Activist LaTosha Brown Says Voting Rights ‘Are Under Attack’ Similar to Putin’s Attack on Ukraine’s Democracy
Award-winning voting rights activist and Black Voters Matter co-founder LaTosha Brown told SiriusXM host Dean Obeidallah that attacks on voting rights in the U.S. are similar to Vladimir Putin’s attack on Ukraine’s democracy.
On Friday’s edition of The Dean Obeidallah Show, the host asked Ms. Brown if she has been in contact with President Joe Biden and his administration about continuing to fight for voting rights.
Ms. Brown told him she has been in touch with the White House, then tied the fight for voting rights in with Ukraine’s fight against Russia:
Dean: Since the vote [on voting rights legislation] failed because of Senators Manchin and Sinema not voting for reforming the filibuster, have you had contact with the administration if they made commitments to continue to fight on this issue?
LaTosha Brown: I’ve talked to them several times and they have reiterated a commitment to passing voting rights. When you’re thinking about what’s happening in Ukraine right now…the first opening of his [Biden’s SOTU] speech was around Ukraine and this kind of question around their democracy and commitment to supporting this democratic nation that was under attack. Because the people there were under attack because of their sovereignty a question around having the right to put in place a democratic government that they elected and being self-determined. While, yes, they are literally fighting for their lives, right, there’s an extreme violent regime in Putin who is after them, the bottom line is the core and the fundamental driver of that is also what is underneath, in many ways, what is happening here in the country.
Right now while we are talking about supporting–as we should–supporting countries abroad that they are literally fighting for their democratic rights, we still have to really recognize that that’s not too far removed from what we see happening here in this nation that voting rights are under attack. That’s not hyperbole, that’s not a stretch, that’s not just a matter of saying oh ‘that’s just what the two political parties do.’
No, we are fundamentally seeing a party that is in power that is seeking to punish people for participating in the democratic process, that are sending a message that people don’t have any sense of self-determination. That is sending the message that we are not going to accept that you have democratic rights.
We have to really be able to recognize that as we’re seeing and holding this standard globally as the US positions itself as being a democratic global leader then there are implications when we don’t see that same kind of vigor and protection and commitment here in the US.
Watch above via SiriusXM.
