My first diary, be gentle.
So there I am, merrily reading Georgia10's post on the recent Republican holdup of the VRA. I have a good chuckle at the Republicans who STILL, after all these years, haven't gotten the memo, smile, and read the end of her post, about contacting your reps to get this thing passed.
The GOP just did the political equivalent of stepping into Dog Poop. The LAST thing we should be doing is helping them extricate themselves from it.
My basic reasoning is this: the VRA is a legislative sacred cow, and rightfully so. We don't need to go over how profound its impact was or the overall justness of its mission. The Civil Rights movement has been so successful that NO party wants to be percieved as racist in any way.
AND A SMALL MINORITY OF REPUBLICANS JUST TRIED TO SABOTAGE THE FLAGSHIP LEGISLATION OF THE CIVIL RIGHTS MOVEMENT.
This is, politically speaking, a freebie! This is what Democratic strategists dream of! The GOP leadership is embarrassed to high hell over this (understandably)- but their southern rural wing won't let up. We should take this opportunity to nail them to the wall over this.
Every single Democrat on every single news or radio program should be pounding away with this simple fact: "the Republicans just held up a vote on renewal of the VRA."
This couldn't be more embarassing for the national party if they had stalled on the Fuzzy Puppies Act. Opposing Civil Rights is nearly on a par with Social Security as a third rail in American Politics. Take advantage of this! Don't help this episode to pass quicker! Let the R's stew in their own captivity to their good ol' boy wing.
A couple of final things:
1. Dems still have the black vote locked up, but it's no secret that we're seeing slight defections. Bush took 11% of the black vote in 2004, up from his 9% take in 2000 (IIRC). Between this and Katrina, we should be going to every black leader in the country and saying, "THIS is why it's in your best interests to stick with us. Ken Mehlman may talk a good game and seem like he's genuinely trying to reach out, but at the end of the day, his party is doing THIS."
2. I'm a complete and total political animal. I see everything in terms of political advantage. If this seems a little cynical to you, well, sorry. The VRA will get passed, eventually. But I don't mind it coming a month later if that's a month we get to slowly roast Republicans on this issue.