Today is the 50th Anniversary of one of the most important pieces of legislations in American
history: the Voting Rights Act, and I have the opportunity this morning to celebrate
that decision with Martin Luther King III and other members of the Southern Christian
Leadership Conference right at the Martin Luther King Jr. memorial here in DC. What
we also talked about was not just celebrating the Voting Rights Act, but talking about what
the Supreme Court did two years ago in gutting the Voting Rights Act and allowing states
all over this country to engage outrageously in voter suppression. Now I am a politician.
I have run for office on many occasions. Often I win; sometimes I lose, but it has never
occurred to me to run in an election and figure out how I can prevent people who disagree
with me from voting. My job is to convince people about the correctness of my ideas and
to get their support. So let me be very clear in saying that those people, Republican governors,
republicans legislators who are engaged in voter suppression, who are trying to keep
African-Americans, low income people in general, senior citizens from participating in the
political process because they believe those folks will be voting against them. Those politicians
are nothing less than cowards. They don’t have the guts to defend their ideas. They
know their ideas can’t carry the day. The way they think they can win elections is by
denying millions of people the right to participate in the political process. That is disgraceful.
That is un-American and that has got to change, and as President, I will change that. What
we have got to do is make it easier for people to participate in the political process, not
harder. That is why I have just introduced legislation that would provide for universal
registration to the greatest degree possible. If you are eighteen years of age, you are
registered to vote, in fact, this type of process exists all over the world. We have
a significantly lower percentage of Americans who are registered to vote, let alone who
are voting, than many other countries on Earth. That has got to change. And when we talk about
the decline of American democracy, it’s not only voter suppression, it is the fact
that as a result of this disastrous Supreme Court decision on Citizens United, the billionaire
class is now spending huge amounts of money in the political process to elect candidates
who will represent the wealthy and the powerful and continue the war against the working class
and the middle class of this country. That is why I have strongly supported a constitutional
amendment to overturn Citizens United and why, as President, I would have a litmus test
and any candidate of mine who wants to be on the Supreme Court will have to make it
loud and clear that he or she will rehear the Citizens United case and defeat Citizens
United. Last point is that if we are going to create a vibrant democracy, if we are going
to see large numbers of young people, low-income people, participate in the political process
we need to give people something to vote for. And that is a progressive agenda, which stands
up for the the working class, stands up for the middle class, and is prepared to take
on the billionaire class; and that is what this campaign is about. Let me conclude by
saying this, to those governors, those cowards who are working hard to deny people the right
to vote, if you do not believe in democracy, if you think the only way you can win elections
is by denying others the right to vote why don’t you leave America and go to those
countries that do not support democracy. Don’t try to win elections here by denying people
the right to vote. That is immoral; that is wrong; and that is un-American.