Thursday, January 15, 2015

GOP's Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) Plays to Party's Racist Base





When not prostituting themselves to the Christofascists, congressional Republicans can't do enough to make the white supremacists in the party base (the other twin pillar of today's GOP) happy.  A case in point is House Judiciary Chair Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) who said there is no need to undo damage to the Voting Rights Act by the Supreme Court's ruling in 2013.  Never mind that he once supported the re-authorization of the Act.  Now, the GOP goal is to restrict minority voting as much as possible to compensate for the fact that the party's agenda is increasingly attractive to an aging white demographic that is literally dying off.  Here are highlights from Talking Points Memo:

"There are still very, very strong protections in the Voting Rights Act in the area that the Supreme Court ruled on, which is the question of whether or not certain states — there were, I think 11 states, all Southern states that were required by law to seek precleareance of any changes in where polling places are located and other matters like that," House Judiciary Chair Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) said at a breakfast hosted by the Christian Science Monitor.

"To this point we have not seen a process forward that is necessary because we believe the Voting Rights Act provided substantial protection in this area right now," he said. "And we'll continue to examine, we'll continue to listen to the concerns of individuals."

Republican support for fixing the Voting Rights Act is scant. One year ago this week, such a proposal was introduced by Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), Rep. John Conyers (D-MI), Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-WI), Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE).

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) said Goodlatte's remarks "ought to be of very serious concern for everyone who cherishes the fundamental right" to vote, urging him to consider the Conyers-Sensenbrenner bill.

"I am deeply concerned and disappointed by comments from House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte that Congress does not need to take corrective action to address the Supreme Court's 5-4 decision in Shelby v Holder, which guts one of the most important and effective provisions ever enacted to combat voter discrimination," Hoyer said in a statement on Wednesday afternoon. "As we prepare to commemorate the 50th anniversaries of the march in Selma and the enactment of the Voting Rights Act, it would be a blow against the march toward fairness and equality at the ballot box for Congress to do nothing to address the Shelby decision."

As I have pondered before, when will it become official GOP policy to hand out KKK robes to city and county GOP committees at the start of each meeting.  It's be very popular I suspect, especially in Southern states and Southwest Virginia. 

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