Transcripts For ALJAZ UpFront 20221106

Black shirts under their vests. Then 2 years later, the squad was fined for wearing a one piece kit, but competed in the african cup of nations with it anyway. Fancy the current dispute doesnt overshadow their ability to perform. Is it, you know, satisfactory to satisfaction for us and a relief a camera unions. Now we can focus on the adventure of cattle with the indomitable lion it was cameron will play their opening match against switzerland on november 24th. How theyll look, they still dont know. Leah harding al jazeera ah, is his out is era. These are the top stories now. Iran has admitted supplying russia with drones, but being used to hit ukraine, it says they were delivered before the invasion began. Ukraines president has accused herana lying about how many dreads it sent to russia. Yes, present. Joe biden has been campaigning with Veronica Balmer in pennsylvania. The state will be a key battleground and shes days vote for president. Trump also help her body for republicans. 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That teenager, he won 85 percent of members folks the beijing marathon has began after a 2 year break because the corona virus pandemic. But 20000. 00 people are running their base this year. Organizers had to limit the pool of entrance as china continues with its strict 0 coverage policies. Or those are the headlines needs, continues herron al jazeera, thats after upfront. Whats going on in Vladimir Putins mind right now . Could this war go . Nuclear is being on that front team, the Golden Ticket to electro victory. Can americans agree on any immigration policy . Is there a middle ground between 0 tolerance and open border . The quizzical look us politics. The bottom line in the United States, the right to vote is just that a right. Not a privilege. However, in the run up to the november mid term elections, there has been a slew of legislation pushed through aiming to curtail which should be the right of every us citizen to have their voice heard in electoral politics. Currently, there are a number of cases before the United States Supreme Court challenging measures that would undermine representation and participation of black people and other minorities. If past adding tibet is the growing number of tactics being carried out on the ground right now, that are suppressing peoples access to the ballot. So what does this mean for us democracy in the voting process . Joining us today is latasha brown, co founder of black voters matter are re berman senior repair, are at mother jones and the author of give us the ballot. The modern struggle for Voting Rights in america, and they are a brand and managing attorney at the a c, l, u Voting Rights project. Thank you all for joining us on upfront latasha. Im going to start with you because you are in georgia, which is a republican stronghold reportedly, but its a red state, the kind of turn into a Battle Ground state. Black people they are though, are having to contend with the sweeping voting restrictions. And im trying to get an understanding here of what the state of things are in georgia right now for black voters. You know, as you said, people may recall that right after the 202021 election. What we saw on the state legislature there was a beal call s b 2 o 2, senate bill til 2 that passed on the sign into law by the governor who i call the Brand Capital is the voted suppression. Im chief, i think around the country that part of what they bill did. And the short way of understanding is that there are components of that bill that one restricted access to the ballot to and literally weapon as administrative process in such a way that the governor Republican Party can actually were challenging take over on Election Results of if is that to their liking, im in the 3rd thing that it does as creates is culture, fear by criminal as an organizations such as our own and others that are literally doing things like comfort care to provide just water, a pizza and copper care for people that stand in line for hours. And so its like death about 1000 cuts. So theyve been using these different tactics to write, restrict access to create this culture fear, and to really be able to weaponized as administrator process. The good news is that what is happening in georgia is that weve broken all kinds of records related to having more people to turn out for early voting. You know, the narrative from republicans is that, well, this proves that voters suppression doesnt work. The real narrative is that because of both suppression, certain communities like the African American community, is pissed off, weve decided to organize ourselves, is taking a tremendous amount of time, human capital, and resources to really be able to combat these barriers. Ive been placed in a place up and what were seeing is that African American voters are literally making up all over performing depth between the report between 3840 percent of the early African American, both ari, i mean, the whole point of the 1965 Voting Rights act was to prevent their from being buried and constitutionally black people and all populate, all citizens have the right to vote. But historically, things like poll taxes, grandfather, cause all sorts of stuff stopped. Black people in real life for being able to vote 1965 Voting Rights acts as okay, well stop this. Now you have real representation, real access to the vote. And yet right now where to moment where it seems like for the 3rd time, the legislations being got it, were literally re battling re litigating the same battles weve that we fought 60 years ago. I walk me through one, why this piece of legislation so important in to how is it being struggled over now . Well, thats absolutely right mark. We had decades of disenfranchisement in this country of black americans really going back to the founding itself when only white male Property Owners could vote and then Voting Rights were steadily expanded. First, fir, white men who didnt own property and then dramatically expanded for black men. With the passage of the 14th and the 15th amendment, then many of those rights were taken away. And it wasnt until the 965 Voting Rights act that everyone got the right to vote in this country regardless of race or color. And that was a monumental achievement because you had a situation where in states like mississippi only 6 percent of African Americans were registered to vote before the passage of the Voting Rights act. You had counties in alabama that were 8090 percent black. And there was a single black registered voter before the 1965 Voting Rights act. So it revolutionized american democracy. It made america a true democracy for the 1st time. There have been efforts to try to chip away it for years. But those efforts have dramatically accelerated in the past decade. And i think the reason why those efforts have dramatically accelerated in the past decade is because number one, the Republican Party itself has radicalized against american democracy. But number 2, theyve taken over the courts and the courts and the congress with the 2 entities that always protected the Voting Rights at the Voting Rights act was reauthorized 4 times by the congress. And it was also say that those re authorizations were all signed by republican president s. So there was a broad bipartisan consensus for the Voting Rights act for many years. But republicans have now turned against the Voting Rights act. And in particular, the Supreme Court with 5 and then now 6, conservative justice has dramatically weakened the Voting Rights act. In 2021. They severely weaken the law. It harder to strike down discriminatory voting changes. And now theyre basically on the verge of legalizing racial. Jerry bedroom, so the combination of republicans turning against the Voting Rights act and, and capturing the course and waking the Voting Rights act has left it in a very perilous position. You mentioned gerrymandering. Oh, i want to go there. Latasha. I know you have a lot of expertise, some bizarre, i wanna bring you in 1st on this because whats happening in places is there literally redrawing districts so that black people there vote counts. But theres no powerful black voting block there, basically diluting the black vote. Theres a case marrow versus milligan in alabama. What were seeing this very thing. And the argument from republican seems to be, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, become a blind. So theres no black voltage is volts or votes matter. Right . So how do you make sense of this . How can we resist this narrative and a whole dangerous isnt . So were very worried about the Supreme Court case, which is marrow versus milligan, which is the alabama our district in case i think its worth noting that the Alabama Legislature drew the alabama maps and in the congressional map, a 3 judge panel which included 2 drum, trump, appointees at unanimously ruled that the congressional map and alabama violated the Voting Rights act. And part of the reason to understand is exactly what youre saying, which is the map that they drew. The state legislature drew really packs and cracks as the words that we used to deny that. So they put all of the African American populations in sort of altogether in one district instead of a really drawing maps that reflect where like people live in alabama. So what happened in alabama is after that decision was re issued, the Supreme Court stated that decision and then took the case output. I recently heard our arguments on that case in early october. And the concern is that the u. S. Supreme court is going to undermine that ruling, undermine the Voting Rights act, undermine their Voting Rights act, which has been incredibly successful when you talk about a re districting and vote delusion to sort of ensure and protect and make sure that minority voters by letters get equal opportunities to elect candidates of their choice is that a persuasive argument are not to you, but perhaps to the courts in your anticipation. That voting is race neutral, that every vote should count with their black people dont have a right to elect black candidates or that you know, as long as your vote counts in this district of that district. It shouldnt matter where it counts. I mean that this is what the republican legislate legislature is arguing. Yeah, i mean, and the thing is it doesnt really matter what we think it just matters what 5 conservative justices of the Supreme Court pick. And so clearly they think that thats gonna be an appealing argument to them. You have to go back though, because this argument has been made by republicans for decades. That basically the Voting Rights act was becoming a form of affirmative action in the electoral sphere. And its been made more aggressively by republicans in the last redistricting cycle. And theyve taken some really dramatic steps in florida, for example, in the maps that were put forth by the governor rhonda santas, which in and of itself was extraordinary, is a governor is not supposed to control redistricting. They just filed, dismantled, majority black districts in a way that was clearly thought to violate the Voting Rights act. Southern states have very clearly diluted the power of black votes deny them representation. So youre not saying one group should be favored over another. Youre just saying that the group should have equal access to the political process and it doesnt really make sense in a state like alabama, which is over a quarter black. That they would only control one of 7 districts or that in a state like florida. There could be no black representatives or very few black representatives after this restricting cycle is done. So i dont think its about special treatment. Its about everyone treated the same and right now, white republicans in states like alabama are being treated differently more advantageous. Lee, then black democrats are black voters writ large because black voters are much more likely to associate with the democrats. So i think on the merits of the case, its pretty clear. Thats why they, one of the lower courts of sarah said, but i think you have a Supreme Court that is extremely ideological when it comes to the Voting Rights act. And theyre going to find a way to rule in favor of alabama that they want to do. Theres another piece to this latasha that i want to talk about, which is the actual Voter Suppression bill. Since january of 2021. There had been 400. 00 restrictive bills introduced into legislatures around the country that is a stunning number, or those that would point at this being part of a larger kind of racial backlash against the black community and minorities. Ah, there is a fear of black political power. Ah, that is motivating jim crow era voting restrictions. Some would argue were seeing efforts to criminalize, we see people who have food and water. We see the lines get longer. We seen fewer voting locations. I mean, it seems to me that this could have a Material Impact on the midterm elections. If, if, if black you will have it harder to vote and its gonna be harder for their vote to count. This has a mature election on literally not just on black voters, but it actually unravels democracy that we have to really recognize the fragility of democracy that were dealing with right now. So i can talk about george. I can also talk about florida, where in florida, where the sentence is actually created a police force, essentially to actually be in a termination to for voters the or theres one voter who was a former incarcerated returning citizen who had registered to vote because his county said that he could read, shoot a vote, he was awake. And one morning at 5 oclock in the morning with a swat team at his door and a helicopter over his house and police in his back yard. That is at his most, that is not only traumatized and an intimidation, but really when we look at it, those are signs of fashion. We have to really recognize what were up against. This is not just another election around the democrats and republicans. Were literally an election that we are determining what is the future of democracy in this country. Not just where the black people can vote, but whether people can vote who may or may not have the same opinion as those that are in power. Will we have free and fair access . Will we have a system that people are not punished because they participate in election . So sir, theres a way that weve talked about this along racial lines. But in this country its also more difficult for trans folk to vote. A disabled folk to vote ah, 9 English Speaking people to vote a poor and working class people to vote. I mean, structurally, it seems to me that the most vulnerable in society have it hardest when it comes to accessing one of the very things it might make their lives easier, right. Which is access to the democratic process. Um, is this a new thing or has every we have we historically always me to harder for all these wonderful groups to vote. I think we have, there has been some history of always making it harder for these vulnerable groups to vote. But i think its a Fair Assessment to say that has gotten worse in more and recent history in the last 10 years. I think one thing to understand about it is, and this is, comes up particularly in georgia, was that the early vote is a good example, which is that as we, as a society have modern i, in our technology and our access to try and, and figure out how to do things. Theres great opportunities, early voting, registering to vote online, automatic voter registration, just all of these ideas that take it a vote by mail that really good example that take advantage of some of the Technology Advances we have as a society. And in some places, theres a lot of effort to try and implement those improvements to make it easier for everybody to vote. Particularly people of color people who are lower income people who have disabilities and need more assistance with voting. People who have, you know, our english is not their 1st language. We have the capacity to help those people participate in numbers that reflect who they are and how they fit and our a and r a populace. But the response of republican legislators and unfortunately on some of our chords is to discourage those modernization, ari and another group that faces these challenges. These systemic barriers is the native american community. I mean, you see lack of access to ballad boxes. You see native american citizens being rendered in eligible voters sometimes because they dont have standard street addresses would of course is very common if you live on a reservation. For example, i talked to me about the obstacles that native american populations experience in why there are so many of them. Huge obstacles to native americans voting. First off, they often live in more remote places, particularly on reservations. And i dont want to say that everyone does, but obviously in no places like north dakota, for example, in the Navajo Nation, people could live a very far from a polling place. There were efforts, for example, to help people drop off their mil balance because pulling places were far away. Those efforts have been cut down. There were efforts so that they could register to vote on election day because registration could be difficult. These areas are, those courts were cut down. There were tribal ideas that they could use for any thing in their lives. But the law for it in such a way that you had to have addresses on your ideas and there were no addresses on some of the reservation. So then you couldnt vote with your tribal id. That was an issue we saw in north dakota a few elections ago. So i think sarah is absolutely right, that groups that her, her story disenfranchised. That her historically marginalized, that of other Socio Economic difficulties. Those play out when it comes to the voting process. And those are a lot of the same issues that are facing a native American Communities where its not just that they lack access to voting. Is that theres other issues that they have in their lives that theyre manifested by not having easy access to voting. And in the laws have been written in such a way to target those voters because native American Voters are also a constituency that tends to favor democrats in places like north dakota. In places like arizona doesnt get talked about a lot. Its not a group thats mentioned very often, but for example, in arizona, the Navajo Nation is going to play a very Important Role in the outcome of that election. And so i think youre actually right and its very good that you brought up those barriers because are often overlooked. Sir, theres a legal theory thats been gaining traction with some republicans. Now, im going to stipulate that this is fringed theory. Were talking about here, the independent state Legislature Theory or the iso is the idea that the state legislature has pre eminent power over other parts of a states legal process, including the ability to override a governor, veto air or state court decisions. Now, while some would argue that this is an obscure theory, there is a pro i s l case before the Supreme Court right now. Should people be worried about, ah, the push to kind of these centralized powering give states the last word . Yes. Okay, and as i think its important, and that was a quick yes was i actually was expecting you to Say Something quite different. I mean, i was, i was hoping youd Say Something went on now. I think theres reasons to be worried. So the current case before the Supreme Court that will or are going to be heard in december is out of North Carolina. The North Carolina state constitution has a very clear protection of the right to vote. And an inherent history in the case law in North Carolina. That there should not be partisan, jeremy wandering. So of course, the Republican Legislature in North Carolina drew both the state legislative map and the congressional maps very partisan lead. Jerry mander, there were successful litigation. The North Carolina Supreme Court agreed. This is the state Supreme Court agreed that those maps violated the North Carolina state constitution and violated the right to vote in the state of North Carolina because they were so partisan gerrymandering and demanded that their legislature draw new maps. So they got, there are actually new congressional map, theres a new state legislative map there was, will actually be in effect in november. But the Republican Legislature appealed to the u. S. Supreme court, which then took the case and theyre making the argument based on the provision of the Us Constitution that has never been interpreted to mean this, that the state legislature is the one that should have the final word on all things related to voting. So your state Supreme Court, your state constitution would have no impact. So what that would do is feel so obviously absurd. Yes. And it would create completely power, state legislature, making it a logical and political process partisan process even rather than totally in and, you know, completely opposite of the concept in american government, which is both true and the state and federal level of balance of power that you should have more than one institution, courts, a governor, a Legislature Making these decisions, and that that is how we get to the fairest and best place in most circumstances. And the fact that the u. S. Supreme court has even entertained this argument and is now having an oral argument and has said theyre going to entertain this. This particular concept is very concerning. Concerning is an extravagant understatement. Verify ari. Were seeing a lot of legislation enabling voters suppression, but some are still hoping for a big voter turnout, especially from young people, you know, in light of the overturning of roe. V wade. How important is the youth vote to the mid term elections . Very important, particularly in a mid term election because the fact is a lot of young voters just dont turn out in a mid term election. A lot of people just dont turn out period in a mid term election. And were going to see probably less than 50 percent of americans turn out in this next election. And were going to see even lower turnout among Younger Voters because thats just what happens. And people get really excited about the president ial election and theyre much less excited over who the governor might be, who the secretary of state might be, or the attorney general beer who their member of Congress Might be. Even though those things are extremely important. And in some cases affect their lives more than who the president is. And so i think there is a growing realization that rights can be taken away in this country. I think roe v wade was an extremely illuminating moment for a lot of younger people who thought will always have reproductive rights always have a right to control what happens with my own body. And now they dont of, not just because of the Supreme Court, but the fact that so many states, immediately criminalized abortion in a way that was unthinkable. And wisconsin, for example, theres an abortion been from 1849. Thats one year after wisconsin. He mistake that immediately went into effect. After roe v wade was overturned, it makes no exceptions for rape or incest. Its totally out of step with what voters in wisconsin want. And so i hope this will be an illuminating moment for younger people to get out and defend those rights. But my concern is that not enough people are paying attention to mid term elections. Not enough people are paying attention to what state races do and not enough people are connecting. The value of their vote to change, i think is a frustration here that democrats have to address in terms of getting but developed quickly younger people. So i want you to help me look forward a bit, you know, given all of the voting issues, giving all the tax on the Voting Rights act. What are we looking at beyond midterms and other than the court fight, which are essential . What should individuals be doing to protect Voting Rights . So i think, you know, advocating to your local and state officials because theyre the ones that really control a lot of elections and thats going to be true. Unfortunately, more and more as the courts are less of an avenue. So i think one thing you can do, its really important is to Pay Attention to these issues. As ari says, to make sure that you are voting to make sure that youre paying attention to the impact that you are a, that your votes have both the midterms and am, but also in some of your local state elections. Because thats really important in terms of determining who is actually making decisions about how electrons are ron adder in your state. And thats where some of these decisions come from. And so i think its a fundamentally important, i mean people need to Pay Attention and understand that there are consequences for voting to understand that and, and more important consequences were not val, yes, consequences or not . And i would say you, well, i think sarah is absolutely right of that, that. I think 1st it starts with voting in these elections because these electrons are going to shape american democracy for years to call me. And the question were facing now is will people who dont believe in free and Fair Elections be elected to take over election system and that, is it extremely frightening, frightened process . So i think 1st it starts with voting, then it starts with deeper structural change. I mean, the fact is, democrats would have been able to pass these Voting Rights bills if they had modified the filibuster. They refuse to do so. So thats really not just on republicans, its on them for not doing it. And thats why we need structural change in this country to make our institutions more reflective. Because whether its jerry mender, state legislatures, whether structure of the u. S. Senate, whether its the Electoral College too often there is very Popular Support for certain policies. But those policies dont become law because theyre able to be blocked by a much smaller minority of americans or the way our institutions are structured. So im very concerned not just about whats gonna happen is next election. But are our institutions going to be moved in a way that is more and more undemocratic . And thats why i think we need a more long Term Movement for deeper structural change in those countries. What latasha youre on the ground, you talk to the people all the time, which individuals be doing to act to help change the circumstances were. So i say 3 things. Why . And i call it the 3 ours. Theyve got to respond, which means youve got to respond to what is happening right now. If youre not registered, you need to register to vote. If you are register voted, you have to respond by literally making sure that you go out and vote. You get other people to vote, vote with you that this isnt a mom to stand on the sidelines, that there are consequences that will have long left, in effect on our community. The 2nd thing is, you know, weve got to resist it have to be completely unacceptable that any National Party in this country can align itself with white nationalists. It can be okay. They have to feel consequences. We have to recognise this isnt just about a policy. Im different, this isnt just about party power. This is really around a sending a message loud and clear that white naturalists will not be tolerated in any form. And the 3rd thing we have to do is we have to radically re imagine what do i mean by that . That is not okay just for us to really continue to engage as we were engaging right now. Yes, weve got a boat. Yes. You gotta organize, but thats not enough. What we have to do is radically, we imagine every single system in this country recognized that was all formed out in the contents of white male page white, racist patriarchy. And that weve got to create systems that are literally going to be designed to be inclusive and decree. 8 us to get us back, get us to a re more reflective representative democracy. So those are the things that we have to do. We have to respond. We have to resist and we have to re a match latasha ari thera, thanks so much for joining me. Is a great conversation. Everybody that is our show up for well be back. 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