Lets Talk Voting Rights Act

We are at a critical moment in our democracy, where our fundamental right to vote is at risk. With President Biden’s speech today, I wanted to put together a list of what is in the Freedom to Vote Act that is before the Senate. Every single Republican Senator is in opposition to this bill, as well as the John Lewis Voting Rights Act. They don’t even want to debate it, let alone vote on the bill itself.

And before I go too far, the Constitution more than allows for the Federal Government to create or alter election laws, despite Republican talking points:

The Times, Places and Manner of holding Elections for Senators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such Regulations, except as to the Places of chusing Senators.

What does this bill do? Let’s go over the key points:

Casting a Vote for Exclusion

I have been thinking quite a bit this past 24 hours about the last four years, and the end of the campaign for president. For many of us it has been a truly exhausting four years for many reasons, all of which have been covered ad nauseum around the world and here at home. As of this writing over 146 million people voted in this year’s election. Of particular concern to me and the reason I am writing this is the 71 million people who voted for Donald Trump. Like it or not, this is in fact a record — he now holds second place in terms of number of votes cast for a presidential candidate.

But… why?

I have been having a hard time wrapping my head around this and I am still grappling with it. And spoiler alert, I will not be answering it here — and I’m not sure I’ll ever be able to answer it. I also keep seeing people say “Have some understanding, you know how they felt from 2016” regarding his loss. But… do they really?

Casting a vote for Donald Trump is casting a vote for exclusion. You may have liked one or two of his policies that benefit you but in the grand scheme of things you casted a vote for exclusion. There is more than enough evidence of this, and I will list just a few of them.