Voting Rights Act Renewed

Semi-good news: the House has overwhelmingly voted to renew the Voting Rights Act.

I say 'semi-good news' because a) the Senate hasn't voted on it yet, and b) the fact that this is news at all is bad. It should have passed unanimously, with no debate.

But it appears that some people from Southern states don't like the requirements the VRA imposes. It appears that some of them don't think those requirements are necessary:

Rep. Lynn Westmoreland, R-Ga., argued that his state has overcome its documented history of discrimination and asked the House to amend the act to ease requirements for states that must have all voting changes cleared in advance by the Department of Justice. He said Georgia still is being punished for racist practices that it has eliminated.

I see. And when, exactly, did that happen? Is it since last November?

The chief sponsor of Georgia's voter identification law told the Justice Department that if black people in her district "are not paid to vote, they don't go to the polls," and that if fewer blacks vote as a result of the new law, it is only because it would end such voting fraud....

The memo, leaked to The Washington Post, went on to state: "Rep. Burmeister said that if there are fewer black voters because of this bill, it will only be because there is less opportunity for fraud. She said that when black voters in her black precincts are not paid to vote, they do not go to the polls."

In other words, Westmoreland's home state (which is now totally without racism, we are told) passed a bill that would have prevented thousands of blacks from voting, by its sponsor's admission. Fortunately it was struck down in the courts. So, the other day, was its successor, a revised version that was less odious but still would likely have discouraged black voters.

Yep...all those racist practices have been eliminated, all right.

I'm going to make it really simple for Rep. Westmoreland: if you ever want to get out from under the burden of Voting Rights Act, stop trying to disenfranchise minority voters.

Is that really so hard to understand?

[That's all, folks]