Talk Radio – January 11, 2022: “Live From Atlanta: No More Speeches, No More Delays: The Moral Imperative To Pass Voting Rights Legislation Now!” – Call In 1-800-450-7876

The topic of our show is “Live From Atlanta: No More Speeches, No More Delays: The Moral Imperative to Pass Voting Rights Legislation Now!” After an entire year marked by voter suppression, election subversion and gerrymandering, many in the national civil rights community and persons of conscience everywhere are saying the Biden Administration and the US Senate must vote on rules reform and pass the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act prior to January 17th, the Federal MLK Birthday Holiday.

After the 2021 onslaught of voter suppression by state legislatures resulting in 33 disenfranchising laws passed in 19 states and a slew of gerrymandering in several key states, many states are poised to pass more voter suppression laws in these first 2 months of 2022.  It is more urgent than ever that the federal government protect voters of color and vulnerable voters against these wrongful measures by state legislatures. The US DOJ is suing Texas and Georgia for violating voting rights but this national wave of voter suppression is too large to be addressed by litigation or organizing alone. Indeed, in the last months of 2021, disturbing articles recounted the purging of Black election officials from boards of election in Georgia.  In Michigan, there is a concentrated assault to restrict voting rights.  In North Carolina and other states there are major controversies over the extreme partisan gerrymandering. These and other negative voter suppression developments underscore the urgent need for the US Senate to pass the Freedom to Vote Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act to mandate federal standards to protect the rights to vote and impose review of voting and electoral legislation, practices and procedures proposed by states and jurisdictions with histories of voter discrimination.  And the DC Statehood Admissions bill passed by the U.S. House has also been pending in the Senate for months.

Sadly, on a purely partisan basis, even simple debate on these bills have been blocked in the Senate through the use of the 60 vote requirement of the filibuster.

In these first weeks of the 2022 congressional session, civil rights, civic engagement and voting rights groups are demanding that the U.S. Senate take immediate action to reform the filibuster and pass these critical voting rights bills.  Many have urged the Democrats to “go it alone” and pass filibuster reform to allow consideration of this legislation.  However, was not sufficient unity in the Democratic senatorial block to achieve this goal.

Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer has announced he will bring up possible filibuster reform measures for a vote by next week.

In the interim, public pressure has been growing to a crescendo for passage of these pending voting rights legislation.  The terrible reminders last week of the lingering damage from the January 6th Insurrection, and the many revelations coming from the House Committee on January 6th investigation, are driving a public clamor for action.

Indeed, last week on our show date of January 4th, there was a National Day of Fasting, demanding passage of voting rights legislation.  Others have been on hunger strikes for Democracy now for months.  These actions joined by civil disobedience and letters urging action from state officials, business leaders and more has ignited action by the Biden Administration and Senate Majority Leader Schumer. This confrontation of moral imperative and political practicalities promises to come to a head in the early part of this year.

Our guests are the leaders of on-going major Hunger Strikes for Democracy and other actions to compel passage of the needed legislation.

Our show is designed to educate our audience on recent developments in this fight for our Democracy and to share opportunities for engagement.