By now you may have seen the following “call to arms,” which was published this week as an advertisement in the New York Times.
We always appreciate seeing high-profile Americans take a courageous public stand, and it’s particularly satisfying to see Mr. Louis-Dreyfus take this stand on voting rights.
But I just have to say: This is a call to arms for all of us, wealthy or average or just making ends meet.
And this fight is about who we are and where we are heading as a nation.
This fight is about people. It’s about equality. It’s about making sure that, on Election Day, we all have exactly the same amount of power: one citizen, one vote.
At Project Vote, with help from people like you, we have been fighting for marginalized Americans for nearly 20 years.
You can bet your last dollar that we’ll be in this fight until it’s over, until every eligible voter can access and navigate our democratic systems without intimidation or harassment.
We’d be honored if you would join us.
Originally published in the October 2, 2012 edition of the New York Times (via Brennan Center).
I am one of you and I am worried like you about our nation: the large number of unemployed, American competitiveness, the need and cost of health care, the improvement necessary to education in our nation and the impact of all our basic needs on a rising deficit. But there is a special fear. More than anything else, I am terrified by the threat that now exists to the most basic element of our democracy.
There is no right more fundamental to our republic than the right to vote. And yet there is a countrywide effort to prevent hundreds of thousands of people from voting. Many supporters of that suppression effort have admitted or implied that its purpose is to win an election by preventing voters thought to be of a different political persuasion from voting at all. If the election were to be decided because of that effort, then a poison will have been injected in the blood of our democracy. And that represents as great a danger to our democracy as has ever existed from within our borders. If that effort succeeds, we will have become a false democracy.
I’m 80 years old and retired from the work that made me rich. Among the many things that contributed to my wealth is the political society in which it was earned. The voter suppression effort is a direct assault on that society and on the democracy which it created. We who have the blessing of our millions need to know that protecting our assets demands preserving the democracy that made them possible.
I have pledged $1 million to prevent an outcome which would elect any candidate on the basis of having excluded, in order to win, a segment of our population from voting. The money and whatever is contributed by all of you will be channeled to nonpartisan organizations established specifically to combat voter suppression now and in the future.
Our democracy needs us to defeat the lethal assault being made on it. Everyone must have the right to vote. It is wise and necessary that you join in that effort.
WILLIAM LOUIS-DREYFUS
OCTOBER 1, 2012