A little behind the times...
A few days ago (last thursday I think) Bush signed into law a 25 year extension of the "Voting Rights Act", which was passed by congress a week ago or so after having been tabled for about 3 weeks.
Am I the only one that finds the very existence of this law offensive?
Shouldn't Bush and Congress just be able to say, "oh, you know, now we're no longer racist and we feel that all people are people and get 1 free and fair vote like the constitution intends. This voting rights act is a relect of an ugly era of american history and we don't need it. EVERYONE gets a vote."
Apparently instead they're saying, "Hey! We still think that the blacks, browns and poors of america are a different class, therefore we're going to pass a law that says they're not a different class." This astounds me. Isn't this covered by the equal rights amendment? And if not... WHY THE FUCK NOT? That seems like a pretty big fucking loophole.
Ok, I do realize that, that's not "technically" what the Voting Rights Act says, but in its essence that's what it meant in the 60's, and as far as I can tell, it seems fairly racist to say, "we still need this, let's extend it."
And if I'm wrong about its meaning... Then why extend it for only 25 years? Why not 1,000 years or make it an amendment to the constitution?
Why do we need a law that says separate classes of people aren't really separate when it comes to voting ("for at least the next 25 years. Check with us again after that; we might need to consider them a separate class in 2031")?
American politicians should be ashamed of this. But I guess they have so much to be ashamed of right now, this is probably pretty low on the "ashamed" scale.
Am I the only one that finds the very existence of this law offensive?
Shouldn't Bush and Congress just be able to say, "oh, you know, now we're no longer racist and we feel that all people are people and get 1 free and fair vote like the constitution intends. This voting rights act is a relect of an ugly era of american history and we don't need it. EVERYONE gets a vote."
Apparently instead they're saying, "Hey! We still think that the blacks, browns and poors of america are a different class, therefore we're going to pass a law that says they're not a different class." This astounds me. Isn't this covered by the equal rights amendment? And if not... WHY THE FUCK NOT? That seems like a pretty big fucking loophole.
Ok, I do realize that, that's not "technically" what the Voting Rights Act says, but in its essence that's what it meant in the 60's, and as far as I can tell, it seems fairly racist to say, "we still need this, let's extend it."
And if I'm wrong about its meaning... Then why extend it for only 25 years? Why not 1,000 years or make it an amendment to the constitution?
Why do we need a law that says separate classes of people aren't really separate when it comes to voting ("for at least the next 25 years. Check with us again after that; we might need to consider them a separate class in 2031")?
American politicians should be ashamed of this. But I guess they have so much to be ashamed of right now, this is probably pretty low on the "ashamed" scale.