Most readers know that a hard-fought legislative act was signed by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965 to protect and preserve voting rights for all, most notably for African Americans. This was monumental after brutal and bloody years of struggle for civil rights in the South. With the passage of the landmark Voting Rights Act (VRA), Black people no longer had to jump through the most obvious and ridiculous obstacles to voting like reciting the U.S. Constitution or guessing how many jelly beans were in a jar. Despite the VRA’s passage, African Americans continued to face a tortuous path on their way to the ballot box.

Key sections in the VRA contained safeguards for voter discrimination and suppression. For example, if there was gerrymandering that prohibited the full voting participation of Black folks, it was easier to bring those cases before the courts for resolution. There was also a provision to hold certain rogue states more accountable because they had a history of voting shenanigans. Before states like Mississippi, Texas and Florida could change their voting laws, they would be subjected to the “pre-clearance” provision of the VRA. That meant their schemes would have to be presented to the Department of Justice for approval.

Just before the 2012 elections, the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law created a “Map of Shame” to expose voter suppression acts by state. It was not an image that championed full participation of all this nation’s citizens. Ten years later, the attacks on voting rights are overt and public. The attack on the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021 was a sickening result of our elected leadership not protecting the sanctity of the voting system in the preceding years of the insurrection.

The Democratic Party seems to be unable to mount an aggressive campaign to win the battle of public opinion even if the courts are stacked against them. From what I have seen, Democrats are more concerned about saving their own butts — uh, I mean districts, — often cutting deals with treacherous Republicans to do so.

The blow against Wisconsin’s efforts to protect voting rights is being replicated across the country. This will be a crucial battleground going forward because voting rights, like abortion rights, is a right that conservatives are hell bent on obliterating.

We who believe in freedom cannot wait on the Democratic Party and its corporate cronies to lead this fight. We must develop a comprehensive electoral strategy with clear and uncompromising demands to give to them for implementation. Otherwise, we will continue to lose ground, state by state, and the struggle to pass the Voting Rights Act will be a past achievement to study in history class.