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Friday, January 28, 2022

Palast: Dummy’s Guide to Voting Rights Act

Will the Supreme Court pull the teeth out of the law?

by Greg Palast exclusively for TheMudflats.net

This month –as early as tomorrow— the US Supreme Court will tell us whether Black and Brown citizens have the right to vote.

Now, if you saw the film Lincoln, you probably thought that issue was settled about 147 years ago. But Honest Abe never imagined a High Court occupied by Dishonest Thomas and Scalia the Scurrilous.

There’s been a lot of nonsense talk fogging the issue before the Court. To cut through the BS, the Palast Investigative Fund has made a little film, How Do You Steal a Dream?

You could call it The Dummy’s Guide to the Voting Rights Act. The dummies, of course, are on the Bench.

We made How Do You Steal a Dream? in coordination with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the organization founded by Martin Luther King.

Give me 14 minutes—watch this film–and I’ll give you something you can do to stop the return of Jim Crow.

What’s at stake is Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.

Without Section 5, the Voting Rights Act’s teeth fall out, and the Justice Department loses any real ability to stop Jim Crow tactics used to keep voters of color (mostly Democratic Blue) from registering and casting ballots.

Section 5 requires that 16 states with histories of Jim Crow voting restrictions “pre-clear” any changes in voting procedure with the Department of Justice.

But the right-wing Supremes say that Florida and other states subject to Section 5 no longer play games with voting rights.

Really? If you think that Black voters are no longer vulnerable to registration purges, hours-long lines to vote in Black precincts, ID challenges and other impediments, just take a look at this if you dare …

Katherine Harris card crop

And if you thought “Purge’n General” Harris was bad news for Black voters, her Jane Crow act was nothing compared to Governor Rick Scott’s current push to purge 180,000 “illegal alien” voters from Florida voter rolls.

Those 180,000 American citizens were only allowed to vote in the November election because Section 5 was still alive.

Pop quiz: How many “illegal alien” voters did Governor Rick ultimately bust? Go ahead, make a guess. You’re wrong!

Get the answer in How Do You Steal a Dream?

And don’t be a dummie: pass this on. This is a Civil Rights Movement… so let’s get moving.

****

For fourteen years, investigative reporter Greg Palast has exposed racial bias in US voting for BBC Television, for The Guardian and, with Robert F. Kennedy Jr., for Rolling Stone magazine.

Donate a minimum of $50 to support our renewed investigation of elections theft. As thanks, our foundation will send you a signed copy of Palast’s bestseller, Billionaires & Ballot Bandits. (Many stories from this book originally appeared at TheMudflats.net)

…And during this Voting Rights Month, we’ll include the full-color tarot-sized card deck, Jokers’ Wild, including the lovely Katherine Harris above, the Koch Brothers and more.

Your donation is tax-deductible — and boy, do we need it! So many evils, so little time—and so few resources. And thank you for keeping us alive for a decade of investigative scoops.

Comments

comments

Comments
5 Responses to “Palast: Dummy’s Guide to Voting Rights Act”
  1. Zyxomma says:

    That these shenanigans have traveled with us to the 21st century is beyond belief, and all the sadder for being true. I have Palast’s book. It’s excellent and infuriating, like all his books.

    Here’s the link for signing the petition: http://www.thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/659/726/862/

  2. Alaska Pi says:

    I would urge all Mudpups to go here :
    http://www.justice.gov/crt/about/vot/sec_5/covered.php
    Some of the covered jurisdictions will surprise you .
    At the bottom is a link to jurisdictions which have “bailed out “- which comes from a provision which allows for covered jurisdictions who clean up their way of doing things to get out from under the oversight of DOJ.
    This remedy has been available from Day One. Why have so many jurisdictions failed to clean up, straighten up, and move on?
    Why did the 2006 Congress extend the provisions of this Act for 25 years? This law was presumed to be temporary but has been reauthorized multiple times in the face of continued problems in so many places.
    We shall see what the US Supreme Court makes of the current argument that Section 5 , in particular, is past its sell-by date. I’m personally deeply angry that Alaska joined the suit when it should have been formulating a plan to bail out.
    Pfffffftttttt!

  3. Mo says:

    I couldn’t find a link for contributing, and didn’t want to sit through a 15 minute film to be convinced of something I already know. So….link? Paypal?

  4. fishingmamma says:

    Alaska is one of the 16 states – because of past horrid treatment of Alaska Natives at the voting booth. And our Governor is in agreement that this provision is unecessary.