Conservatives invoke Obama in Voting Rights Act challenge

Los Angeles Times ^ | March 18, 2009 | Peter Wallsten and David G. Savage

[reaganaut1]

The election of Barack Obama as president has been hailed as a crowning achievement of America's civil rights movement, the triumph of a black candidate in a nation with a history of slavery and segregation.

But in a twist, Obama's success has emerged as a central argument from conservatives who say his victory proves that some of the nation's most protective civil rights laws can be erased from the books.

Conservative legal foundations and the Republican governor of Georgia, challenging key parts of the Voting Rights Act, filed briefs in the Supreme Court this month pointing to racial progress and a high black turnout in the fall election. They said Obama's victory heralded the emergence of a colorblind society in which special legal safeguards for minorities are no longer required.

"The America that has elected Barack Obama as its first African American president is far different than when [the Voting Rights Act] was first enacted in 1965," argued Texas lawyer Gregory S. Coleman, whose client, a utility board in Austin, is challenging parts of the law.

"The question now is, at what point do we as a society wipe the slate clean and accept that we are equals with equal rights, equal treatment and equal expectations, and special treatment shouldn't be provided to anyone?" asked Shannon Goessling, director of the Southeastern Legal Foundation in Atlanta, which has fought affirmative action and other race preferences.

[reaganaut1]

There is a graphic accompanying the article showing that a smaller fraction of whites voted for Obama than Kerry in Alabama, Lousiana, and Mississippi. Other liberals, including Toobin in the New Yorker, have made the same argument. So what! Equal voting rights mean that black citizens should not be prevented from voting (and black turnout for Obama was higher in those states), NOT that white citizens are obligated to vote for a black man.

[glorgau]

Yep, and what is the fraction of blacks that voted for McCain?

[HEY4QDEMS]

Taking on the people of power and influence and especially wealth is one of the dumbest things a politician can due.

I suspect there will be lots of backroom deals done to keep the gravy train rolling.

[libs_kma]

"The question now is, at what point do we as a society wipe the slate clean and accept that we are equals with equal rights, equal treatment and equal expectations, and special treatment shouldn't be provided to anyone?"

November 5, 2008

[Niuhuru]

“in a nation with a history of slavery and segregation.”

And opportunity, civil rights activists and movements, most flexible/indulgent justice system.

[He who knoweth not his name]

Uh Oh, without racism the naacp and other groups are out of a job! Which is why old Al is always stirring the pot.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

and what is the fraction of blacks that voted for McCain?

Irrelevant. Blacks have a right to vote for "people who look like themselves;" whites don't.

"Black" is the title of nobility. It says so right in the Constitution:

Article 1 Section 9
No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States

[SkipW]

As a black man it makes perfect sense to me to claim victory in the struggle to overcome America’s racist past. It is long past the time to move on. I have utter contempt for the leftist whites and black hustlers who use America’s history as a tool to enrich themselves.

That dirt ball Eric Holder admonished Americans, claiming that the nation was too cowardly to have a dialogue on race. The very last thing in the world that America needs is additional dialogue of the kind Holder wants to take place. He, and every other black person who feels a need to cling to victimhood and steadfastly refuse to forget grievances over the past and focus on getting ahead today are wasting time and energy.

They also damage the country. I guess it is a good thing for me that I can’t treat these sniveling “victims” the way I think they should be treated.