“Many thought of the election of Barack Obama, not as the end of racism, but certainly as a turning point. And it was. But for many, President Obama's election was a turning point in a different direction. It spurred a backlash among white supremacists invested in maintaining the status quo.
It can be no coincidence that the carnage of the Voting Rights Act so central to the Shelby decision occurred during the presidency of our first-ever Black president. It is no coincidence that in the decade since Obama's election, voter suppression has gained more momentum, velocity, and animosity than it had in the previous three elections combined. Since Shelby County v. Holder, voter suppression has taken on more pervasive and pernicious forms than ever before.”
Source: Four Hundred Souls: A Community History of African America, 1619-2019
“Those who rage against and work against expanding the electorate know what's at stake. The goal is to block access to the ballot and to policy making because letting the agitators inside might yield new laws to remedy inequality or injustice. The fear of these elected officials is a loss of power, grounded in an assortment of causes like racism, sexism, homophobia, religious intolerance, or an inchoate desire to keep the world as it was when they sat at the peak of influence. They forget that the bygone days of political tranquility never truly existed—the agitators simply hadn't amassed sufficient power to be heard. But they are getting closer to it every day.”
Source: Our Time Is Now: Power, Purpose, and the Fight for a Fair America
“Another powerful tool to stop African Americans from having any political voice was the white primary. Key to the white primary effectiveness was the fact that from Reconstruction until 1968 the South was a one-party system—only Democrats needed apply, so despised was the party of Lincoln. Several of the states, therefore, began to discern that one way to skirt around the Fifteenth Amendment was to tinker with the primary election, during which the Democratic candidate was chosen.”
Source: One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy
“She didn’t know where this path would take her or how she’d fare, but the unknowns didn’t scare her like they used to.
After all, amidst a thousand mysteries, she knew one thing for certain.
Time and time again, this was the path she’d choose.”
Source: Of the Sun and Sea
“The tools of Jim Crow disfranchisement worked all too well. In 1867, the percentage of African American adults registered to vote in Mississippi was 66.9 percent; by 1955, it was 4.3 percent.”
Source: One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy
“The goal of all the GOP voter ID laws is to reduce significantly the demographic and political impact of a growing share of the American electorate. To diminish the ability of black, Latinos, and Asians, as well as the poor and students to choose government representatives and the types of policies they support. Unfortunately, it's working.”
Source: One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy
“A voter is but a Sisyphus. Votes...and votes...and votes...”
Source: The New Land
“We must stop asking incumbents who they are training to take their place. This question reinforces the belief that our votes do not count, which discourages people from voting. Public office seats belong to the public. Once an incumbent leaves, they can not give, appoint, or assign that seat to anyone because it is not theirs. Though they can train whomever they wish, ultimately, it is up to us, the people, to vote them in.”
“Engels’ Conditions in Germany, one of his early works, contains an excellent pen-portrait of this king. ‘The Kingdom of Prussia […] was then governed by Frederick William III, nicknamed The Just, one of the greatest blockheads to ever grace a throne. Born to be a corporal and to inspect the buttons of an army; dissolute, without passion, and a morality-monger”
Source: Marx and Engels on Reactionary Prussianism
“The fathers [the Old Testament saints] knew the promise about the Messiah, that God for the Messiah’s sake had chosen to forgive sins. Therefore, since they understood that Christ would be the price given to pay for our sins, they knew that our own works are not a sufficient price for so weighty a matter. Accordingly, they enjoyed free mercy and the forgiveness of sins by faith, just like the saints in the New Testament."
"Psalm 130:3 “If You, Lord, should mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?” Here David acknowledges his sins and does not speak of his merits. He then adds: “But there is forgiveness with You” (verse 4). Here David comforts himself by his trust in God’s mercy, and he quotes the promise: “My soul waits, and in His Word I hope,” (verse 5), i.e., because You have promised the forgiveness of sins, I am supported by Your promise.
Therefore the [Old Testament] fathers too were justified, not by the law, but by God’s promise and by faith.”
Source: The Apology of the Augsburg Confession