[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 140 (Thursday, August 5, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5923-S5924]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            MORNING BUSINESS

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                             VOTING RIGHTS

  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, it is alarming to know that voter 
suppression, which we have worked for decades to overcome, is not a 
ghost from our past. Suppression efforts are resurfacing--and surging--
in State legislatures across the country. Voter roll purging, out-of-
the-way polling stations, and needless barriers to accessing the ballot 
box are underway and under consideration in jurisdictions across the 
country. It cannot stand.
  Under the guise of election integrity, even in the wake of the most 
secure election in our Nation's history, proponents of these 
suppressive movements make no effort to hide their targets: African 
Americans, Latino Americans, college students, low-income voters, the 
list goes on.

[[Page S5924]]

  Those who do not feel compelled to push against these voter 
suppression need a lesson in history. Thankfully, a July 27 column in 
the Washington Post by Norman Lear offers just that insight. Penned on 
the occasion of his 99th birthday, this decorated American war hero, 
one of our Nation's Greatest Generation, recalls the pain and betrayal 
felt by African-American war heroes who fought for democracy abroad, 
only to be excluded from it at home. He reminds us that it took decades 
of relentless activism to give millions of minority American voters and 
others a real voice by finally giving them a vote.
  And most importantly, he urges all Americans to fight now to protect 
the right to vote, the very right that gives democracy its name. This 
is a call to action. Voting suppression cannot stand. From the For the 
People Act to my own bipartisan John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement 
Act, named for another icon of the voting movement, this Senate has a 
real opportunity to stand for democracy. I will work in good faith with 
any member of the Senate, regardless of party, to find a path to 
passing and enacting that important bill bearing John Lewis's name. 
Efforts to restore the Voting Rights Act have always been bipartisan. 
There is no reason it shouldn't be bipartisan again now.
  To echo Norman's words, the right to vote isn't about party or even 
politics. It is about our system of self-government and the notion that 
a government of, by, and for the people is worth protecting in a world 
where authoritarianism and tyranny are still forces we are reckoning 
with. I ask unanimous consent that Norman Lear's opinion piece, titled 
``Norman Lear: As I begin my 100th year, I'm baffled that voting rights 
are still under attack,'' be printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

               [From the Washington Post, July 27, 2021]

  As I Begin My 100th Year, I'm Baffled That Voting Rights Are Still 
                              Under Attack

                            (By Norman Lear)

       I woke up today at the start of my 100th year as a citizen 
     of this beautiful, bewildering country. I am proud of the 
     progress we've made in my first 99 years, and it breaks my 
     heart to see it undermined by politicians more committed to 
     their own power than the principles that should bind us 
     together. Frankly, I am baffled and disturbed that 21st-
     century Americans must still struggle to protect their right 
     to vote.
       I am a patriot, and I will not surrender that word to those 
     who play to our worst impulses rather than our highest 
     ideals. When the United States entered World War II, I 
     dropped out of college to fight fascism. I flew 52 missions 
     with a crew in a B-17, dropping bombs 35 times. Unlike so 
     many others, I returned from that war safely, to another 70-
     plus years of life, love, family, failure and triumph.
       It's very likely that I owe my ass and all those decades of 
     human experience to that Black and Brown squadron of Red Tail 
     P-51 fighter pilots known as the Tuskegee airmen. When we saw 
     their red tails coming to escort us, we all felt a bit safer.
       Yet when these courageous men returned to the United 
     States, they returned to racism, segregation and 
     discrimination. Their heroism did not shield them from the 
     indignities and violence of Jim Crow. I can only imagine the 
     depth of the betrayal the airmen must have felt, but it did 
     not prevent many of them from accomplishing great things.
       I think often of the congresswoman Barbara Jordan. She will 
     always be remembered for declaring during President Richard 
     M. Nixon's impeachment hearings, ``My faith in the 
     Constitution is whole; it is complete; it is total.'' Even 
     now, it gives me chills to think of her saying that, as a 
     Black woman, in the face of her own experiences of prejudice 
     and her full knowledge of our history.
       I believe Jordan's faith in the Constitution, like my 
     continued faith in our country, was grounded in the faith, 
     love and hope of all the people who have struggled for the 
     past 230 years--including millions who rallied for racial 
     justice this past year--to make the Constitution's promises 
     real for all of us.
       After we defeated fascism overseas, it took 20 more years 
     to pass the Voting Rights Act and Civil Rights Act at home. 
     Now, headlines seem drawn from the past: States target Black 
     voters with voter-suppression bills. Federal voting-rights 
     laws blocked in the Senate by a filibuster. Racial and 
     religious nationalism, nativism and authoritarianism are 
     seemingly on the rise everywhere. It is deeply discouraging 
     to this member of what has been called ``the Greatest 
     Generation.''
       But do you know who else was part of the Greatest 
     Generation? Rosa Parks, Fannie Lou Hamer and Thurgood 
     Marshall. And think of the greatness demonstrated by 
     generations that followed us: Jordan, the Rev. Martin Luther 
     King Jr. and John Lewis, and millions of not-famous people 
     who risked everything to claim the right to vote.
       To legislators getting between people and the ballot box, 
     and to senators who are standing in the dishonorable 
     tradition of those who filibustered civil rights legislation, 
     I say this: You may pass some unjust laws. You may win 
     elections by preventing or discouraging people from voting.
       But you will not in the end defeat the democratic spirit, 
     the spirit that animated the Tuskegee airmen to whom I owe my 
     life, the spirit that powers millions of Americans who give 
     of themselves to defend voting rights, protect our 
     environment, preserve peaceful pluralism, defeat 
     discrimination, and expand educational and economic 
     opportunity.
       The right to vote is foundational to addressing all these 
     issues. It is at the heart of everything I have fought for in 
     war and in peacetime.
       To senators who are willing to sacrifice the right to vote 
     to some outdated notion of bipartisanship and Senate 
     tradition, I almost do not know what to say. On the scale of 
     justice, this is not even a close call. Do what's right.
       Protecting voting rights should not be today's struggle. 
     But it is. And that means it is our struggle, yours and mine, 
     for as long as we have breath and strength.

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