How the Texas GOP Is Moving Swiftly to Protect the Political Power of White Conservatives

http://www.alternet.org/civil-liberties/how-texas-gop-moving-swiftly-protect-political-power-white-conservatives



After the U.S. Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act, Republican majorities and politicians in many Southern states quickly went to work to revive segregationist Jim Crow voting laws.

North Carolina’s legislature passed an astounding package of bills destroying 20 years of inclusive reforms. Alabama and Mississippi began enforcing new tougher ID laws. Florida’s Tea Party Gov. Rick Scott resurrected a 2012 witch-hunt for hundreds of thousands of non-citizens—code for non-whites—on voter rolls.

And then there’s Texas, where Republican Attorney General and gubernatorial candidate Gregg Abbott, is leading the most brazenly racist effort of all.

Texas and the U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division have been fighting over the state redrawing election district lines to intentionally dilute the possibility of non-white voting blocks electing candidates in state and federal races. Before the Supreme Court gutted the VRA in June, Abbott would not acknowledge the race-based political implications of his state’s GOP-led redistricting.