Republicans claim to want to honor the late Rep. John Lewis. There's a way, but it's not empty words

Daily Kos Staff

Monday July 20, 2020 · 6:00 AM PDT

2020/07/20 · 06:00

no image description available — Rep. John Lewis

Republicans responded to the death of civil rights hero and long-time member of Congress John Lewis with a variety of offensive moves. But while not one but two congressional Republicans memorialized Lewis with pictures of the late Rep. Elijah Cummings, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell took the cake.

McConnell memorialized Lewis’ “place among the giants of American history,” saying in a statement that “progress is not automatic. Our nation’s great history has only bent towards justice because great men like John Lewis took it upon themselves to help bend it.” All true. But, as Rolling Stone’s Jamil Smith quickly pointed out, McConnell “is sitting on legislation that would help restore the currently maimed Voting Rights Act, which John Lewis nearly died for as a young man. This ‘statement’ is a few niceties wrapped around a biography that anyone could find on the web.”

Calls to pass a renewed Voting Rights Act—after the original was gutted by the John Roberts Supreme Court—grew through the weekend.

“I think that Trump and the Senate leadership, Mitch McConnell, by their deeds if they so celebrate the heroism of this man, then let's go to work and pass that bill because it's laid out the way the Supreme Court asked us to lay it out," House Majority Whip James Clyburn told CNN's Jake Tapper. "And if the President were to sign that, then I think that's what we would do to honor John. It should be the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Act of 2020. That's the way to do it. Words may be powerful, but deeds are lasting.”

“What we have to do is live up to [Lewis’] legacy,” Rep. Karen Bass said on ABC's This Week. “We need to continue that fight for social justice. And again, the first thing we need to do is to pass the voting rights act and get it signed.”

Mitch McConnell may have empty words to memorialize Lewis, but he’s been committed to blocking the legislation that backed up Lewis’ life’s work, the work he repeatedly risked his life for.

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