(no subject)

[telemann.livejournal.com]

Several news reports described a collective gasp in the court when Justice Scalia made his statement. Rachel Maddow's coverage (she was in the court for the oral arguments) and shows a clip from President Johnson's speech proposing the Voting Rights Act. In that speech, Johnson cited specific examples of voter repression, some of which should sound familiar since they're STILL occurring.

Comments

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

I don’t think there is anything to be gained by any Senator to vote against continuation of this act

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

What would be gained?

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

If you cannot imagine how a Republican Senator from a Southern state could make a positive case for himself to his core constituency by advocating the federal government stop supervising his state's elections, then I submit that you are deliberately blunting your imagination.

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

No, I do not. Believe it or not, a majority of southerners aren't racists.

[weswilson]

He doesn't have to appeal to the majority of southerners... he has to appeal to the majority of southern republicans.

[dwer.livejournal.com]

OH, SNAP!

[badlydrawnjeff.livejournal.com]

My point stands, then, even with the word replacement.

[new-wave-witch.livejournal.com]

Not that I'm opposing this assumption, but did they do a survey or something?

[malasadas.livejournal.com]

It doesn't have to be defended on overtly racist grounds. It can be spun as "getting Washington out of our business" and spun quite successfully. Senator Jeff Sessions won his seat in 2008 with almost 64% of the vote. I don't think he would bear any significant cost to his seat by voting against the reauthorization and appealing to his constituency's general hostility to federal mandates in the process.

Now he didn't. Which suggests to me that he heard the testimony and drew the conclusion that the ENTIRETY of the Senate did that the act is still warranted. And that is to his credit. But don't pretend that he'd have seriously jeopardized his seat by making a state's right case that the act was unduly burdening Alabama.

[cinnamontoast.livejournal.com]

They've reframed the discussion with a nice little wink at the old term "State's Rights".

[anfalicious.livejournal.com]

You don't think there is a constituency of people in the South who advocate for state's rights and/or less federal government oversight?

Interesting.