Democrats have taken advantage of new voting restrictions in Georgia to focus on the fight to revise federal election laws, establishing a slow-moving confrontation that echoes civil rights battles half a century ago.
In fiery speeches, one-off statements and tweets, party leaders on Friday denounced the law signed the day before by the Republican governor of the state with the specific goal of suppressing black and Latin votes and a threat to democracy. President Joe Biden issued an expanded statement and called the law an attack on the “good conscience” that denies the right to vote for “countless” Americans.
“This is Jim Crow in the 21st century,” Biden said, referring to last-century laws that applied racial segregation to heavy hands in the south.
“It simply came to our notice then. We have a moral and constitutional obligation to act, ”he said. He told reporters Georgia law is an “atrocity” and the Justice Department is studying it.
Georgia Republican Gov. Brian Kemp has rebuked his charges and accused Biden of trying to “destroy the sanctity and safety of the polls” in support of what the governor considers a federal interference in state responsibilities.
Behind the heart of outrage, Democrats are also fighting the limits of their power in Washington, as long as Senate filibuster rules allow Republicans to block important legislation, including HR.
Biden and his party seek to build and maintain momentum in the field of public opinion, hoping to nationalize what has so far been a state-led Republican-led movement to curb access to the polls, while they start at a slow pace, a very important legislative process. Meanwhile, the Allies plan to fight Georgia law and others in court.
“What is happening in Georgia right now underscores the importance and urgency,” Senator Rev. Raphael Warnock, D-Ga., In an interview Friday.
“It’s about what’s fundamental to our identity as an American people: one person, one vote.”
The emerging fight over voting policy and access policy is expanding like nothing seen in recent years, recalling what many Americans may assume are well-established rules that guarantee equal access to voting.
But as Republican-controlled state legislatures, from Georgia to Iowa and Arizona, are taking dramatic action to limit early voting and force new electoral identification requirements, the debate in Washington threatens to exacerbate cavernous political factions. of the nation in the early days of Biden’s presidency. as the Democratic president promises to unite the country.
It is expected to be a slogan for months in the tightly divided Congress, specifically in the Senate, where Democrats, for now, are unwilling to lean their meager majority to change filibuster rules, despite urgent calls for action party.
Instead, Democrats are prepared to legislate the old-fashioned way, unloading arguments in lengthy Senate debates, stepping out of committee hearing rooms and reaching the Senate floor and forcing opponents to leave a record as disabled. South Carolina Senator Strom Thurmond was positioned when he obstructed last century’s Civil Rights Act.
“The arteries of the blood of the United States are literally narrowing,” Senator Cory Booker, DN.J., son of civil rights activists, said in an interview. “They are suffocating what makes us different and unique on planet Earth.”
However, Booker would not openly call for an end to the filibuster, a parliamentary tool that requires at least 60 votes to advance Senate legislation in some cases.
On Friday, the president revived his call to Congress to enact HR 1, an electoral review that would address Republican restrictions. He also called for the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, which would restore some aspects of a flagship law passed by the Supreme Court in 2013.
But Biden, like a dwindling number of other powerful Democrats, is unwilling to adopt the so-called “nuclear option” – ending the filibuster – for fear of further dividing the country.
Meanwhile, the political struggle intensified in Georgia, where years of voter registration boosted black communities and constant population changes helped Biden win the state that until now was firmly red.
Just as Kemp and several white state lawmakers celebrated the signing of the state’s new voting law on Thursday, state police officers handcuffed and forced state representative Park Cannon, a black woman, after knocking on the door of the governor’s private office.
Cannon was charged with obstruction of law enforcement and disruption of the General Assembly, both crimes. He was released from prison Thursday at last. Donald Trump, the former president who promoted false allegations of election fraud, congratulated the governor of Georgia and state leaders on the new law.
As Congress approaches the fight, a stagnant external effort is spending millions to try to influence the debate and apply political pressure on voters, corporations and lawmakers on both parties.
A $ 30 million advertising campaign comes from the liberal group, End Citizens United, which works with anti-tax group Eric Holder, the National Committee for Democratic Redistricting, which is trying to convince Democratic and Republican senators considered tipping votes.
Other efforts are also being made, including former First Lady Michelle Obama, through the non-partisan organization Celebrity When We All Vote.
Civil rights leader Al Sharpton said Friday he is working with religious leaders in West Virginia and Arizona to pressure Democratic senators from the home state. He is well aware that this struggle can continue for a while.
“I am ready to continue this struggle for as long as it takes,” he said. “Look how long it took us to get the right to vote.”
Sharpton also suggested that black voters have been energized by the debate, which could lead to an increase in turnout in next year’s midterm elections despite the new voting requirements enacted by Republicans.
“Being so cheeky, I think they play into our national strategy,” Sharpton said. “We just need the Senate Democrats to stand up.”
Georgia law requires photo identification to vote absentee by mail, reduces the amount of time people must apply for an absentee ballot, and limits where ballot boxes can be placed and when you can access the polls. The bill was an aqueous version of some of the proposals considered by the Republican-led General Assembly.
HR 1 is vast and its Senate counterpart would face Georgia’s new law by extending postal voting and early voting, both popular during the pandemic. It would open access to the polls more widely by creating automatic voter registration across the country, allowing former offenders to vote and limiting how states can remove registered voters from lists. It also addresses the laws of fundraising and campaign ethics.
Still, Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison warned his party would take Republicans to court “and fight it.” A lawsuit filed Thursday afternoon in U.S. district court in Atlanta by three groups – the New Georgia Project, the Black Voters Matter Fund and Rise – challenged key provisions of Georgia’s new law and said they violated the Georgia Law. voting rights.
But Harrison also acknowledged that the filibuster was an “obstacle” to the National Democrats’ efforts to overthrow Republican-backed changes.
“I’m delivering the message to everyone, especially by my side of the aisle, that people right now are very, very upset about where things are going,” Harrison told The AP.
The president continued, “I will do everything in my power, with every breath of my body, with every drop of blood flowing through my veins, to make sure we fight for it.”
“We won’t be going back to Jim Crow 2.0,” he said. “So we have to do everything we can to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
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Peoples reported from New York. Mascaro reported from Washington. Associated Press writers Bill Barrow, Josh Boak and Aamer Madhani collaborated.