AOC implores action against GOP voting rights rollback

‘The time to fight like hell for democracy is right now,’ tweets congresswoman

Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has warned that Republicans are laying the groundwork to overturn election results in the near future.

The New York Democrat sounded the alarm over the Democratic Party’s plan to “out-organise” GOP-authored laws that restrict ballot access, in a tweet posted on Monday.

“Communities cannot ‘out-organise’ voter suppression when those they organise to elect won’t protect the vote,” Ms Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “Even if they do out-organise, the ground is being set to overturn results.”

“The time to fight like hell for democracy is right now,” she added. “We may not get another chance.”

Ms Ocasio-Cortez was responding to a New York Times report that civil rights activists are increasingly concerned about the White House’s lack of federal action to protect voters.

Communities cannot “out-organize” voter suppression when those they organize to elect won’t protect the vote.

& Even if they DO out-organize, the ground is being set to overturn results.

The time to fight like hell for democracy is right now. We may not get another chance. #HR1 https://t.co/ePFJNMVlHD

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) July 26, 2021

The report said that in “private calls” with activists, White House officials had expressed confidence that it is possible to “out-organise voter suppression”.

Biden has called new GOP election laws “Jim Crow on steroids” and described them as the biggest challenge American democracy has faced since the Civil War, reports Business Insider.

But liberals are frustrated that his actions are not matching the rhetoric, as he has not called for reforms of the Senate filibuster to pass voting-rights legislation.

In a CNN town hall, Biden reiterated his opposition to getting rid of the filibuster, saying that doing so would “throw the entire Congress into chaos and nothing will get done”.

Last week, more than 150 civil rights groups appealed together to the White House for Mr Biden’s help passing the For The People Act, which seeks to “set a basic federal foundation for voting access for all Americans”.

“We cannot and should not have to organise our way out of the attacks and restrictions on voting that lawmakers are passing and proposing at the state level,” the groups said in a letter on 22 July.