On the recordMarch 5, 2018
I would say that, as we have all stated tonight, it apparently appears that we are going backwards in this country, and so why wouldn't the Voting Rights Act be under attack? It was finally the opportunity for African-American citizens to be full citizens. The only right you are born with in the United States of America is the right to vote as an American citizen. You are born with that right, and yet it is stripped away through the gutting of the Voting Rights Act. So what does that say to people who fall under the Voting Rights Act? It says that you are not equal, that you don't deserve the same rights as other Americans, that somehow you are less than a first-class citizen in this country, yet you can go to war for us, you can do other things, contribute to this society, but not be able to vote. The three- fifths compromise, we can go all the way back to that and talk about the inequality. So we need people of goodwill on both sides of the issue, on both sides of the aisle, to understand how equality is arrived at and come together and do the things that we need to do in order to make this a more perfect Union. I believe in that. I have not always seen it, but I believe that we need to continue to strive to make this a more perfect Union, to live out the mantra of this great Nation. This is the greatest country in the world, no question about it, absolutely incredible, but let's live up to it.…
