Rep. John Lewis Speaks Out Against GOP Voter Suppression Efforts

it is hard and difficult and almost unbelievable that any member, especially a member from the state of georgia, would come and offer such amendment. there's a long history in our country, especially in the 11 states that are -- of the old confederacy from virginia to texas, a discrim -- of discrimination based on race. on color. maybe some of us need to study a little contemporary history dealing with the question of voting rights. just think, before the voting rights act of 1965, it was almost impossible for many people in the state of georgia, in alabama new york virginia, in texas, to register to vote, to participate in the democratic process. the state of mississippi, for example, had a black voting aged population of more than 450,000 and only about 16,000 were registered to vote. one county in alabama was more than 80% but not more than -- but not a single registered african-american voter, people had to pass a literacy test. one man was asked to count the jelly beans in a jar. it's shameful to come here tonight and say to the department of justice you must not use one penny, one cent, one dime, one dollar to carry out the mandate of section 5 of the voting rights act. we should be opening up the political process and letting all our citizens come in and participate. people died for the right to vote. friends of mine. colleagues of mine. speak out against this amendment. it doesn't have a place. i yield to the chairman. this is -- i agree with the chairman. this is not the place. i will not yield. i urge my colleagues to vote against this amendment.

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[yeda77]

Those who forget the past are condemed to repeat it....

Thank G-d we have the likes of Mr. Lewis and others with long memories.

[phantomsuccour]

Georgia has such a terrible history with voter suppression, no wonder the democrats don't trust them.

[marlette782]

I love how democrats don't want us to show an ID to vote, but they now want us to show one when we buy a gun. I can't wait to hear John Lewis compare gun control to Jim Crow. Of course the hypocrite Lewis won't do that.

[Leutchik]

The final blow will be an immigration amnesty which creates 7,000,000 new reliable Democrat voters. This will ruin the United States and let the Chinese carve up the world for their benefit and amusement. That will suit Obama just fine. His dad would be proud of him for engineering the dismantlement of the greatest nation in history.

[james pennell]

actually you can repeat the past. you can not have Hitler coming back and having another mass murders. Events can be similar , but they can not be repeated.

[marlette782]

Under that thinking why should we trust President Obama? He is from Chicago, Chicago has a history of ballot box stuffing. His wife worked for Mayor Daley's son. Sounds suspicious

[phantomsuccour]

Oh please, if the conservative Attorney General of a State wants to prove that voter fraud is as rampant as you conservatives say it is, they would go ahead and even if they were criticized, they still have the power to investigate and prove this VAST conspiracy. Mind you the Pennsylvanian Secretary of State even hired outside investigators to prove voter fraud in PA and they found NOTHING. Let me tell you conservatives advice, the demographics of America are against you.

[phantomsuccour]

lol dead voters. dead voters would work in a city election. How in the world would you manage to let 100,000+ voters without anyone noticing. That is a typical charge conservatives make against democrats because they just can't understand how they can ever lose an election. mind you, if everyone registered to vote actually turned up, republicans would be defeated all the time.

[marlette782]

When republicans want to investigate the democrats will start the you're a racist name calling. I agree we should make getting the ID easy. The problem is democrats are not reasonable. In Georgia the republicans said it would be free to hte poor. The democrats still objected, claiming the poor could not get transportation to pick up the ID. So republicans said they could deliver it to the're home. Seems reasonable, but no the democrats still said it was racist.