Progressive Women Urge Congress to Take Bold Action on Voting Rights
By Donna Hall, President of WDN Action
In 1868, as voting rights were debated in the United States House and Senate, much as they are being deliberated today, Senator Henry Wilson put forth legislation that barred discrimination in voting rights based on race, color, place of birth, property or religious creed.
Although Senator Wilson’s proposal mentioned nothing about granting the right to vote to women (that wouldn’t come for another 50 years), his amendment was considered “too sweeping” by moderate and conservative Republicans which, at the time, was America’s more progressive political party.
A century ago, white male dominance meant that voting rights opponents could be transparent and admit that they believed the enfranchisement of Black men could be a threat to their unilateral agenda.
Today, the strategy against expanding voting rights, and for enacting suppressive voting laws in the states, is to invent fanciful claims of voter fraud run amuck throughout the country. The implication is that the more Black and Brown people take part in the electoral process, the greater the likelihood that their votes would be cast fraudulently. It seems that in addition to the litany of mundane activities that people of color, specifically Black people, cannot engage in without an assumption of guilt – including running, barbequing, waiting in a hotel lobby, sleeping in their home, to name a few – we can now add voting to the list.
The unspoken truth is that the fear the opposition had toward bolstering voting rights 100 years ago persists today. The liberation of all people, provided by the For the People Act, as well as the voting rights protections restored by the John Lewis Voting Rights Act, could allow more progressive voices to enter the halls of Congress and thwart subversive efforts by conservative Republicans to sustain social and economic inequality; ultimately moving the country in a direction that threatens their control.
The assumption that only one demographic profile can provide a vision for America is an idea whose time has passed. Even after the successful two terms of our first African American president, too many white Americans are reluctant to release their four hundred year stranglehold on America.
Although challenges against the For the People Act have been framed by dissent from one or two individual lawmakers, polling shows widespread support with voters approving of its most transformational aspects: public financing of campaigns, powered by small donations, expanding vote by mail, and extending early voting.
We, Women Donors Network Action, implore our United States Senators to continue to fight for common-sense provisions and demand that our state legislatures cease all efforts to enact regressive laws that restrict voting rights for America’s most vulnerable citizens.
American progress has never been in the hands of one or two individuals. It is now, as it has always been, in the hands of the people, and the people have spoken.