When do you think they'll start repealing the civil rights laws?

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

Now that the Bush Regime has made substantial progress in their War on Poor People with the New American Serfdom Act, cleverly disguised as "bankruptcy reform," any bets on when they'll start dismantling the civil rights laws? I'm guessing the'll start with the Americans with Disabilities Act. Why should employers have to spend money on ramps and elevators for a bunch of whiny crippled people? Then they'll go after the Age Discrimination in Employment Act. Older workers with vested pension plans cost too much. Let's go for the young ones who'll work for the minimum wage we haven't raised in years. Finally, they'll attack the 1964 Civil Rights Act. That's a good way to keep them dangerous brown ferriners from taking jobs from good "Murkins, and it'll keep them uppity wimmin in the kitchen where they belong.

Serious attacks on the ADA will start by the end of the year, I'm betting. And after that... ?

[bryant69]

1. It's hard to say

I think it depends on how their attack on Social Security goes - that said, while I do think they will try to weaken anti-discrimination laws or affirmative action programs, taking on that civil rights bill is both stupid and inefficient. Better to use programs that fly under the rader as much as possible without openly reinstating a racist policy.

Bryant
Check it out --> http://politicalcomment.blogspot.com

[etherealtruth]

2. Wouldn't surprise me (n/t)

[comsymp]

3. Actually, parts of the Voting Rights Act

sunset in '07.

EDITING TO ADD LINK: for add'l info:
http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/weekly/aa120298.htm

[Warpy]

9. Funny how the bigots wrote that one

Laws that restrict our rights never seem to sunset. Laws that expand them do.

The ERA didn't pass because it was hit with a time constraint that no other constitutional amendment in the history of this country ever had to face.

Those bastards really do hate us all. They resent having to go through the motions of being elected. They feel entitled.

[comsymp]

10. "They feel entitled."

As the greatest song ever written says, "that's what it's all about"

[Tux]

4. I doubt they would

SInce it would alienate the blacks that voted for Republicians. However, "faith-based" laws like the one that allows religious organizations to discriminate based on religion may make it's way into secular (non-religious, folks) businesses.

[RaleighNCDUer]

12. Have you seen any repub rallies? There are few enough

black repubs that they can afford to marginalize them.

I have no doubt that they will move to eliminate civil rights laws, based on the anti-affirmative action notion that any law which is based on race must be, by definition, racist and therefore must be eliminated.

[Stop_the_War]

5. they've already started....

[paineinthearse]

6. There is no need to. Think about Texas.

If you control the executive (Attorney General) and the Supreme Court, why bother? Just don't enforce the laws on the books. Don't prosecute. And if a case ever made it to the top, reject it.

Changing the laws will only draw attention and incite a backlash.

I may sound cynical, but it is happening. Here is a case in point.

In 2003, Tom DeLay had the Texas legislature redraw the Congressional districts. (Districts are supposed to be redrawn every 10 years after a census, but that is another story). After redisticting, the new boundaries are supposed to be reviewed by the office of Civil Rights in the Justice Department.

By the time of the 2004 elections, that review had not been completed.

Prior to the start of the 109th Congress, I heard Nancy Pelosi mention that the DNC(?) had filed a suit in federal court to challenge the Texas 2004 elections. If anyone connected with the suit or DNC or Texas has information, please let me know, as this appears to have fallen off our radar screens.

[Inland]

7. Why bother, when the courts are packed and the USG doesn't prosecute

You can have all the laws on the books you want, but if the government doesn't respect them, it doesn't matter.

[CornField]

8. They've been talking since the early 90s about reversing the voting rules

Many still believe that only property owners should be voters.

[pop goes the weasel]

11. ADA is already under attack

Where've you been? The ADA is meaningless in the workplace, and fast becoming meaningless everywhere else.

As for the other civil rights, have you read the Bill of Rights lately? It's pretty obvious that those rights have been whittled into a shadow of their former selves.

All this has happened with the agreement of Democrats, too, just like the Debt Peonage Bill. We have got to get rid of everyone, Republican and Democratic alike, who is willing to sell away our natural rights for a campaign contribution.

[ck4829]

13. RW'er wants to destroy the commission on Civil Rights

George Will argues that it’s time to "retire" the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. He lauds current chair Gerald Reynolds and slams former Commission chair Mary Frances Berry, calling her career "seedy." He gives two reasons for ending the Commission: that "someday Democrats will again control the executive branch and may again stock the commission with extremists" and that "civil rights rhetoric has become a crashing bore and, worse, a cause of confusion."

http://www.townhall.com/columnists/georgewill/gw20050310.shtml

[nothingshocksmeanymore]

14. This is why DU'ers who claim we should focus on economics rather than

civil rights irk me to no end.

The realpolitik gang at DU is as bankrupt morally as the Germans were in 38 (?) Sophie's Choice was no real choice at all.

Economic rights and civil rights go hand in hand.

[HamdenRice]

15. The Voting Rights Act wasn't repealed but it's a dead letter

What happened in Ohio 2004 and in Florida 2000 were clear, blatant violations of the Voting Rights Act. The republicans were so confident and arrogant, that their own public pronouncements about their goal of suppressing the black vote in urban areas of Ohio would have been enough to convict them of Voting Rights Act violations under any other administration. So for practical purposes, the Voting Rights Act is already a dead letter.