After the Civil War, President Ulysses S Grant implemented Reconstruction in the South and put troops into the Confederate states to ensure that the former slaves were allowed to vote, hold office, and protect their full rights as citizens per the 14th and 15th amendments. But the election of 1876 culminated in the infamous Compromise of 1877 where the southern Democrats conceded the election to the Republican Hayes in exchange for removing the troops from the South, thus allowing the reign of Jim Crow terror for nearly a century in the South which was only reversed by the Civil Rights movement and voting rights legislation in the 1960s.
Now, thanks to the Republican appointed members of the Supreme Court, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 was effectively struck down in 2013 by a 5-4 vote allowing racist states to change their election laws without getting federal approval. And, of course, the south moved immediately to constrict voting of black and brown citizens, because, well, because they could. And because they have every intention of keeping blacks and browns from voting and holding power.
And now, after Trump lost decisively in the 2020 election, and because the deeply corrupt Trump refused to concede and has ridiculously and falsely claimed that he actually won the election – in a landslide, for goodness sake – the Republican Party has seized upon this lie to do their best to reinstate Jim-Crow-like suppression of black and brown votes by closing polling booths, restricting mail in ballots, restricting early voting, ending automatic voter registration, and even makes it a crime to pass out water to those in the long lines in minority communities waiting to vote (!). They do this on the pretense of ending voter fraud – which has been proven over and over and over again to be insignificant to the point of meaninglessness. It is racist voter suppression, and nothing else.
In other words – the racist Republican Party was given full permission by the racist Republican appointed Supreme Court members to implement their racist/white supremacist agenda and do what they can to strip black and brown people of their full rights as citizens of the United States.
So, what we need in the United States is a second Reconstruction – probably not federal troops to guard the polls and drop boxes, etc. during elections (but that may not be a bad idea). Rather a good place to start is for the Senate to join with the House and pass HR-1, the 2021 Voting Rights Act that would do things like establish voter registration and mail in voting standards, establish fair redistricting reforms (for both parties), mandate exposure of “dark money” donors (for both parties), establish stronger ethics rules, and – oh yes – require candidates to release their tax returns. All of these hurt the Republican Party strategy of suppressing black and brown votes.
The only way for the Senate to pass this bill, and this bill is needed to preserve democracy in the United States, is to end the anti-constitutional filibuster. (I guess the filibuster is not UNconstitutional, but it was certainly not in the Constitution and is contrary to the spirit of the Constitution)
Would the Republicans force through an anti-Voting Rights Bill if they take over in the future? Of course - unless they actually wake up and decide to be politicians rather than oligarchical tyrants dedicated to preserving the power of the white supremacists and plutocrats.
They could actually try to win votes rather than suppress votes. What a concept!
