Democrats On The Verge Of Repeating Voting Rights Blunder That Led To Jim Crow, CNN

[appalachiablue]

- Demonstrators outside the Georgia Capitol protest a proposed state bill to restrict voting rights on March 3, 2021 in Atlanta.
_______
- Democrats are on the verge of repeating a voting rights blunder that led to the rise of Jim Crow. - Analysis by John Blake, CNN, August 1, 2021. - Ed.

(CNN) There comes a point in every awful horror movie where a character does something so careless and shortsighted a viewer loses faith in the storyteller. There's the hapless victim who can't flee from the monster without falling, the stubborn homeowner who won't move out of a haunted house, and my favorite: the person who walks toward, not away, from a sinister noise at night while asking, "Hello, is anyone there?"

As I watch some Democrats handle the voting rights issue, I'm seeing a replay of a 19th-century political horror story. It ended with Black voters losing faith in the leaders who were supposed to protect them. President Biden has called voting rights "the single most important" issue and described a wave of voter restriction bills recently passed by Republican legislatures across the US as "Jim Crow on steroids." Yet he has refused to throw the full weight of the Oval Office behind passing 2 pending voting rights bills in Congress. He has stopped short of embracing calls to jettison the filibuster -- the parliamentary tactic Republicans can use to halt a voting rights bill -- because he says it would "throw the entire Congress into chaos."

He's focused instead on passing a bipartisan infrastructure bill that could rejuvenate the economy and appeal to a broad swath of voters.

But for anyone who knows this country's shameful voting rights history, Biden is following a script that once doomed Black voters and made the rise of Jim Crow possible. Biden and Democratic leaders who prioritize infrastructure in part to broaden their appeal to reluctant White supporters are making the same mistake White political allies of Black voters made in the late 19th century. That's when the more progressive American political party of that era -- the Republican Party -- abandoned Black voters to focus on an economic agenda that emphasized infrastructure and uniting a country that was bitterly divided by race.

That blunder gave us a century of Jim Crow segregation, reduced the Republican Party to a "dying institution" 'in the South and forced countless Black Americans to confront an uncomfortable truth that many are now facing again: Our White political allies are rarely willing to match the intensity and cunning of our political opponents. - When chickens ask foxes for help: Evoking Jim Crow may cause some people to cringe because the comparison seems overblown. No White vigilantes are gunning down or lynching would-be Black voters. No White mobs are brazenly murdering Black elected officials or launching what's been described as the nation's only successful coup -- against a Southern city filled with Black leaders. All of this happened during that era.
But there are 2 lessons today's Democratic leaders can learn from the mistakes their White counterparts made in the late 19th century...

Read More,
https://www.cnn.com/2021/08/01/politics/voting-rights-blunder-democrats-blake/index.html

[Thomas Hurt]

1. Why should I give any credence to a writer who seems to think that the Democrats...

of the 19th Century were the same as today.

[Budi]

5. Media hasn't apologized for their 24/7 Trump show of 2016 thru 2021..

Think they'll ever own it?
Naaa.
$$$$$$$

[lagomorph777]

7. You're missing the point; the author recognizes which party was which back then.

Mentions how Jim Crow damaged the Republicans.

[subterranean]

10. What gave you that impression?

He specifically mentioned that "the more progressive American political party of that era" was the Republican party. He is comparing what Biden and the Democrats are doing now to what the Republicans did in the late 19th century.

[rickyhall]

2. That's exactly whats worrying me. If we blow the voting rights bills, might as well hang it up.

The Fascists will have it all for decades.

[PortTack]

3. And what would CNN have the Dems do..geez! We have 2 dems that hold up everything

So they shouldn’t work on infrastructure as well?

Our Dems leaders have not given up on voting rights, nor have Dems in general..go f..k yourself

[lagomorph777]

8. Infrastructure is irrelevant (along with EVERYTHING ELSE) if we give up on voting rights.

Biden needs to push hard to end or at least amend the Filibuster and get voting rights passed.

[Budi]

4. Biden's responsible for Jim Cow too now?

Wow.

🙄

Simplified version:
See. "Its all Biden's fault!!" Everything is!!

~ MSM

[lagomorph777]

9. Really? That's what you read?

The point is, Biden has a ton of influence in the Senate. This is an emergency. He needs to kick some ass, get them to end or amend the Filibuster, and get the job done. Or America is over.

[lees1975]

6. How are Democrats "on the verge" of this? Seems like a priority to me

still on the table, still a high priority.

[FreepFryer]

11. This piece makes excellent points, it's not a hit job.

{Richard} White, the historian, says Democratic leaders touting the crossover appeal of the infrastructure bill "sound like moderate Republicans during Reconstruction."

"That's why I think the infrastructure argument is ridiculous, because in the South they were more than willing to hurt themselves if in fact they could hurt Black people more," White says.

That impulse among some White voters survives today.

The premise of the article is economic outreach to white Republican voters will not gain lasting support for Democrats in those areas, nor address the systemic racism in our electoral processes.

With Republicans the cruelty is the point, we know this - and we have to continue to actively ensure our elected Democrats In Congress and the White House act accordingly.

[BeckyDem]

12. K&R