Letters: The lost consensus on voting rights

Re “Hearing reveals a partisan split over voter rights ruling,” July 18

The article notes that the 1965 Voting Rights Act “had long received overwhelming bipartisan support in Congress, including for the last renewal of its temporary provisions in 2007.” But as a Senate hearing after the U.S. Supreme Court effectively gutted the law shows, in six short years our bickering legislators have devolved enough not to preserve something that existed for almost 50 years.

It brings to mind Nipsey Russell’s poetic observation: “Pro and con are opposites, that fact is clearly seen. If progress means to move forward, then what does Congress mean?”

While Russell’s play on words is amusing, the current state of affairs is incredibly sad.

Phillip Hain

Glendale

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