I know, a cryptic title – so follow me here. But any comments by Representative Scott Garrett in support of women’s suffrage as this country celebrates the 90th anniversary later this week would be in conflict with his consistent vote against the rights of those who aren’t wealthy corporate donors.
It is a real good thing that the right for women to vote isn’t up for reauthorization as well – because you never know what Garrett will come up with to deny them the most basic right as an American.
Why do I say this? Back in 2006, Garrett was only one of 33 Representatives to vote AGAINST the reauthoriziation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. In attempting to explain a vote that seemed to anyone with a conscience as insensitive and racist, Garrett said the following:
Now, I have been here now for 3 years, just as the gentleman from Iowa has been as well, and I can think of many other very important significant legislations that we have reauthorized. But for the life of me, and I stand to be corrected, I cannot think of any other bill, any other important issue, whether you are dealing with the air, the water, the environment, our schools, our education or our health, our defense or otherwise, I cannot think of any other areas, and again I stand to be corrected, where we have reauthorized something for two and one-half decades. So I think that is the first area that we need to be addressing, and you are rightfully so for bringing it up.
Just as a side note on this, I did put in an amendment that would limit this down to 6 years, but that was the proverbial compromise amendment if we were not successful in getting your amendment to the floor tomorrow which would eliminate the multi-lingual ballots entirely.
Now, Garrett had a number of issues with the reauthorization, but his first two are incredibly telling. For starters, he felt that equal rights for something as basic as voting should only be reauthorized for 6 years, and not 25. Garrett’s own words on this issue were that “circumstances in this country will be significantly different than they are today 25 years hence”. His second issue? That ballots would not be English-only.
I ask this – what could possibly change in this country that would make the right to vote obsolete?