Tell Congress: Voting Rights: We'll Never Turn Back!
Call BOTH of your Senators.
Call ONE of the Representatives. Note: only one of these Congressmembers represents you. Find out which one here.
Call Script
My name is __________. I am a constituent, and my zip code is _______. I am also a member of Indivisible SF.
We thank you for your past votes against the MAGA agenda. But last week's Supreme Court ruling striking down the last remaining provision of the Voting Rights Act is a clear signal that the MAGA regime is determined to curtail the voting power of nonwhite Americans and impose upon us all a partisan, one-party rule, authoritarian government. You must do more. You must fight fiercer. You must refuse to cooperate in any way with the MAGA regime. Stop voting to confirm their appointees. Stop voting to approve their budgets. Do more to speak out in public. Hold your own hearings outside the halls of Congress. Express your public support for those enduring abuses and taking nonviolent action to defend democracy.
Additonal Call to Action
Besides calling your representatives, saving our American democracy requires our direct and sustained personal participation in ongoing work. Join and become active with Indivisible, or one of the many, many other groups and organizations that are actively opposing and resisting the MAGA regime. Participate in:
Communicating with and personally lobbying elected officials.
Nonviolent direct action protests and acts of resistance.
Election and issue education, advocacy, voter registration, and get-out-the-vote efforts.
Supporting and aiding those under direct threat, on strike or at boycotts.
Background
Our Constitution's 15th Amendment (1870), states: "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."
For 95 years the 15th Amendment was never effectively implemented by Congress to ensure that nonwhite Americans had equal voting rights. Then, after generations of struggle and years of organizing and bloody protests, the Civil Rights Movement finally forced Congress to enforce the 15th by enacting the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA).
But ever since Roberts was appointed Chief Justice by Bush-II, he and the political forces who now refer to themselves as "Make America Great Again" (MAGA) have been scheming, maneuvering, and ruling, to circumvent the 15th Amendment and to destroy the VRA. Last week, the six Republican members of the Supreme Court accomplished their MAGA mission – to the praise and joy of the Trump/Vance administration and the white-supremacist politicians and demagogues who keep them in power.
Passage of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) in 1965 finally granted nonwhite Americans access to ballot-box political power. Black, Latino, Asian and Native citizens were able to win elected office (though never in numbers equal to their share of the population). But the political descendents of the Dixiecrat segregationists never accepted the premise that nonwhites are "real Americans" who deserve a fair and equal share of political power.
Step by step, most recently in the Rucho v. Common Cause ruling of 2019, Brnovich v. DNC in 2021, and now last week's ruling in Louisiana v. Callais, they have been destroying the VRA and nullifying the 15th Amendment. Rucho legalized gerrymandering voting districts for partisan advantage by the party in power. Brnovich severely limited Section 2 of the VRA. And now Callais has gutted Section 2 which had (until now) prevented gerrymandering to completely eliminate all Red-state districts where nonwhite voters were a majority.
Because the electorate and voting results are clearly and obviously racially polarized, the great majority of the nonwhite members of Congress (almost all of whom are Democrats) are elected from districts where nonwhite-voters outnumber whites. In the "Red states" controlled by Republicans, those districts can now be re-drawn so that white-voters outnumber nonwhites and Republicans will replace Democrats. Black and Brown communities will no longer be able to elect someone who understands and represents their interests.
Mississippi, for example, is almost 40% Black, but the Black population is concentrated on the west side of the state along the Mississippi river. Under Section 2, one majority-Black congressional district was created along the river. Its representative is the state's lone Black member of Congress (out of four). In Texas, a heavy concentration of Latino voters live along the Rio Grande river where majority-Latino congressional districts elect Latino members to Congress. In many states, nonwhite voters concentrated in cities and urban-centered districts elect members of Congress to represent their interests.
The Callais decision delegitimizes those majority-minority districts and allows (in fact encourages) Republican state governments to redraw all of their local, state, and congressional districts – both rural and urban – so that every single one of them has a commanding white-majority – so long as they say their purpose is a partisan one of electing Republicans rather than a racial one of restricting nonwhite voting power.
First out of the box to begin eliminating Democratic members of Congress is Gov. DeSantis who on Monday signed into law new maps for Florida congressional districts that in this year's November election are expected to reduce the number of Democrats from 8 to 4 (out of 28). Roughly 40% of Florida voters vote Democratic. But only 20% of the state's congressional representatives are Democrats. By next year, it's likely that only 14% of Florida members of the House will be Democrats.
Due to the Callais ruling, within four to six years it's likely that the number of nonwhite members of Congress will be cut in half and replaced by white Republicans. There will be similar dramatic shifts in Red-state city, county, and state districts. Nonwhite communities in those states will no longer be able to elect representatives to speak for their interests.
But the Voting Rights Act and the other civil rights laws that transformed our nation did not originate with benevolent leaders from on high, nor were they granted to us by the gracious largess of magnanimous legislators or the benevolent rulings of a fair and just court. It was up-from-below, grassroots, social-justice movements that shifted our culture from the norms of white-supremacy and privileges-of-power that had ruled us for generations to shared goals of race, gender, religious, and social equality as aspirational values of American democracy – and to eventually influence and force government and institutions to act accordingly.
Now the MAGA regime is using coercive state power to revert our nation back to white-Christian and wealth-domination where all others are seen and treated as having a 'place' that is lesser and subordinate.
It is up to us to take action to defend our democracy and reclaim our America:
To that end:
Voting and participating in electoral campaigns are necessary – but insufficient.
Donating to organizations and online-clicking are necessary – but insufficient.
Social media posting and 'liking" are necessary – but insufficient.
Saving our American democracy requires our direct and sustained personal participation in ongoing work. Join and become active with Indivisible, or one of the many, many other groups and organizations that are actively opposing and resisting the MAGA regime. Participate in:
Communicating with and personally lobbying elected officials.
Nonviolent direct action protests and acts of resistance.
Election & issue education, advocacy, voter registration, and get-out-the-vote.
Supporting and aiding those under direct threat, on strike or at boycott.
When Dr. King told us: "Nobody can do everything, but if everyone does something, everything will get done," his key point was to do some thing.
Take Action Now!
References
Brennan Center Reacts to Devastating Louisiana v. Callais Ruling, Brennan Center for Justice, 4/29/26
NAACP Condemns Supreme Court's Ruling Against Voting Rights, 4/29/26
Civil Rights Leaders Respond to Supreme Court Decision in Louisiana v. Callais, 4/29/26
The Supreme Court’s indefensible evisceration of the Voting Rights Act. SCOTUS Blog, 5/5/26
This Week's US Congressional Call Scripts:
