While the public is rightly focused on the Biden administration's disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, House Democrats chose again to focus on their own reelections. Today, it was a hearing on H.R. 4, the so-called John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. The only problem: the bill contains no text for the committee members to even review:
The House Judiciary Com. meeting now about a bill that has no text & of which we have no idea what text it is going to contain. We agree John Lewis was a hero, but a bill in his name is not helpful to Voting Rights if it does not truly deal with Voting rights in 21st Century
— RNLA ⚖️ (@TheRepLawyer) August 16, 2021
.@Jim_Jordan points out this is last time to talk about legislation that we don't even have the bill on! It is outrageous that Democrats are having hearings and a VOTE on a bill that members of Congress have not seen!
— RNLA ⚖️ (@TheRepLawyer) August 16, 2021
Yet Democrats are going to vote on this bill, not realizing how the history of the Voting Rights Act is actually against them:
We are glad that @RepCohen acknowledges that more Congressional Republicans supported true voting rights in the original voting rights act legislation than Democrats. This was true then and is true now. Republicans want reforms to make it easier to vote and harder to cheat.
— RNLA ⚖️ (@TheRepLawyer) August 16, 2021
Laughably, Rep. Cohen wasn't finished showing how hypocritical Democrats are. Even Democrats' allies unintentionally showed how voting rights history cuts against Democrats.
.@Wade4Justice missed the memo. After @repcohen said 2020 election was best run ever, Henderson says elections since 2013 (Shelby decisions) have been full of voter suppression. I guess for @RepCohen all that matters is who wins. 1/2
— RNLA ⚖️ (@TheRepLawyer) August 16, 2021
Rep. Cohen’s history lesson was unintentional. Rep. Johnson's history lesson, however, was intentional and effective.
.@repmikejohnson The Supreme Court said that the Voting Rights Act basis "no longer characterizes voting in the covered jurisdictions." Rep. Johnson is right. It is not 1965. And to govern that way makes no sense. 1/2
— RNLA ⚖️ (@TheRepLawyer) August 16, 2021
Southern Democrats in the early 1960s ran a racist voting system. But Democrats need to remember it's no longer 1965, it's 2021. Racism in the United States unfortunately still exists. However, Democrat-instituted poll taxes and literacy tests of the 1965 South are long gone. The Republican-led effort to make it easier to vote and harder to cheat is the right approach.