The old Confederacy is whistling Dixie again

Moral Monday protest in N.C.

The Supreme Court's disgraceful gutting of the 1965 Voting Rights Act has the old Confederacy waving the bloody flag and whistling Dixie again. From Florida to Texas, Republican governors and legislatures are moving at light's speed to pass restrictive voting and registration laws reminiscent of the Jim Crow era.

In North Carolina, 4 bills are currently before the legislature, ready to be passed and put on Gov. McCrory's desk with hardly any debate. Despite large weekly protests, passage seems likely. This would severely restrict the rights of black voters and all but guarantee that there's no repeat of anything like Obama's stunning victory in the state in 2008. First and foremost is their effort to do away with early voting, where Democrats have out-polled the Dixie-cans by huge margins.

Arrested in Raleigh

North Carolina’s voter ID bill could pose problems for 1 in 10 voters, according to an analysis by the State Board of Elections. About 613,000 North Carolinians lack the required government-issued ID. Nearly a third of these voters are black, while over half are registered Democrats.

MORAL MONDAY IN RALEIGH

On Monday, more than 100 people were arrested after their singing and clapping protest outside the state Senate chamber was declared an unlawful assembly, in what has become a weekly demonstration against Dixie-can initiatives. More than two-thirds of those arrested were women, as organizers focused on women's rights while legislation that could close most of the state's abortion clinics nears a final vote. More than 800 people have been arrested at the Legislative Building in expressions of civil disobedience since the "Moral Monday" protests began in April.