Will Trump Honor John Lewis with a New Voting Rights Act?

July 19, 2020


John Lewis died on Friday of pancreatic cancer.

On Saturday, Trump tweeted a message of appreciation, calling him a "civil rights hero."

On Sunday, Trump joked about renaming Ft. Bragg after Al Sharpton.

In the meantime, Trump's buddy Roger Stone mumbled that he didn't "want to argue with this Negro" in a live interview with  African-American radio-show host Morris O'Kelly.

Oops! Another faux pas, but Trump's base forgives him.
Who couldn't, with that adorable little-boy face?

 

These are mixed messages from POTUS and friends to be sure, but congressman James Clyburn of South Carolina, the House majority whip, gave Trump a way to prove he supported civil rights: Pass a new voting rights bill.

“It should be the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act of 2020," he said in a CNN interview. "Words may be powerful, but deeds are lasting.”

The first Voting Rights Act went into law in 1965, a few months after a policeman cracked Lewis' skull with a baton on the Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama.

The voting rights law took a punch in the gut in 2013 when the Supreme Court held that the need for the Voting Rights Act had largely passed, so changes in voting rules didn't require approval in advance from the federal government.

The rewritten Voting Rights Act passed the House in December.

"It's laid out the way the Supreme Court asked us to lay it out," Clyburn said. "And if the President were to sign that, then I think that's what we would do to honor John."

Considering his focus on being reelected, is it in Trump's best interests to shepherd the new Voting Rights Act into law?  Would his base agree if he did? What do you think it would take to make Trump sign the bill?



Photo:  "Donald Trump" by Gage Skidmore is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0

https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/19/politics/jim-clyburn-john-lewis-voting-rights-cnntv/index.html
https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/508040-trump-mocks-push-to-rename-fort-bragg-were-going-to-name-it-after-the
https://thehill.com/homenews/media/507991-roger-stone-uses-racial-slur-in-interview-with-black-radio-host