Outraged About Disenfranchising Black People? You Should Be!
But Do Not Fool Yourself About What Is Going Down and What Is Needed

July 19, 2021 | revcom.us

 

From a reader:

Dear revcom.us,

I’ve been following the revcom.us coverage of the outrageous and ominous moves to again disenfranchise African Americans along with Latinos, Native Americans (and also other demographics like college students who tend to vote Democratic). As revcom.us has been saying: For generations, Black people were denied the right to vote in the South through law and terror. That only changed with the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. That law was only passed after heroic struggle and sacrifice of people who risked and gave their lives in a movement that exposed the white supremacist nature of this country to the world.

At this moment, I want to emphasize something revcom.us has been calling out and what everyone who is outraged needs to confront: Biden, Harris, and those who call the shots in the Democratic Party are doing nothing but counseling people to rely on the same kind of community voter registration and assistance projects that the Republicans are madly moving to outlaw (and even impose criminal penalties on!). For all his rhetoric about “darker and more sinister” forces behind voter suppression, all Biden could promise in his speech on July 13 was “As soon as Congress passes the For the People Act and the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act, I will sign it and want the whole world to see it.”¹

As the New York Times told you in their coverage of Biden’s voter suppression speech, that “rallying cry only underscored the impossibility of the task: Neither bill currently has a path to his desk.”

Don’t lie to yourself about what is happening here. Biden and Harris have told you that their aim is to “reach across the aisle.” And who is on the other side of “the aisle”? The white-supremacist fascists who are the ones pushing to disenfranchise people of color and who backed an attempted fascist coup to re-install Donald Trump despite the election results! Do you think the leaders of the Democratic Party are going to risk tearing the country apart to go all out to stop them? Be honest now. They have told you over and over again that their aim is to “bring the country back together again.” “Bringing the country together” means accommodating to the very “sinister” white-supremacist fascists who are hell-bent on disenfranchising people of color. And for the Democrats, “bringing the country together” is aimed at putting a prettier face on a system where the U.S. sits atop a world of the most heartless exploitation and oppression. That mission is as unconscionable as it is impossible.

What about the fact that activist groups sponsored by and aligned with the Democratic Party are holding press conferences; “progressives” in Congress like Alexandria Ocasio Cortez are expressing outrage; and Democrats in the Texas legislature have left the state in a move that will—at best—delay that state’s pending draconian voter suppression laws? Whatever is true in their condemnation of the Republicans, and whatever their actual feelings, the objective role they play is to provide a “left cover” for the Democrats, to spread toxic illusions that this system can be made better through voting; and to keep you tied into the system—a system with white supremacy at its core—that needs to be overthrown.

Every day, if you are willing to look at reality honestly, you’ll see (and act on!) the truth of what Bob Avakian says in BAsics:

If you try to make the Democrats be what they are not and never will be, you will end up being more like what the Democrats actually are. (BAsics 3:12)

 

1. Biden made his speech in Philadelphia before a crowd at the National Constitution Center. In his speech, Biden said, “There’s an unfolding assault taking place in America today, an attempt to suppress and subvert the right to vote in fair and free elections.” He called the Republican efforts to restrict voting rights “21st century Jim Crow assault” and said, “We’re facing the most significant test of our democracy since the Civil War.” Reuters news service noted that Biden “called it a ‘national imperative’ to pass sweeping voting rights legislation that has stalled in Congress, but he did not outline a path to overcome Republican opposition.” [back]