[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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