By Bonnie D. Jenkins
The Voting Rights Act was signed by President Lyndon Johnson in 1965. Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court, by a vote of 6-3, held that states can essentially ignore Section 2 of that Act, which bars voting maps that dilute minorities’ voting power. As Chief Justice Sotomayor said, minority citizens will no longer have an equal opportunity to elect candidates of their choice.
For decades, the Voting Rights Act has been more than a law. It’s been a reckoning. The heart of the Voting Rights Act is enfranchisement. That means making sure Black Americans, who have historically been denied representation, take part in choosing their representation.
The current threat to the Voting Rights Act echoes struggles of the past. We know the history of Reconstruction, when Black representation in Congress was also stripped away. To secure the right to vote and ensure we are heard in Congress and other elected offices, Black activists and other supporters risked their lives. They were threatened, jailed, and sometimes killed just to ensure everyone has the right to vote. The Voting Rights Act changed the face of American politics by enshrining that hard-won access to voting into law.
The Act has also guaranteed the representative voices of other minorities. One can, for example, see the fruits of that work in our democracy today. There are more Black and Latina members in Congress than ever before. Yet there has always been a warning we know all too well: gains are not guaranteed. Throughout all the years since Reconstruction, there has been a consistent effort to push back progress made by Black people, both in the political and economic spaces. We see today an overreaction to DEI, to the point that achievements based on merit are considered impossible if one is Black or Brown. DEI is used to create so much fear that even those who know the truth will step in line with the DEI propaganda.
Efforts to roll back the progress from the Voting Rights Act threaten America’s ability to govern itself. The right to vote is tied to the health of American democracy. When too few are allowed to have representation, policies don’t reflect the country as a whole. Instead, they serve narrow interests at the expense of everyone else. Those policies get weaker, diseased by ignorance. A democracy only works when multiple communities contribute to its leadership. No single group has a monopoly on the knowledge or compassion to solve all of America’s problems.
It is a bit shortsighted to believe that the U.S. can follow the Supreme Court’s lead and expect everything to move forward productively. Recent decisions by the conservative, predominantly white majority of the Supreme Court, this Congress, and this administration have shown us that spaces without diversity do not necessarily lead to good political outcomes. We are at war by choice, costing us $25 billion to date. The U.S. deficit stands at approximately $39 trillion, which experts call unsustainable, and is larger than the entire U.S. economy and the Department of Defense budget. This amount has increased dramatically in the last year. The U.S. is now isolated from our closest partners and allies. The costs of gas, food, and healthcare are up; people cannot afford to buy a house. We are putting people in detention centers where people are dying. We currently have a Congress and a Republican-controlled Supreme Court that is turning a blind eye to all of this happening. How is this recent decision going to result in a positive change? Their blinders are on too tightly.
The Right to Vote isn’t just about who participates in our democracy. It’s also about the policies that those who represent us help set. Politics has real consequences. Efforts to restrict access to representation amount to an admission that only one side has better ideas and policies. That is clearly not true.
Too often, this country’s economic policy has been made by investors who do not understand the struggles of many Americans. Our foreign policy is being made by those who’ve never faced the threat of deportation or whose choices have never been under threat. Yet, we doubled down. We continue to shoot ourselves in the foot.
Democracy is only as strong as the voices under its umbrella. When everyone can vote, we build policies that benefit more Americans. When voting is suppressed, we all pay the price. Protecting the Voting Rights Act in all of its aspects is about more than access to the ballot and representation. It’s about protecting our democracy.