WEBVTT - Voting Rights Where? | Angela Rye SoloPod 0:00:00.200 --> 0:00:03.400 Native Lampard is a production of iHeartRadio in partnership with 0:00:03.480 --> 0:00:04.720 Reason Choice Media. 0:00:05.200 --> 0:00:08.399 Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome, Welcome. 0:00:09.240 --> 0:00:13.480 Mister speaker, I rise today to oppose this rule and 0:00:13.560 --> 0:00:17.759 to support the previous question and the democracy. The right 0:00:17.840 --> 0:00:22.560 to vote is the most powerful non voluntary we have. 0:00:24.320 --> 0:00:28.920 Many people march and protested for the right to vote. 0:00:29.720 --> 0:00:34.279 Some gave a little blood, and others lost their lives. 0:00:35.720 --> 0:00:37.800 Some of you have heard me say that the right 0:00:37.880 --> 0:00:43.960 to vote is precious, almost sacred. In my hearts of hearts, 0:00:44.400 --> 0:00:47.400 I believe that we should make it simple and convenient 0:00:47.680 --> 0:00:50.440 for all of our citizens to be part of the 0:00:50.520 --> 0:00:57.880 democratic process. It should not matter well you're black or white, Latino, Asian, American, 0:00:58.000 --> 0:01:01.960 a Native Americans. We should be able to participate in 0:01:02.000 --> 0:01:07.160 the democratic process. On March seventh, nineteen sixty five, I 0:01:07.280 --> 0:01:11.360 gave a little blood on the Ethnic Pitters Bridge for 0:01:11.440 --> 0:01:15.480 the right to vote before the Voting Rights Act of 0:01:15.600 --> 0:01:19.959 nineteen sixty five. Is pious. Some people had to count 0:01:19.959 --> 0:01:22.360 the number above us and the bar of soap, the 0:01:22.440 --> 0:01:26.640 number of jellybeans in a jar, and all across from America. Today, 0:01:26.840 --> 0:01:30.480 when people go out to attempt to vote. They're standing 0:01:30.959 --> 0:01:37.959 long in movable lines. That's not right, it's not fair, 0:01:39.000 --> 0:01:42.280 and it's not just. We can do better, and we 0:01:42.400 --> 0:01:46.000 must do better. We have a mall abigation, a mission, 0:01:46.200 --> 0:01:49.760 and a mandate to empower all of the American people, 0:01:50.160 --> 0:01:55.120 not just a select few. We must do what is right, 0:01:55.920 --> 0:02:01.680 what's fair, and what is just. Today democracy is on attack. 0:02:02.640 --> 0:02:07.040 I force it within and forces abroad. We need to 0:02:07.080 --> 0:02:11.600 fix it, and fix it now. For these reasons, I'm 0:02:11.720 --> 0:02:16.240 proud to insponse to Hr twelve, the Voter Empowerment Act, 0:02:16.680 --> 0:02:19.919 with my friends and my colleagues. It is a good deal, 0:02:20.760 --> 0:02:24.920 a necessary deal, and a patriotic deal to protect and 0:02:25.000 --> 0:02:29.160 to preserve our voting system. I urge each and every 0:02:29.160 --> 0:02:32.200 one of you to support the previous question and I 0:02:32.320 --> 0:02:34.240 yeel back. Thank you, missing mc governor. 0:02:35.320 --> 0:02:38.720 Welcome home, y'all. I'm Angela Rai. I'm hosting today's solo 0:02:38.840 --> 0:02:42.640 pod on voting rights. Voting rights where So. Just last 0:02:42.639 --> 0:02:45.600 week the Supreme Court issued and a decision we talked 0:02:45.600 --> 0:02:48.840 about on the podcast last week in Louisiana versus Calais, 0:02:49.040 --> 0:02:53.399 a decision that single handedly eliminated the Voting Rights Act 0:02:53.400 --> 0:02:56.280 of nineteen sixty five. This just on the other side 0:02:56.320 --> 0:03:01.919 of its sixtieth anniversary last year, sixty years later, sixty 0:03:01.960 --> 0:03:06.520 one years later. John Roberts, not John Lewis, has been 0:03:06.520 --> 0:03:09.280 in our lifelong quest since he was a young man 0:03:09.520 --> 0:03:12.440 in the Department of Justice to end and eliminate the 0:03:12.520 --> 0:03:13.400 Voting Rights Act. 0:03:13.400 --> 0:03:15.520 The Saint John Roberts, by the way that. 0:03:15.520 --> 0:03:18.680 In the Shelby Versus Holder decision in twenty thirteen, says, 0:03:18.919 --> 0:03:22.119 don't worry about Section five that were taken away from 0:03:22.120 --> 0:03:28.520 you here everybody. Section five was a section in the 0:03:28.560 --> 0:03:32.960 bill that ensured that states who had a pattern in 0:03:33.160 --> 0:03:38.400 practice of discriminating against voters they had to send in 0:03:38.480 --> 0:03:43.640 their plans right to be pre cleared by the Justice Department, 0:03:43.720 --> 0:03:46.520 by the Civil Rights Division and the Justice Department, they 0:03:46.520 --> 0:03:48.280 would have to send in their max They would have 0:03:48.320 --> 0:03:51.560 to send in their plans to say we're ensuring that 0:03:51.640 --> 0:03:57.240 people have unfettered access to the ballot box. Well, John Roberts, 0:03:57.240 --> 0:04:01.680 along with his colleagues in twenty thirteen and Shelby Versus Holders, say, 0:04:01.880 --> 0:04:05.240 you know, we're really beyond that. Racism no longer exists 0:04:05.240 --> 0:04:07.760 in this country and people can vote fairly. And the 0:04:07.760 --> 0:04:10.120 evidence of that they didn't say this, but this is 0:04:10.160 --> 0:04:12.400 the subtext. The evidence of that is, y'all had your 0:04:12.400 --> 0:04:14.160 first black president in two thousand and eight. 0:04:14.760 --> 0:04:16.719 Right, So instead of. 0:04:18.480 --> 0:04:22.560 Protecting people's right to vote, especially in the South, we're 0:04:22.600 --> 0:04:25.600 gonna eliminate this provision. And we're actually gonna ask Congress 0:04:25.880 --> 0:04:29.320 to go back to the drawing board, reauthorize a Voting 0:04:29.400 --> 0:04:33.840 Rights Act, and ensure that this is now modernized, that 0:04:33.920 --> 0:04:37.560 it's no longer reflecting on the United States history that 0:04:37.680 --> 0:04:39.720 existed in nineteen sixty five. 0:04:39.760 --> 0:04:41.120 It's time to modernize that. 0:04:41.880 --> 0:04:44.479 Never mind the fact that this was just reauthorized in 0:04:44.520 --> 0:04:47.880 two thousand and six, two years before Barack Obama went 0:04:47.920 --> 0:04:50.839 his election, and he said, and if all else fails, 0:04:51.400 --> 0:04:54.280 you still have section two of the Voting Rights Act, 0:04:54.279 --> 0:04:56.880 where there's some elements of a preclearance section. It's not 0:04:57.120 --> 0:05:00.520 specific to the South, but states can still submit their 0:05:00.560 --> 0:05:03.800 plans there. Well, let me just stop for just a 0:05:03.839 --> 0:05:06.640 moment and say, I want us to look at what 0:05:06.839 --> 0:05:08.839 happened in two thousand and six. 0:05:09.440 --> 0:05:10.920 In two thousand and six. 0:05:10.880 --> 0:05:15.480 There was a Republican member of Congress named John I'm sorry, 0:05:15.600 --> 0:05:19.280 James Sinson Brenner. James Sinson Brenner or Jim Sinson Brenner, 0:05:19.600 --> 0:05:24.200 was the chairman of the Judiciary Committee at the time. 0:05:25.240 --> 0:05:29.600 James Sinson Brenner was a Republican from Wisconsin, and yet 0:05:29.720 --> 0:05:34.080 James Sinson Brenner in two thousand and six introduced HR nine. 0:05:34.480 --> 0:05:38.000 It was the Fanny Lou Hamer Rosa, Parks and Coreta 0:05:38.040 --> 0:05:42.400 Scott King Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act of 0:05:42.560 --> 0:05:45.880 two thousand and six. Let me tell you all something. 0:05:46.520 --> 0:05:50.800 In two thousand and six, this vote passed the Senate. 0:05:50.880 --> 0:05:53.919 This bill passed the Senate by a ninety eight to 0:05:54.120 --> 0:05:59.880 zero vote, a unanimous vote for the Voting Rights Act Reauthorization. 0:06:01.000 --> 0:06:03.839 In two thousand and six, in the House where James 0:06:03.839 --> 0:06:07.760 Cinson Rinner was again the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, 0:06:07.800 --> 0:06:13.680 this vote, this vote was three ninety to thirty three. 0:06:13.720 --> 0:06:16.839 Three hundred and ninety members of Congress voted for the 0:06:16.960 --> 0:06:22.240 Fannie Louhamer Rosa, Parks and Correta Scott King Voting Rights 0:06:22.440 --> 0:06:28.360 Excuse me, Voting Rights Act Reauthorization and Amendments Act. Two 0:06:28.480 --> 0:06:32.800 years goes by, and there's a major change in this country. 0:06:33.080 --> 0:06:35.920 Two years goes by, and there's a black man who 0:06:35.960 --> 0:06:38.640 runs for president who says, yes, we can and hope 0:06:38.680 --> 0:06:42.279 and change we can believe in. And two more years 0:06:42.320 --> 0:06:46.039 goes by. In twenty ten, there is the rise of 0:06:46.120 --> 0:06:50.680 the Tea Party. In twenty ten, there is a mass 0:06:50.800 --> 0:06:55.719 movement by an organization called ALEC, the American Legislative Exchange Council, 0:06:55.960 --> 0:06:59.240 to push for voter ID bills and to push for 0:06:59.440 --> 0:07:02.800 the short of early voting and. 0:07:02.800 --> 0:07:05.560 To make it hard for people, harder for people. 0:07:05.440 --> 0:07:09.039 To vote absentee because in the minds of some of 0:07:09.080 --> 0:07:12.080 the people in this country, they decided that there was 0:07:12.160 --> 0:07:15.920 no way that a black man could win for president 0:07:16.000 --> 0:07:19.000 unless they cheated. So now all of a sudden, voter 0:07:19.120 --> 0:07:22.520 fraud became an issue. And you heard advocates, civil rights 0:07:22.560 --> 0:07:26.720 advocates that want to protect voting rights say that these bills, 0:07:26.760 --> 0:07:29.800 the voter ID bills in particular, particular in which more 0:07:29.840 --> 0:07:32.200 than a hundred of these bills were introduced in state 0:07:32.280 --> 0:07:36.080 legislatures across the country. You heard voting rights advocates say, 0:07:36.280 --> 0:07:39.600 this is a solution in search of a problem. 0:07:40.440 --> 0:07:40.720 Right. 0:07:41.120 --> 0:07:45.960 So, in twenty thirteen, the Supreme Court, here's the Shelby 0:07:46.040 --> 0:07:48.240 versus Holder case, where I just told you what John 0:07:48.320 --> 0:07:51.160 Roberts says, don't worry about section five because we still 0:07:51.160 --> 0:07:55.320 have section two. And there were other advocates that stood 0:07:55.360 --> 0:07:57.280 up to say, you know, this is going to become 0:07:57.760 --> 0:08:02.320 a problem. And around this time Reverend Jackson, God rest 0:08:02.360 --> 0:08:07.360 his soul, lifted up his voice to say something he'd 0:08:07.360 --> 0:08:09.800 been saying for some time. But Reverend Jackson really went 0:08:09.840 --> 0:08:14.000 on a tour to cities to enforce just how important 0:08:14.240 --> 0:08:18.280 and how necessary a constitutional amendment for the right to 0:08:18.360 --> 0:08:23.440 vote is, because he knew that this Voting Rights Act 0:08:23.680 --> 0:08:28.200 energy would soon shift, that the bipartisan way in which 0:08:28.280 --> 0:08:31.720 the Voting Rights Act had been passed since nineteen sixty 0:08:31.880 --> 0:08:36.040 sixty five would shift right. So this is what Reverend 0:08:36.080 --> 0:08:38.920 Jackson said when he visited Ohio today. 0:08:39.240 --> 0:08:43.000 August six, nineteen to five, Wilder Rights Act was signed 0:08:43.120 --> 0:08:48.480 a full film of muhammad Yah commitment. Prior to nineteen five, 0:08:48.559 --> 0:08:52.120 because states controlled the process and suppressed the vote, blue 0:08:52.120 --> 0:08:55.120 blacks could not vote, Men about from South, White women 0:08:55.120 --> 0:08:58.440 couldnot serve in jurors. Eighteen year olds could not vote. 0:08:58.559 --> 0:09:01.520 You couldn't vote on college campus, federal absentee, or go 0:09:01.600 --> 0:09:05.240 home to vote. You cannot vote by language. The felleral 0:09:05.280 --> 0:09:08.960 government intervene to assure Americans the right to vote. But 0:09:09.080 --> 0:09:13.080 today we have still the state's rights schemes to suppress 0:09:13.080 --> 0:09:16.600 the vote. It means in Hamilton County they're trying to 0:09:16.600 --> 0:09:18.880 move early vote to the outskirts of town to make 0:09:18.920 --> 0:09:23.280 it more difficult. In North Carolina, it means voting from 0:09:23.360 --> 0:09:25.800 college campuses. In Texas means you can vote with the 0:09:25.880 --> 0:09:29.800 gun registration, another student of registration. We need the amendment 0:09:29.840 --> 0:09:33.480 to the Constitution right we should be a fundamental right 0:09:33.559 --> 0:09:36.520 to vote. We needed amendmit the Constitution. I have one election. 0:09:37.040 --> 0:09:41.480 Now we have fifty elections, fifty state separate and nonepal election. 0:09:41.559 --> 0:09:44.680 We should have one uniform system of voting for federal 0:09:44.720 --> 0:09:46.200 elections for all Americans. 0:09:47.120 --> 0:09:51.520 Reverend Jackson for a long time talked about how this 0:09:51.679 --> 0:09:54.880 fundamental right to vote was key. He talked about this 0:09:54.960 --> 0:09:59.960 constitutional amendment often. But when this happened with Shelby versus Holder, 0:10:00.520 --> 0:10:04.120 when the voting rights, the voter ID bills started popping up, 0:10:04.400 --> 0:10:07.120 he started using his voice even louder. And I remember, 0:10:07.880 --> 0:10:11.040 being a younger professional, thinking, we don't have to spend 0:10:11.040 --> 0:10:12.760 this much time talking. 0:10:12.520 --> 0:10:14.520 About the right to vote anymore. We have it, We 0:10:14.640 --> 0:10:15.160 got it. Locked. 0:10:15.160 --> 0:10:17.280 There are other things we got to focus on, access 0:10:17.320 --> 0:10:20.360 to capital, making sure that black contractors can keep their 0:10:20.360 --> 0:10:24.040 doors open, ensuring that there are all of these other 0:10:24.160 --> 0:10:26.240 things that we focus on. That black people are paid 0:10:26.240 --> 0:10:28.440 the same thing as their white counterparts. That when black 0:10:28.480 --> 0:10:31.200 people go to buy homes, that their interest rates are 0:10:31.200 --> 0:10:33.920 the same as their white counterparts, That they don't reduce 0:10:34.320 --> 0:10:36.760 the value of the home because the black family lives there. 0:10:37.000 --> 0:10:39.480 We can live wherever we want, drive the cars we want. 0:10:39.360 --> 0:10:41.959 To drive, right that we can be admitted to the 0:10:41.960 --> 0:10:44.200 schools we want to be admitted to. Affirmative action is 0:10:44.200 --> 0:10:46.360 really the thing that's hanging in the balance, is what 0:10:46.440 --> 0:10:52.320 I thought. But when you lived through fighting for the 0:10:52.360 --> 0:10:54.520 Civil Rights Act and the Voting Rights Act and the 0:10:54.559 --> 0:10:57.520 Fair Housing Act, certainly you know just how fragile it is. 0:10:57.559 --> 0:10:59.880 And that is what Reverend tried to remind us. That 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:02.680 that is what John Lewis tried to remind us about. 0:11:03.320 --> 0:11:06.080 And these are the things that we took for granted. 0:11:06.200 --> 0:11:08.640 And now here we are in the throes of a battle, 0:11:09.120 --> 0:11:12.360 not for the soul of America, but we for what 0:11:12.400 --> 0:11:15.319 we know we deserve and is rightfully ours in this country. 0:11:16.200 --> 0:11:21.080 So I just want to sit here just for a second, 0:11:21.400 --> 0:11:24.319 because I think this is important. So we talked about 0:11:24.320 --> 0:11:28.360 Shelby versus Holder, Louisiana versus Calais. We spent a lot 0:11:28.400 --> 0:11:31.199 of time on the podcast just last week. But last 0:11:31.320 --> 0:11:38.720 night something happened. Something happened that really, y'all was. 0:11:38.800 --> 0:11:39.560 Jarring to me. 0:11:40.679 --> 0:11:45.680 Last week there were members of Congress who said that, yeah, 0:11:45.800 --> 0:11:49.760 they made this decision in Louisiana versus Calais, but you know, 0:11:49.880 --> 0:11:53.280 no states are are gonna move, no states are gonna 0:11:53.320 --> 0:11:57.000 do anything this quickly. After all, it takes the Supreme 0:11:57.080 --> 0:12:00.960 Court thirty days at least for this decision really to 0:12:01.080 --> 0:12:07.040 become finalized. So this decision was challenged by the Supreme 0:12:07.120 --> 0:12:10.240 Court or to the Supreme Court about when it would 0:12:10.240 --> 0:12:14.640 take effect. Because right now Louisiana has an election going 0:12:14.640 --> 0:12:17.720 on April first. Folks who are in the military fighting 0:12:17.720 --> 0:12:22.000 overseas or stationed overseas already got their ballots if they're 0:12:22.040 --> 0:12:24.800 registered to vote in Louisiana in the primary, already got 0:12:24.800 --> 0:12:28.840 their ballots. Absentee ballots have already gone out because it's 0:12:29.160 --> 0:12:35.400 May fifth. Well, last night the Supreme Court said, I 0:12:35.480 --> 0:12:40.240 know what we normally do, but this time it's different 0:12:40.679 --> 0:12:45.240 because we don't want people to be voting under an 0:12:45.280 --> 0:12:52.480 unconstitutional map. We think that having two black representatives in 0:12:52.559 --> 0:12:59.800 Congress for a state that is one third black is unconstitutional. 0:13:00.760 --> 0:13:04.920 So we actually think this Supreme Court decision should go 0:13:05.080 --> 0:13:09.160 into effect even sooner. We think it should be immediate. 0:13:09.520 --> 0:13:11.720 We know what we normally say, what we normally do, 0:13:11.920 --> 0:13:15.000 but there is no rhyme or reason for these people 0:13:15.120 --> 0:13:18.319 despite the fact that an election is already happening. You're 0:13:18.360 --> 0:13:23.520 talking about unconstitutional already happening. We want to disenfranchise all 0:13:23.559 --> 0:13:28.280 of those people. Throw out these ballads and agree with 0:13:28.400 --> 0:13:31.240 what Donald Trump said on true Social Let's pull that up. 0:13:32.000 --> 0:13:36.560 We want to go ahead and be superpartisan, highly political. 0:13:37.720 --> 0:13:40.520 We want to side with Donald Trump. Can we pull 0:13:40.600 --> 0:13:45.240 up that truth Social post from Donald Trump. I'm gonna 0:13:45.240 --> 0:13:50.480 read it. He says, we cannot allow there to be 0:13:50.559 --> 0:13:55.160 an election that is conducted on unconstitutionally simply for the 0:13:55.280 --> 0:13:58.560 convenience of state legislatures. He says, if they have to 0:13:58.720 --> 0:14:02.360 vote twice, so be it. He says, if they have 0:14:02.480 --> 0:14:07.120 to vote twice, so be it. The man that complains 0:14:07.240 --> 0:14:10.800 constantly about voter fraud is telling you that if you 0:14:10.960 --> 0:14:13.760 have to vote twice, so be it. He says, we 0:14:13.760 --> 0:14:17.280 should demand that state legislatures do what the Supreme Court 0:14:17.320 --> 0:14:21.760 says must be done. That is more important than administrative convenience. 0:14:22.680 --> 0:14:26.800 Is the right to vote a mere administrative convenience? 0:14:27.080 --> 0:14:29.280 I don't think so. 0:14:29.320 --> 0:14:33.040 The byproduct is that the Republicans will receive more than 0:14:33.080 --> 0:14:36.640 twenty House seats in the upcoming midterms. 0:14:37.400 --> 0:14:38.280 President Donald J. 0:14:38.400 --> 0:14:43.400 Trump, so he's celebrating a victory where he stacked the 0:14:43.520 --> 0:14:44.880 deck against people. 0:14:46.280 --> 0:14:48.560 Let me go personal for y'all for just a moment. 0:14:48.640 --> 0:15:00.120 We can pull that down. 0:15:00.280 --> 0:15:02.400 I don't know if you all have ever been in 0:15:02.480 --> 0:15:07.000 a toxic relationship, And shout out to our good friend 0:15:07.000 --> 0:15:09.520 and sister Tiffany Cross, whose book has dropped today. If 0:15:09.560 --> 0:15:12.320 y'all haven't haven't picked it up, pick it up. And 0:15:12.400 --> 0:15:16.000 she's talking about a toxic relationship with the country, her career, 0:15:16.320 --> 0:15:19.200 and with a man that she loved. So I just 0:15:19.240 --> 0:15:21.040 want to go here for just a second in honor 0:15:21.080 --> 0:15:23.800 a tif today. So, if you've ever been in a 0:15:23.840 --> 0:15:28.200 toxic relationship, one where you didn't feel heard, you say 0:15:28.280 --> 0:15:31.400 the same thing over and over again, and they pretend 0:15:31.440 --> 0:15:33.160 not to hear you, and then you say you know 0:15:33.240 --> 0:15:36.520 what I'm done. I'm finally going to leave this thing. Right, 0:15:37.600 --> 0:15:39.720 you leave, and the person. 0:15:39.440 --> 0:15:44.120 Who never heard you finally heard everything you said. They 0:15:44.160 --> 0:15:44.840 finally get it. 0:15:44.840 --> 0:15:48.800 They understanding, light bulb goes off, They're with you, all 0:15:48.840 --> 0:15:51.680 of a sudden, they get it right. This is what 0:15:51.720 --> 0:15:55.720 America has done to Black people historically. They haven't heard us. 0:15:56.120 --> 0:15:59.000 They treated us like we don't matter. They make it 0:15:59.040 --> 0:16:04.440 hard for us. We are in a toxic, abusive, emotionally psychologically, 0:16:04.560 --> 0:16:09.360 mentally abusive, and sometimes physically abusive relationship with this country. 0:16:10.440 --> 0:16:12.640 They have done everything in their power to make it 0:16:12.680 --> 0:16:14.600 harder for us to vote, all the while telling us 0:16:14.680 --> 0:16:17.800 that our issues don't matter, that our bodies don't matter, 0:16:18.360 --> 0:16:22.520 that our personhood certainly does not matter. And yet Donald 0:16:22.560 --> 0:16:25.280 Trump tells you the quiet part out loud. He says 0:16:25.320 --> 0:16:27.560 the quiet part out loud. He says that if this 0:16:27.680 --> 0:16:30.880 all goes right, there will be twenty new Republican seats 0:16:31.160 --> 0:16:33.800 for the midterms. Because the only way this fool could 0:16:33.840 --> 0:16:36.960 win an election is to stack the deck against us, 0:16:38.120 --> 0:16:41.080 the most powerful people on the planet. 0:16:41.280 --> 0:16:44.480 That's the only way he can win. And so while our. 0:16:44.360 --> 0:16:48.160 Folks are struggling to fight against you know, what frankly 0:16:48.240 --> 0:16:51.120 is an uphill battle. Our folks still haven't given up. 0:16:51.560 --> 0:16:53.800 So the Supreme Court last night said this decision will 0:16:53.800 --> 0:16:57.400 come go into effect immediately. Last week, before the decision 0:16:57.400 --> 0:17:00.280 came out, the Mississippi governor said he was using his 0:17:00.320 --> 0:17:04.760 state constitutional authority to call a special session. Louisiana said 0:17:04.760 --> 0:17:07.280 they would immediately redraw maps. Right now, it's looking like 0:17:07.520 --> 0:17:10.399 Cleo Fields would retain his seat. Why Troy Carter would 0:17:10.400 --> 0:17:15.520 lose his seat? Alabama is speaking up and they went 0:17:15.520 --> 0:17:18.240 into session yesterday. I want to roll the clip of 0:17:18.280 --> 0:17:21.000 the protests that happened outside because I don't want us 0:17:21.040 --> 0:17:23.480 to lose all of our hope we do. 0:17:24.600 --> 0:17:27.320 What do we do? You run in a fun bank? 0:17:27.359 --> 0:17:33.119 Thanks Now, last week the Supreme Court ruled in the 0:17:33.160 --> 0:17:40.520 case of Louisiana versus Klais. And while some may try 0:17:40.600 --> 0:17:43.679 to complicate it, we know what it is. 0:17:45.520 --> 0:17:47.800 It is a strategic attempt to. 0:17:47.880 --> 0:17:52.280 Erase the voting rights at which we know is our 0:17:52.359 --> 0:17:59.960 strongest protection against disenfranchisement, protections that were not given protection 0:18:00.160 --> 0:18:04.600 is that will vote for what here in Alabama. 0:18:04.640 --> 0:18:06.120 And so the people don't tell the. 0:18:06.080 --> 0:18:11.040 Truth that the decision opened the door of our house 0:18:12.160 --> 0:18:15.520 where politicians will try to redraw maps. 0:18:16.680 --> 0:18:18.800 They gonna try, but the people ain't gonna let me. 0:18:19.880 --> 0:18:23.000 So there is a protest outside of Alabama and today 0:18:23.440 --> 0:18:28.560 Tennessee because Tennessee is also called a special session. Tennessee's 0:18:28.560 --> 0:18:33.320 special session would eliminate the sole majority minority district there 0:18:33.520 --> 0:18:36.400 is in the whole state of Tennessee that represents Memphis. 0:18:36.840 --> 0:18:40.240 This is the scene outside of Tennessee State Legislature today. 0:18:41.359 --> 0:18:49.080 He he, I think this. 0:18:49.160 --> 0:18:53.359 Is so important because what this shows is a different 0:18:53.400 --> 0:18:56.040 type of solidarity. I would just want to take a 0:18:56.080 --> 0:18:57.959 moment to shout out all the white people. For everybody 0:18:57.960 --> 0:19:00.680 who's listening to the audio of this podcast, you didn't see, 0:19:00.760 --> 0:19:03.439 but there's lots of white people outside in Alabama and 0:19:03.520 --> 0:19:06.119 in Tennessee. I imagine they'll show up in Mississippi when 0:19:06.119 --> 0:19:08.480 it's time. I believe Louisiana protests for the most part, 0:19:08.480 --> 0:19:09.720 will be held tomorrow. 0:19:10.359 --> 0:19:13.640 This is important, y'all. It is all hands on deck. 0:19:13.720 --> 0:19:16.719 It's not just black people who will be impacted by 0:19:16.800 --> 0:19:20.640 the disenfranchisement of voters. There are brown people, there are 0:19:20.680 --> 0:19:24.399 Asian people, there are white people. Everyone who can't get 0:19:24.640 --> 0:19:27.560 an ID as they continue to change these laws. These 0:19:27.600 --> 0:19:30.199 folks are also impacted. So I want us to be 0:19:30.359 --> 0:19:33.160 mindful of a lot of that. Now, one other place 0:19:33.200 --> 0:19:34.440 that I want to go, and then we're going to 0:19:34.520 --> 0:19:36.840 end today because this is a deep dive type of 0:19:36.840 --> 0:19:42.960 a situation. There's so much here, Project twenty twenty five. 0:19:44.160 --> 0:19:48.000 In Project twenty twenty five, there is an entire chapter 0:19:48.600 --> 0:19:53.760 on the Federal Elections Commission. The man who wrote that section, 0:19:53.840 --> 0:19:59.600 Nicholet's pull up the clip the headline, how Trump's Justice 0:19:59.640 --> 0:20:05.920 Department will achieve more honest elections Hans van Hans vond spacals. 0:20:06.400 --> 0:20:08.119 Listen his name, I can't read it. 0:20:08.480 --> 0:20:13.360 Hans von Spakkovski spec you guys, I should have got 0:20:13.359 --> 0:20:16.000 to phonetics. I'm sorry, I'll not have pronounce his name. Hey, 0:20:16.040 --> 0:20:18.720 how win his name anyway? Because I'm mad at him now. 0:20:19.160 --> 0:20:22.560 This man wrote a whole chapter in Project twenty twenty 0:20:22.560 --> 0:20:27.399 five about the various things that they could do to make. 0:20:27.280 --> 0:20:28.879 It harder for people to vote. 0:20:29.200 --> 0:20:31.800 One thing they talked about, according to a fact sheet 0:20:31.880 --> 0:20:36.480 from the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights, Civil and Human Rights, 0:20:36.720 --> 0:20:40.440 is criminalizing the voting system. Project twenty twenty five would 0:20:40.440 --> 0:20:45.439 shift responsibility for prosecuting election related offenses from the Civil 0:20:45.520 --> 0:20:49.359 Rights Division to the Criminal Division. Nick, we can drop 0:20:49.359 --> 0:20:53.040 that headline if you want. They also talked about allowing 0:20:53.040 --> 0:20:57.880 the proliferation of online misinformation and disinformation relating to elections. 0:20:58.320 --> 0:21:02.880 Project twenty twenty five would end ongoing federal efforts by 0:21:02.880 --> 0:21:07.000 the Department of Homeland Security to combat online disinformation. And 0:21:07.040 --> 0:21:09.440 we've seen that they have said that they are going 0:21:09.480 --> 0:21:12.760 to send ice to polling places, that they are going 0:21:12.800 --> 0:21:17.840 to have DHS working on investigations around voter fraud. That 0:21:18.000 --> 0:21:22.120 is not the purpose of the investigation's division at DHS. 0:21:22.440 --> 0:21:27.120 They also talk about in Project twenty twenty five requiring 0:21:27.240 --> 0:21:30.639 state and local recipients of DHS. Again, that's the Department 0:21:30.680 --> 0:21:35.639 of Homeland Security grant funding to meet certain preconditions for eligibility, 0:21:36.000 --> 0:21:41.160 such as a commitment to total total information sharing, allowing 0:21:41.240 --> 0:21:45.440 access to Department of Motor Vehicle and voter registration databases, 0:21:46.680 --> 0:21:51.639 state run elections being intimidated by the Department of Homeland 0:21:51.640 --> 0:21:56.399 Security for what purpose. Finally, Project twenty twenty five talks 0:21:56.440 --> 0:22:04.359 about federal agencies designated as voter registration agencies as Mission CREEP. 0:22:04.480 --> 0:22:10.919 They said that President Biden signing an executive order to 0:22:11.160 --> 0:22:17.920 provide spaces for voter registration inside agencies overstepped and even 0:22:17.960 --> 0:22:20.760 though it was designed to promote voter registration, they. 0:22:20.640 --> 0:22:21.600 Thought it went too far. 0:22:21.760 --> 0:22:27.000 Why because y'all we talk about this toxic, abusive relationship 0:22:27.040 --> 0:22:30.119 with this country. They want to select few to have 0:22:30.160 --> 0:22:34.879 political power. They want political power to belong in the 0:22:34.960 --> 0:22:38.520 hands of a select few, because they think if you 0:22:38.560 --> 0:22:42.119 lift up your voice, if you cast your vote, that 0:22:42.200 --> 0:22:46.600 they lose power. This is a power graph where racism 0:22:46.680 --> 0:22:48.439 is at the center and the heart of it, just 0:22:48.480 --> 0:22:50.919 like it was during Jim Crow, just like it was 0:22:51.000 --> 0:22:53.840 during the years in which our people were enslaved in 0:22:53.880 --> 0:22:58.000 this country. So on this two hundred and fiftieth anniversary 0:22:58.480 --> 0:23:01.280 of this country, we have to do side what we 0:23:01.440 --> 0:23:04.199 actually stand for. We spend a lot of time and 0:23:04.240 --> 0:23:07.399 I talk about this in speeches all the time in 0:23:07.480 --> 0:23:12.000 the Declaration of Independence talking about life, liberty and the 0:23:12.040 --> 0:23:15.679 pursuit of happiness. But there's another key element of what 0:23:15.720 --> 0:23:18.679 we are required to do based on what it says 0:23:18.680 --> 0:23:23.280 on paper, and that is if when the government no 0:23:23.400 --> 0:23:26.439 longer serves the interests of the people, we have the 0:23:26.520 --> 0:23:30.160 right to alter or to abolish it. And I think 0:23:30.160 --> 0:23:33.560 we're getting pretty damn close to abolition. That is a 0:23:33.600 --> 0:23:37.879 place where my people have always found freedom. And again 0:23:37.920 --> 0:23:39.560 I said, I wasn't going to end with despair. So 0:23:39.640 --> 0:23:41.959 let me tell y'all from my chicken scratch. We had 0:23:42.000 --> 0:23:45.840 a mass meeting last week right on the other side 0:23:46.080 --> 0:23:50.000 of this court decision. The first thing that I'm going 0:23:50.080 --> 0:23:53.639 to suggest, it's happening already. Shout out to the Legal 0:23:53.640 --> 0:23:57.119 Defense Fund that has a model bill for legislators to 0:23:57.280 --> 0:24:00.480 use to protect the civil rights. 0:24:00.359 --> 0:24:02.320 Of our voting rights in states. 0:24:02.960 --> 0:24:05.919 I would encourage state legislators, whether you think you're at 0:24:06.040 --> 0:24:08.240 risk or not, whether you live in a blue state, 0:24:08.280 --> 0:24:10.080 a red state, of purple state, I don't care if 0:24:10.080 --> 0:24:13.320 it's a green state, please introduce this measure as soon 0:24:13.359 --> 0:24:16.040 as you're able to file bills in the state legislature. 0:24:16.359 --> 0:24:19.320 You can go to naacp LDF dot org for more 0:24:19.320 --> 0:24:21.119 infrigantation on that bill. 0:24:21.480 --> 0:24:22.680 Please file that right away. 0:24:22.800 --> 0:24:29.800 Second, I'm encouraging clergy and our churches and our denominations. 0:24:28.520 --> 0:24:29.760 And every other. 0:24:31.119 --> 0:24:37.240 Place of religious worship. Please have a voter registration drive. 0:24:37.359 --> 0:24:41.639 Every single time your people are gathered register to vote. 0:24:41.680 --> 0:24:44.760 I know you're saying, why Angela reregistering the vote. When 0:24:44.760 --> 0:24:47.439 they're taking the right to vote away, I want to 0:24:47.560 --> 0:24:49.720 scare the hell out of them. They're busy scaring us. 0:24:49.880 --> 0:24:53.000 We need to register in mass every time you can. 0:24:53.200 --> 0:24:55.680 If you're in a sorority or fraternity and some other 0:24:55.800 --> 0:25:00.879 secret society, the Masons, whatever you are in, people to vote. 0:25:01.320 --> 0:25:03.879 The next time y'all gather for a parade, a party, 0:25:03.960 --> 0:25:07.000 the club, the strip club, wherever it is, register people 0:25:07.080 --> 0:25:09.080