Obama used part of his eulogy on Thursday for the late civil rights leader to endorse various voting reform policies, including implementing automatic voter registration, establishing Election Day as a national holiday, and approving a new one. comprehensive legislation on voting rights.
But the former president also regretted that too many people choose not to exercise their constitutional right to vote and condemned the various barriers that some Americans face when trying to cast their vote.
“Even as we sit here, there are those in power who are doing everything possible to discourage people from voting by closing polling places and attacking minorities and students with restrictive identification laws and attacking our voting rights with Surgical precision, even undermining the Postal Service in the run-up to an election that will rely on mail ballots to keep people from getting sick, ”he said, referring to voting laws largely advocated by Republicans.
Perhaps best known for his support for hard-line immigration policies, Miller defended voter ID laws, but otherwise offered little evidence to refute Obama’s claims. Spokesmen for Obama’s post-presidential office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Miller’s criticism.
A handful of other prominent conservatives have also attacked Obama’s speech at Atlanta’s Ebenezer Baptist Church as too political and inappropriate for an event meant to commemorate a person’s life.
“Imagine if a greasy politician showed up at your loved one’s funeral and started talking silly about the Senate procedure,” Tucker Carlson of Fox News said on his show Thursday night. “Can you believe it? You’d be surprised if that happened. You’d probably leave. Desecrating a funeral with campaign slogans, what kind of person would do that?
Obama’s praise touched on topics inextricably linked to Lewis’s legacy as a legislator and civil rights defender. As leader of the Nonviolent Student Coordination Committee, Lewis was the youngest speaker at the 1963 March in Washington. He went on to serve for more than three decades in Congress and it became his life’s mission to promote activism for social justice.
Obama recognized him on Thursday. “I know this is a celebration of John’s life. There are some who might say that we should not think about such things. But that’s why I’m talking about it. John Lewis dedicated his time on this Earth to fighting the same attacks on democracy and what’s best in America that we’re seeing circulating right now, “he said.
