Voting Rights

I don't blog too much on political issues, but every once in a while, I find something that some politican has been doing that leaves me wondering about the intellegence of my fellow humans (moreso than usual that is).

Fortunately, for the most part, this post is not one of those cases. The issue is that of voting rights. It seems that recently, the Voting Rights act of 1965 was up for renewal. The act prohibited discriminatory practices in allowing US citizens to vote. Such things would include sex, race, literacy, and other lines.

The act was upheld by the House with strong bipartisan support(390-33). However, there was some dissent. By who?

Southern conservatives of course.

Lynn Westmoreland of Georgia said, "By passing this rewrite of the Voting Rights Act, Congress is declaring from on high that states with voting problems 40 years ago can simply never be forgiven."

That's a cute interpretation, but is Mr. Westmoreland so naieve as to think that discrimination is something that ended 40 years ago? And do he and the other 32 that voted against the renewal forget all the incidents in southern states like Florida in which voters were illegally prevented from reaching the polling places? Yet somehow Florida didn't make it on the list of states that might need some federal oversight.