Voting Rights Is the Civil Rights Movement Of Our Era

A few weeks ago, Michelle Obama said that voting rights is the civil rights movement of our era. The right wing has already engaged in gerrymandering, rewriting the laws, scrubbing legal voters off of many voter lists, reducing voting hours, and cutting the number of polling stations in many places. I read today they are posting billboards in mostly minority communities in attempt to intimidate people, and someone on this website had the experience of a person coming to his door to challenge his voting rights. Further, the right is holding training camps for their extremist legions who hope to disrupt voting on election day in Obama-leaning communities.

Handled well, this could be the kind of issue that mobilizes people to vote, that gets those who the right is trying to walk on angry enough that they vote even if they had not planned to. This election is not only about Obama, the right has made it about the very democratic soul of our nation, about the core of justice in our Constitution -- the "We the people." If that can't be used to motivate and mobilize Obama supporters, I don't what can. We should vote, not only for Obama, but to make it clear to the right wing that you cannot destroy our democracy through corruption and intimidation.

I hope that from the pulpits to the unions, from the campuses to the senior citizen centers, from the Obama campaign to the liberal Super PACs, we see a call to action to stand up for democracy, and put an end to the attempts by the right-wing brigades to corrupt our democracy.

Here is some of what Michelle Obama said a few weeks ago:

http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/michelle-obama-voting-rights-is-movement-of-our-era-michelle-malkin-racism/politics/2012/09/23/49582

So when it comes to casting our ballots, it cannot just be “we the people” who had time to spare on Election Day. Can’t just be “we the people” who really care about politics, or “we the people” who happened to drive by a polling place on the way home from work. It must be all of us. That is our birthright — as citizens of this great nation. That fundamental promise that we all get a say in our democracy, no matter who we are, or where we’re from, or what we look like — yeah, or who we love.

So we cannot let anyone discourage us from casting our ballots. We cannot let anyone make us feel unwelcome in the voting booth. It is up to us to make sure that in every election, every voice is heard and every vote is counted.

And that means making sure our laws preserve that right. It means monitoring the polls to ensure that every eligible voter can exercise that right.

And make no mistake about it, this is the march of our time — marching door to door, registering people to vote. Marching everyone you know to the polls every single election. See, this is the sit-in of our day — sitting in a phone bank, sitting in your living room, calling everyone you know — your friends, your neighbors, that nephew you haven’t seen in a while, that classmate you haven’t spoken to in years — making sure they all know how to register, where to vote — every year, in every election.

This is the movement of our era — protecting that fundamental right not just for this election, but for the next generation and generations to come. Because in the end, it’s not just about who wins, or who loses, or who we vote for on Election Day. t’s about who we are as Americans. It’s about the democracy we want to leave for our kids and grandkids. It’s about doing everything we can to carry on the legacy that is our inheritance not just as African Americans, but as Americans — as citizens of the greatest country on Earth.