Another Blight on American History

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. JOHNSON of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from Virginia for yielding, and I thank her for anchoring this CBC Special Order hour. I also shout out to the leadership of CBC's chair, Yvette Clarke, for the work that she is doing.

Mr. Speaker, I can't breathe. I am not saying those words to talk about what George Floyd said about 6 years ago before he was choked to death. Those words are not from him. Those are the words that democracy is uttering, is crying: I can't breathe. I can't breathe because MAGA controls the Presidency. MAGA controls the House, the Senate, and MAGA controls the United States Supreme Court. MAGA has a trifecta.

I can't breathe. Democracy can't breathe. For years, there has been a steady effort by the United States Supreme Court to overrule and get rid of the Voting Rights Act. They started with Shelby County, where they paralyzed the preclearance requirement of the Voting Rights Act. Then they went to Brnovich several years later and made it more difficult to sue for relief under the Voting Rights Act. Then April 29, I think it was, of this year, they nailed the final nail in the coffin of the Voting Rights Act by gutting section 2. They did it and said that it was a denial of equal protection to White folks for racist legislators and legislatures to have to draw districts that offered or enabled Black people and communities of interest to have an opportunity to elect a Representative of their choice.

They said that that was the denial of equal protection to White folks. In other words, political gerrymandering trumps the ability of Black people to be able to elect the Representative of their choice.

And they did that premised on the conclusion--the false conclusion that we are now living in a post-racial society, so there is no longer a need for the Voting Rights Act. So it was a fit of judicial activism, a predictable fit of judicial activism.

We have got to do something about this United States Supreme Court. We have got to do something about this MAGA legislature. We have got to do something about the head MAGA at the White House. We do that through exercising our right to vote.

We shall do so in November. We shall do so in 2026, and we will be prepared for 2030 redistricting. We will be prepared for what happens. We are going to take your foot off of the neck of democracy, and it is not going to be just us. It is going to be right-thinking people around this country who are going to join us.

That is why I appreciate us leading the way, and I look forward to better days ahead. We shall not stop. We won't slow down. You are not going to drive us off. You are not going to kick us out. We are going to be here. This is our country. And we are going to live in it together, like it or not.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source