Donald Trump’s proposal to postpone the November presidential elections It has been overshadowed by a strong defense of the right to vote of Barack Obama. The former US president gave a powerful speech on Thursday Congressman John Lewis’s funeral, historical leader of the fight for the right to vote for African Americans, in which he has denounced the obstacles that citizens face in going to the polls. Obama has not mentioned the name of the president, but has dropped several arguments that contrast with the vision that Trump has given in recent months about the United States electoral system.
“While we are sitting here, there are people in power who are doing everything possible to discourage the vote, to suppress the vote by closing polling places, attacking minorities and students with restrictive identification laws, and attacking our right to vote with surgical precision, even undermining the postal service before the election, which will depend on voting by mail so that people don’t get sick, ”Obama said. Trump has repeatedly pointed out that the mail-in voting system is fragile and can be fraudulent. Although the current president does not have the power to change the date of the elections, Trump has suggested this morning in a tweet that elections are not secure and that voting by mail can serve as electoral fraud.
Former President Obama, in addition, encouraged the drafting of a law on voting rights that allows the automatic registration of all Americans on the electoral roll; to increase the voting centers; to expand the program for early voting; and make Election Day (usually the first Tuesday in November) a holiday to allow more people time to go vote. His proposal even proposes to eliminate filibusterism, a political practice, frequently used in Congress, in which an initiative to block or delay its vote is debated indefinitely.
Obama has proposed that this law be named after the deceased congressman to honor his fight for the right to vote for African Americans. “[John Lewis] he knew for his own life that progress is fragile, that we have to be vigilant of the dark currents of this country’s system, of our own history, with its whirlpools of violence, hatred and despair, and that we can rise up again, “he said .
The former president has also condemned the police presence in the protests in Seattle and Portland where federal forces have taken to the streets to confront those who have protested racism for several weeks. “Today we witness the police kneeling on the necks of African Americans. George Wallace [el exgobernador de Alabama que impulsaba la segregación racial] He is dead, but we see our federal government sending officers to use tear gas and batons against peaceful protesters, “he said.
Subscribe here to newsletter weekly on the elections in the United States
–
