VOTING RIGHTS EFFORT NEEDS A CHANGE OF STRATEGY: MAKE IT A BIPARTISAN ISSUE.

ICHEOKU says the struggle to pass voting rights legislation must be made a bipartisan effort in order to accomplish it.  It is an American question and needs an American solution to it. A more inclusive strategy, which embraces both political parties, is needed otherwise all the speeches, marching and celebration usually marking the birthday of Dr Martin Luther King Jr every January, will remain what they are, mere annual feely-good chattering and commemoration show. 

As Martin Luther King III rightly observed this year, what is needed is legislation and not celebrations; and this should be the cardinal objective and driving shaft of every voting and civil rights movement going forward. The time has come to abandon those flowery loose speeches and symbolic marching that merely pay lip-service to the struggle, as action is required now and no more speeches. This is the only imperative from this year's annual rehash of the now 53 years old effort to fix some loopholes in America's electoral system. Black people, the NAACP and other minority groups and voting and civil rights organizations in America must clutch this imperative and make it the pivoting orbit of the struggle henceforth. 

What worked in the past is no longer effective as a different breed of Americans are now on both sides of the debate. Therefore, it is about time to reinvent and re-strategize in order to add value to the struggle and make it relevant today as it was back in the days that typified the voting rights movement. Even the option of ending the annual ritual commemorating the birthday should be considered, because, refusing to march or sit through politicians' boring, generic speeches, about their "love and affection" for Martin Luther King Jr, might be a more effective weapon to be deployed in the effort to force the issue. A sort of silent sit at home protest, observed on the day, will definitely reverberate more than all the empty speeches and marching which take place. 

If these politicians love MLK, why then has the voting rights legislation not been passed since the 53 years following his assassination. It is akin to black people and the Democratic Party, which only needs them during voting, but never does anything for them nor ever fulfills campaign promises made to them. The zeal around voting rights, civil rights and even Martin Luther King Jr national holiday celebration is steadily waning as people are increasingly feeling despondent and asking themselves what is the point in still coming out to march for these issues, when nothing meaningful ever comes out from such time-wasting endeavors as they once did and should be expected. 

These voting and civil rights actions worked in the past, which helped to bring about some changes in the country, but seemingly not as effective as they once were. Those good old days are since gone and they were the glorious days of the movement, when a huge majority embraced it and usually came out in very large numbers to participate in their activities. They were able to put fear of God in white people due to their "threatening" numbers and it eventually forced out the notable changes recorded, which were primarily conceded out of fear of the consequences of doing nothing about the situation. 

Those were the days of respected and altruistic indefatigable civil rights movement leaders who commanded larger than life presence and were highly revered. Which present civil rights leader can mobilize one million people to the Mall of Washington or bring out a huge number of people on a bridge in Selma or anywhere else. To make matters worse for the movement, the present crop of leaderships no longer possess the gravitas and resolve as their counterparts of yore once did. A dying species, the last notable of which is the now weary and ailing Reverend Jesse Jackson and you wonder why they don't make them like them anymore. 

Even Reverend Al Sharpton is no longer as strong as he used to be, admitted he is a sort of straggler and hustler of the movement compared to the real activists of the past. Also, he has since gone too far to the left that his words no longer carry much weight as a civil rights leader whose words meant something and who can mobilize to push the voting rights legislation. He has since become a hack democrat partisan. The Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan belongs to that fiery and feared band of past activists, admitted that his fixated distaste of the Jews have sort of pigeonholed his activism into an anti-semitic, Israel hating radicalized bigot. He too is no longer young nor vibrant as before and is equally speeding on the fast lane of exit.

So the virus afflicting the voting rights and other civil rights movements in America have morphed into many variants: including lack of very energetic and charismatic leaders who the people can rally around. The movements have also lost their gravitational compass as a one-stop center for just civil and voting rights issues only. They have largely become glorified Democratic Party's institutions and the majority of American people, including politicians on the other aisle, now see them as just an extended arm of the Democratic Party. So, why should they listen to them or be interested in what they are talking about concerning voting or civil rights issues when they are seen as the biblical voice of Jacob and hand of Esau of the Democratic Party.

A matter not helped when some faces of the civil rights movement, including the son of late Martin Luther King Jr, continuously lambasts the Republican Party, their governors and Congressional delegates as demonic each time he talks about voting and civil rights legislation. How does such a man expect to achieve the desired voting rights legislation when he is antagonizing the Republican Party politicians, aware that Democratic Party politicians cannot legislate it alone. How can any reasonably sensible advocate for a cause be antagonizing the same people he needs in order to get something done. It smacks of foolishness and crass impetuous unthinking.

Civil rights issues including voting rights in America used to be a bipartisan issue because as the name states, it is the civil rights issue of the American people that is at stake, the nucleus of the existence of such organizations involved in it. They were never a partisan or a one political party issue requiring a specific affiliation to the party. But these later day woke-leaders have politicized the movements so much that it no longer appeals to non-partisan people and politicians on the other side, the reason it has become such a difficult knot to untie. There is no way in hell these later day civil rights leaders can claim that every person in America with civil rights concerns is a democrat. So, why did they make the struggle a Democratic Party issue and at the same time, expecting Republicans to support it.  

The 1965 Voting Rights Act was passed through a bipartisan effort and so have all the other legislations since then, including the recent John Lewis Act. Why then the demonization of Republicans as anti black people and against voting and civil rights in America when they know that they need their votes and support to pass the legislation. There is also no way all the 34 laws so far passed to fix noticed flaws in electoral laws in 19 states could have been made with just black people in mind; or to make it only harder for black people to vote. 

Also to call Georgia's electoral reform law "draconian" is rather offensive, as handing food and water to voters is akin to soliciting their vote and bribing them for it. Voters can and are allowed under the law to bring their own water and food if they want, just like we all bring our own lunch to our workplaces. Further, waiting in lines to vote on Election Day is not required of only black people; so, what is the fuss really about over the electoral law or are black people so debilitated and too weak to stand in lines to vote on Election Day just like their counterparts in other racial groups. 

One thing Martin Luther King III got right though is the fact that the forces which schemed to oppress black and brown Americans when his dad was around, leading up to his assassination, were all democrats. George Wallace who introduced the Jim Crow law was a democrat; and so also were all those batons wielding and dogs unleashing police officers of Selma bridge. It is also noteworthy that democrats controlled the good ole South which waged a civil war against the Yankees which consumed over 700,000 American lives, in their attempt to keep slavery alive and going. All appendages of slavery such as poll tax, literacy test and lynching were also the handwork of democrats. So, what exactly did the Republicans do to black people that should warrant all these venomous attacks on them by these present day civil rights leaders and their pretend-activist cohorts? 

It is wrong and condemnable and it cannot get them their desired voting rights legislation. Real justice and equality is conforming voting practices and making them apply uniformly across the board of every racial group in America. Black people are not disparately impacted by those reforms nor are they required to do something which other racial groups in America are not required to do before they can vote in elections. It is only when such occurs that a violation of their voting rights could be triggered. But as long as every American citizen is placed on the same footing during elections, all these cry-baby hogwash will not bring about any different outcome, because to do so will be to give blacks and other minorities undue advantage over other racial groups.

Democrats have used the filibuster to their own advantage on numerous occasions in the past; but if they now want to get rid of it just to score some cheap political brownie points, they should remember that they cannot and will not remain in power forever. The late democrat Senator Harry Reid deployed a filibuster busting tactic to get two Supreme Court Justices confirmed not knowing that someday Republicans would use the same unleashed tool to get three Supreme Court Justices confirmed. So, those democrats clamoring for a Senate rule change should be wary and very careful of what they wish because they might get it, only to someday regret that it came back to bite them. 

The states are by constitution quasi independent and retain every power which they did not expressly give up for the union. America is not a unitary federation, it is a union of the willing 50 states and they came together with expressly stated agreements. We cannot unify every aspect of our life as a nation including our election laws, otherwise staying together might become suffocating and to the extent that breakaway agitations might erupt. Instead of early voting which is even alien to America or needless over-spreading of voting stations, holding national elections on a Saturday or a declared national election holiday should be considered. And of course purging voters list of dead people and voters who have moved away and no longer reside in their previous voting districts should be made a routine task, to be carried out every four years.

 

Passing a voting rights legislation which will be geared towards encouraging respective states to fix noticeable lapses in their electoral laws is worthy of pursuing in the Congress. But this can only be achieved in an atmosphere of cordial respect to both aisles, but never on a crass partisan pillorying of one of the parties. The leadership of NAACP and other civil rights movements and groups pursuing the voting rights legislation, must change their strategy. They must reinvent themselves, re-tailor their talking points, divorce themselves from their acute partisanship and stop haranguing Republicans. They should instead lobby Republicans instead of putting them off  as the enemy or the Grinch who stole their voting rights. Voting rights is a national issue and it will need a united national front to get it passed. This is a fact of consequences in passing the legislation and the earlier these black civil rights leaders realize it, the sooner their chances of getting it passed.