It’s also unfortunate that many in the media continue to report on voting rights like it’s a left versus right issue, as if supporting a fundamental democratic right suddenly makes one a flaming liberal. Jamie Fuller of the Washington Post called voting rights “the Democrats’ most important project in 2014.” Michael Shear of the New York Times dubbed Obama’s speech an effort “to rally his political base.”
The right to vote used to be regarded as a moral issue, not a partisan one. As LBJ said when he introduced the VRA before Congress: “It is wrong—deadly wrong—to deny any of your fellow Americans the right to vote in this country.”