My newspaper today featured an article titled “Jackson, D.C. leaders push to reauthorize Voting Rights Act”. Intrigued, not realizing this forty year old piece of legislation was in danger, I read on. Apparently, for those who are not aware of this situation, parts of the VRA are about to expire, and must be re instated by 2007. Reverend Jackson’s group, Rainbow/PUSH is actively campaigning for congress to do something about this.

At the risk of sounding like a racist, I am amused, befuddled, and upset that this is gaining momentum. It is yet another example of propaganda to anger liberal communities, and create issues where there are none. So that no one is confused, the core of the VRA, that all citizens of a democracy should be granted the right to vote for their representatives, is not in danger, and is protected by the 15th amendment. Instead temporary provisions such as ensuring that non-English speaking voters get assistance at polling sites and requiring jurisdictions with segregationist pasts to submit changes in election law to the U.S. Justice Department for approval are up for debate.

In response to this, one article I read claimed that “some GOP leaders are suggesting that the law be made national and permanent.”, yet this was not good enough because, “By making it national, strict scrutiny will apply to all states. By making it permanent, the periodic battles over reauthorization will not be necessary.” Why is ‘the battle’ something we should want? Simple: because the battle draws attention and creates headlines like “D.C. leaders push to reauthorize Voting Rights Act”, which evoke passion without details.

These temporary statues had little effect on the civil rights movements forty years ago, and I can’t believe that they will do much for minorities today. Instead it is a smoke screen that Democrats are building up to make Bush and other republicans, who are against reauthorizing for the sake of small government and eliminating governmental waste of time and energy, instead they will be made out to be spawn of the devil racists. Let’s focus on legislation that is efficient, useful, and tailored instead of noisy half truths that throw around unfounded blamed.