Tuesday, March 26

Harris warns voting rights are ‘under attack’ as family and activist honor MLK | Martin Luther King


Vice President Kamala Harris warned on Monday that the right to vote in the United States was “under attack” and that tens of millions of Americans faced possible disenfranchisement unless US lawmakers passed voting rights legislation. threatened.

The speech was delivered on the Martin Luther King holiday and comes as King’s family and other US civil rights activists are pushing to expand federal voting rights legislation despite political opposition from Republicans.

Activists want politicians to pass two measures aimed at expanding voting rights across the country: the Freedom to Vote Act and the John R Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Passage of voting rights legislation is seen as crucial in the face of a wave of Republican state legislation aimed at erecting barriers to voting that are likely to suppress votes from communities of color.

Harris delivered strong words, though not a concrete new action plan, regarding fighting a wave of Republican-led voter suppression. She said, “Our freedom to vote is under attack,” adding that “voter suppression laws can make it difficult for up to 55 million Americans, or one in six people in the country, to vote.”

“The proponents of these laws are not only putting obstacles to the polls; they are also working to interfere in our elections, to get the results they want and discredit those they don’t want. That’s not how democracy works,” Harris added.

A woman stands at a podium in front of a screen proclaiming
Vice President Kamala Harris delivers a speech virtually at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia. Photograph: REX/Shutterstock

Martin Luther King III, King’s eldest son, his wife Arndrea Waters King and their daughter Yolanda Renee King led a march Monday morning across the Frederick Douglass Memorial Bridge in Washington DC.

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In a statement last week, King III spoke of his father, who would have turned 93 on Saturday, saying “the stakes could not be higher to protect and expand” his father’s legacy of activism and racial justice.

“Senators now face one of the most existential choices of their term: protect our voting rights or go down in history as an enabler of voter suppression,” he said. additional.

In a speech at King’s Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, Georgia, King’s youngest daughter, Bernice King, emphasized the urgency of expanding voting rights.

“It is…critical that we change our priorities so that our freedom to participate in democracy through the vote is not threatened or frustrated by bipartisan agendas and policies, but is grounded in our constitution and our collective conscience,” he said.

“We must tell our Senate that the right to vote is not some effervescent, ephemeral domestic issue that can be kicked around by reactionary guardians of the status quo,” he said, adding: “It is rather an eternal moral issue that may well determine the fate of our nation.”

A man stands behind a podium with a large image of Martin Luther King Jr. in the background.
Martin Luther King III speaks during a press conference at Union Station in Washington DC on January 17. Photo: Shawn Thew/EPA

Senator Raphael Warnock of Georgia echoed King’s sentiments, saying, “Right now … we have voter suppression bills passed in 19 states, introduced in 49 states, and governors and members of Congress are channeling the rights of all states, arguments to fight against the right to vote”. .”

“Surely the state has no right to prevent people from voting,” he said.

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In December, more than 800 religious leaders, led by King III and his wife, called on the Biden administration and Senate Democrats to pass voting rights legislation. “The communities we represent will continue to sound the alarm until these bills are passed. While we come from different faiths, we are united by our commitment to act in solidarity with the most vulnerable among us,” they said in an open letter.

Despite urging the Senate to pass voting rights bills, Harris’ speech comes after a disappointing week for the Biden administration and skepticism about her and Joe Biden’s ability to do anything to pass the new bills. laws.

Last week, Biden went to Capitol Hill to urge his Senate colleagues to change the House rules so he can overcome Republican opposition to the voting rights bill, only to be forcefully rebuffed by two conservative Democrats who hold power. effective veto.

Two Democrats, Sens. Joe Manchin and Kyrsten Sinema, have remained opposed to changing filibuster rules, which are necessary to pass bills. The filibuster means that most important laws require 60 votes to pass in the Senate, not a simple majority, and the Senate is currently split 50-50 with Democrats controlling a tiebreaker vote.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has announced that the Senate will address election legislation on Tuesday.

Biden also issued a new statement saying Americans must protect “the sacred right to vote, a right from which all other rights flow.” “It’s time for every elected official in America to make their position clear,” Biden said in a video address. “It is time for all Americans to stand up. Speak up, be heard. What is your position?”

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www.theguardian.com

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