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Jim Ryan's avatar

If Biden walked on water across the Potomac, the WaPo headline next day would read,

"Potomac stroll raises doubts about Biden's swimming ability"

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Rob Boyte (Miami Beach)'s avatar

IT’S ABOUT TIME WE PROTECT VOTING RIGHTS

Economy & Infrastructure are good, but if we lose the next 2 federal elections which the Repugnant Party is successfully working toward, it is moot.

I got so upset I WROTE A LETTER! Haven’t done that in decades since the computer age.

President Joe Biden

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW

Washington, DC 20500

December 7, 2021

President Biden,

I write this letter to express my grave concern about voter suppression that the governors & legislators in Repugnant Party controlled states have implemented. I understand that the Supreme Court in its narrow, legalese view in 2013, rescinding the Voting Rights Act of 1965 did not consider the democracy-ending ramifications when it removed the federal oversight from these backward Southern states that had historically suppressed black voters.

However, we need the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act to restore some of that oversight. So far, 19 Repugnant-dominated states and not just the historically racist Southern ones, have passed laws suppressing votes and gerrymandering districts with some having gone so far as to shut down polling sites in select neighborhoods causing long waits for voters. Also some have changed the authority of vote counting to Repugnant partisan controlled officials, which clearly should not be legal, but there are no federal controls to stop them.

If these voter suppression changes are not overridden by federal voting rights laws, it guarantees the authoritarian control by the Repugnant Party as soon as next year. The Repugnant Party has already proven itself a threat to democracy by its insurrection attempt on January 6, 2021. As they did in 2020, they still have no platform for legislative action, feeling confident that they can remain in office thru voter suppression and having partisans officially counting those votes. That was the focus of their coup attempt where the Vice President was pressured to disregard the actual votes and declare the treasonous former president remain in office.

I am actually writing this letter on paper because it may have more weight than some electronic conveyance, altho in the 1980s having often written to governors, legislators and presidents in this medium as a dissenting voice didn’t seem to do much good. While the infrastructure and economic laws that have been the focus of Congress are good, I am disappointed ... No, actually frightened that Voting Rights has not been the main focus these past months. The election is eleven months away. We need to end the filibuster and other political games and push this legislation as if our very Democracy depended on it, because I am afraid it does.

Sincerely,

Rob Boyte

Miami Beach, FL

CC: Rep. Nancy Pelosi

Sen. Chuck Schumer

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