Obama at Selma: ‘Pledge to make it their mission to restore the Voting Rights Act this year’

President Obama delivered a rousing speech at the 50th Anniversary of “Bloody Sunday” in Selma, Alabama today. Transcript: Full Text of President Barack Obama’s Speech in Selma (Excerpt):

[W]e can protect the foundation stone of our democracy for which so many marched across this bridge – and that is the right to vote. Right now, in 2015, fifty years after Selma, there are laws across this country designed to make it harder for people to vote. As we speak, more of such laws are being proposed. Meanwhile, the Voting Rights Act, the culmination of so much blood and sweat and tears, the product of so much sacrifice in the face of wanton violence, stands weakened, its future subject to partisan rancor.

How can that be? The Voting Rights Act was one of the crowning achievements of our democracy, the result of Republican and Democratic effort. President Reagan signed its renewal when he was in office. President Bush signed its renewal when he was in office. One hundred Members of Congress have come here today to honor people who were willing to die for the right it protects. If we want to honor this day, let these hundred go back to Washington, and gather four hundred more, and together, pledge to make it their mission to restore the law this year.

Of course, our democracy is not the task of Congress alone, or the courts alone, or the President alone. If every new voter suppression law was struck down today, we’d still have one of the lowest voting rates among free peoples. Fifty years ago, registering to vote here in Selma and much of the South meant guessing the number of jellybeans in a jar or bubbles on a bar of soap. It meant risking your dignity, and sometimes, your life. What is our excuse today for not voting? How do we so casually discard the right for which so many fought? How do we so fully give away our power, our voice, in shaping America’s future?

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Fifty years from Bloody Sunday, our march is not yet finished. But we are getting closer. Two hundred and thirty-nine years after this nation’s founding, our union is not yet perfect. But we are getting closer. Our job’s easier because somebody already got us through that first mile. Somebody already got us over that bridge. When it feels the road’s too hard, when the torch we’ve been passed feels too heavy, we will remember these early travelers, and draw strength from their example, and hold firmly the words of the prophet Isaiah:

“Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not be faint.”

We honor those who walked so we could run. We must run so our children soar. And we will not grow weary. For we believe in the power of an awesome God, and we believe in this country’s sacred promise.

May He bless those warriors of justice no longer with us, and bless the United States of America.

President Obama gave a powerful and moving speech. if you missed it, be sure to catch the replay or watch the video.

Then contact your senators and members of congress and demand that they cosponsor and vote in support of the restoration of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Bill To Restore Voting Rights Act Gets Another Bipartisan Push:

House lawmakers are giving another push to legislation that went nowhere in the last Congress: a bill to restore the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act.

The bill, introduced by Reps. Jim Sensenbrenner (R-Wis.) and John Conyers (D-Mich.), responds to the Supreme Court ruling that struck down Section 4 of the law in 2013. In a 5-4 vote, the court declared it was time to update the section, which determined which states and localities with a history of minority voter suppression had to clear changes to their voting laws with the Justice Department. The justices left it up to Congress to come up with a new formula for designating which regions of the country require special scrutiny.

The Sensenbrenner-Conyers bill, known as the Voting Rights Amendment Act, updates that formula by making it apply to all states and jurisdictions with voting violations in the past 15 years, and by creating uniform transparency requirements to keep communities informed about voting changes.

The legislation actually expands the Voting Rights Act, too, by giving more power to federal courts to stop discriminatory voting changes before they are implemented. Specifically, it would lower the bar for plaintiffs seeking a preliminary injunction of a law in any federal court.

“The VRA is one of the most important pieces of civil rights legislation ever passed,” said Sensenbrenner. “Our legitimacy as elected officials relies on the integrity of the ballot box. I urge my colleagues to support the VRAA because it is vital to our commitment to never again allow racial prejudices in the electoral process.”

Sensenbrenner and Conyers introduced the same bill in the last Congress, and it never even made it out of committee. Its prospects in this Congress aren’t looking great either. Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.), who chairs the House Judiciary Committee, said last month that Republicans have concluded it’s not “necessary” to restore the law because it’s strong enough without Section 4.

A major obstacle for the bill continues to be its lack of GOP supporters. Aside from Sensenbrenner, the House bill had only 11 GOP co-sponsors in the last Congress. This time, as of Wednesday afternoon, it has only three: Reps. Charlie Dent (Pa.), Michael Fitzpatrick (Pa.) and Chris Gibson (N.Y.).

In fact, the GOP congressional  leadership failed to attend today’s anniversary at Selma, just as they failed to attend the anniversary of the March on Washington two years ago. Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post writes, No House Republican leaders are going to Selma this weekend. That’s a dumb move:

It’s hard to overstate what a dumb decision this is for a party desperate to show that it is comprised of and open to far more people than just old white men. “We do dumb real well,” said former Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele. “It is astounding to me that whether it is supporting the continuation of the Voting Rights Act or commemorating a pivotal part of American Civil Rights history [Selma], Republican leadership prefers to sit on the sidelines.”

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Politics is in part — and I would argue, in large part — about symbolism.  Not sending a top Republican leader to Selma on Saturday suggests Republicans don’t get that. Particularly in the wake of the revelations about Scalise speaking to a group affiliated with former KKK grand dragon David Duke. If ever there was a time to say, “We’re here because we get how important this is to the country,” it’s now for Republicans.

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No, Scalise or John Boehner standing with President Obama and 100 or so other members of Congress — Democrats and Republicans — isn’t going to fundamentally alter the politics of the black vote in 2016. The Republican presidential candidate hasn’t won more than 11 percent among African Americans  in more than a decade, and it’s hard to imagine that changing drastically over the next 20 months.

But, that’s not the point. This isn’t about a single election or a single vote. Standing together to mark a moment when the country was riven by racism but emerged from it to be a stronger, better place is simply the right thing to do. And, if that’s not compelling enough a reason, Steele makes the key political point: “If our leadership can’t stand with the black community in Selma, why would they believe we will stand with them on anything?” Sometimes in politics, just being there is the key. Showing up says a lot more than a statement sent by your press secretary.

Late Friday afternoon, House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) announced that he would travel to Selma to commemorate the anniversary.

UPDATE: Wade Henderson with the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights said “Commemoration requires legislation. Selma isn’t just a photo op, it’s a solemn remembrance of the blood, sweat, tears, and lives that went into securing voting rights for racial minorities in this country.” “The Bloody Sunday march is not a parade, and it is hypocritical for members [of Congress] to attend the event and then do nothing to advance a VRA restoration.” (h/t ThinkProgress).