McEachin diminishes himself over Cuccinelli’s Voting Rights comments

In 1965, Virginia was given a list of conditions by the federal government on how it should do its redistricting. This bit of federal oversight was imposed for, oh, I don’t know, perhaps a 300-plus-year history of slavery and racism that existed in the Commonwealth up through that time of the law being enacted?

So, through the Voting Rights Act of 1965, and extended further in 2006 for another 25 years by a Republican-led Congress, Virginia is to be held to strict standards regarding redistricting and voting rights. Hence, every ten years (for at least the next two redistricting cycles) Virginia is required to submit to the Justice Department its plans for drawing the lines.

From the House of Delegates’ Fact Sheet on redistricting:

The federal Voting Rights Act of 1965 imposes other requirements on redistricting to prohibit the adoption of a plan that would have the effect of denying or abridging the right to vote for racial and language minorities. Since Virginia is a covered jurisdiction, its redistricting plan must be precleared by the U.S. Department of Justice to ensure that it does not reduce the opportunity of minorities to participate in the political process and to elect representatives of their choice

You can read more about the specific requirements of the Voting Rights Act here.

While I personally find no problem with Virginia remaining a covered jurisdiction under the Voting Rights Act, I do have a problem with the same, predictable, liberal, progressive Democrats who scream “racist” or think someone is trying to deny another person’s rights because they choose to openly question whether or not a Civil Rights era policy is still in the best interests of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Recently, Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli said:

“I do not think, in this day and age, that we need pre-clearance from [the Department of Justice],” Cuccinelli said, referring to a provision in the Voting Rights Act that has required the commonwealth Virginia and other Southern states to submit their plans to the Department of Justice since 1965.

“Remember who has to be discriminating here — the General Assembly, the Senate or the House, and the governor,” Cuccinelli said during AP Day at the Capitol, an annual gathering of journalists a month before the General Assembly session.

“And I don’t see any of those bodies now or any time in the future returning to the kind of history that Virginia is rather infamous for.

“I don’t for a moment mean to suggest that we don’t still have to contend in our society and in Virginia with bigotry. We do. … I just don’t think Virginia needs that oversight at this point.”

What the heck is wrong with that? It’s an intellectual question where Cuccinelli is effectively making a cost-benefit statement regarding the federal oversight.

He’s only asking a question and wondering aloud – ok, asserting aloud – that in the next review of the Voting Rights Act, it might be time for Virginia to be removed from being a covered jurisdiction.

That’s called an argument. He’s building a case that Virginia has moved to what we all are hoping for: a post-racial world.

But some people harbor and hold on to the cause of racism, seeing it even where none exists. For example, State Senator Donald McEachin:

The governor stands idly by as Attorney General Cuccinelli says Virginia has outgrown the Voting Rights Act. Again, the governor’s silence is deafening. In the lifetimes of many of us, minority voters had to pay a poll tax or pass a literacy test or even risk physical harm to register to vote. In recognition of these serious concerns that took a century to overcome, the Voting Rights Act was passed and recently renewed with overwhelming bipartisan support.

“I would remind the governor that, as the leader of the Commonwealth and the head of his Party, his words and actions can and do carry a lot of weight. He missed his opportunity on bipartisan redistricting when the bill was before the legislature and now he is missing the opportunity to repudiate the Attorney General’s inappropriate, risky and reckless suggestion.”

Repudiate what? Are we really even remotely close in Virginia to going back to the days where the General Assembly passes and the governor signs into law paying poll taxes, passing literacy tests or threatening physical harm to people for registering to vote or voting (well, maybe if you encounter the Black Panthers)?

Unless McEachin truly feels his colleagues are racists. And, if that’s the case, does this say more about McEachin and his view of the world?

We elect leaders to think and to ask questions. If we truly want to move to a post-racial world, we have to be open and rational in our collective dialogue about how effective current policies are – especially those that were enacted nearly five decades ago in a different era. Do they make sense today and what are the costs and benefits?

What we don’t need to do in our debates is demonize and engage in demagoguery…especially if we want to truly move to an era that leaves a more painful one well-behind.

McEachin’s efforts to score political points by over-exaggerating the nature of Cuccinell’s comments and attempting to reduce McDonnell through “association” only diminishes himself and marginalizes an important discussion that we should be having in our society.

When can we truly have an honest conversation about race in America? When the progressive left stops holding onto it as a political weapon.

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