeup of the Congress, the ability to cobble together any sort of majority to pass such a law would appear doubtful at best.
The issue of voting rights, and the need for their protection, carries a particular resonance with some voters in Michigan – particularly those in Detroit – who felt that their voting rights were steamrolled with the passage of Public Act 436 in December of 2012, which was seen by many as a direct rebuke of the majority of Michigan residents who voted just one month earlier to overturn PA4, the earlier version of Gov. Snyder’s much promoted Emergency Manager law that passed the legislature in 2011. PA 436 is virtually identical to PA 4, and a challenge to its legality has been filed in Federal Court. From the Sugar Law Center website:
“On March 27, 2013, together with co-counsel Herb Sanders, the Michigan and Detroit Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, the Center for Constitutional Rights and others, the Sugar Law Center filed suit in the U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Michigan challenging Public Act 436 as violating citizens’ constitutional rights.  This is the first suit challenging Michigan’s emergency manager laws under the United States Constitution.”
On the national front, Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders made sure to weigh in on the threat of voter disenfranchisement.
“We are facing a two-pronged attack on our democracy — unlimited money poured into the political process, paired with the systematic suppression of the vote,” Sanders is quoted as saying in the Huffington Post. “These are two sides of the same coin.”
But despite the threat proposed by the recent attacks on the Voting Rights Act, and on the ability to vote in general, Obama was quick to emphasize the role of personal responsibility in what is happening. Broader participation in the voting process by those most heavily targeted for disenfranchisement will go a long way toward guaranteeing fewer threats to voting rights.
From Politico:
“This isn’t always a popular thing to say in front of progressive groups, but far more people disenfranchise themselves than any law does by not participating, by not getting involved.”
Obama proposed making Sept. 22 National Voter Registration Day.
“We’re going to try to get everybody to register to vote,” he said. “We’re probably not going to get everybody, but we’re going to try.”