{"id":5769,"date":"2013-07-03T08:34:28","date_gmt":"2013-07-03T12:34:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?p=5769"},"modified":"2013-07-03T08:34:28","modified_gmt":"2013-07-03T12:34:28","slug":"the-voting-rights-mirage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2013\/07\/03\/the-voting-rights-mirage\/","title":{"rendered":"The Voting Rights Mirage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/jpb-voting-rights-mirage-cartoon-wash-times-alexander-hunter-b1-bovard-ah_s640x640.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone  wp-image-5771\" alt=\"jpb voting rights mirage cartoon wash times alexander hunter b1-bovard-ah_s640x640\" src=\"http:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/jpb-voting-rights-mirage-cartoon-wash-times-alexander-hunter-b1-bovard-ah_s640x640.jpg\" width=\"512\" height=\"512\" srcset=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/jpb-voting-rights-mirage-cartoon-wash-times-alexander-hunter-b1-bovard-ah_s640x640.jpg 640w, https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/jpb-voting-rights-mirage-cartoon-wash-times-alexander-hunter-b1-bovard-ah_s640x640-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 512px) 100vw, 512px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h3>\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/news\/2013\/jul\/3\/the-voting-rights-mirage\/\">The Washington Times<\/a>, July 3, 2013<\/h3>\n<h2>BOVARD: The voting rights mirage<\/h2>\n<h4>Satisfied to cast ballots, Americans stand idle while other freedoms are ravished<\/h4>\n<p>by James Bovard<\/p>\n<p>Liberals are aghast at the Supreme Court ruling last week that struck down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg denounced the decision for its \u201chubris.\u201d Rep. John Lewis, Georgia Democrat, condemned it as a \u201cdagger\u201d stab at civil rights. Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. warned that he would not let the court\u2019s ruling hinder Justice Department activism.<\/p>\n<p>The Voting Rights Act was enacted in 1965 after the brutal and bloody repression of peaceful black protesters by Alabama and other Southern states. In the decades after the act passed, black voter registration soared. The Alabama cities of Selma and Montgomery \u2014 notorious for civil-rights-era violence \u2014 now have black mayors. Nationwide, blacks had a higher percentage turnout in last fall\u2019s presidential election than did whites.<\/p>\n<p>Thanks to the Supreme Court decision, Southern states will no longer have to kowtow to the Justice Department when they do something as picayune as move a polling location across the street. According to Justice Ginsburg and many pundits, however, any decrease in federal power over state and local governments practically guarantees a new Jim Crow era.<\/p>\n<p>Justice Ginsburg declared in her dissent: \u201cThe grand aim of the Act is to secure to all in our polity equal citizenship stature.\u201d<strong> \u201cEqual citizenship stature,\u201d though, does nothing to remedy the great and growing inequality between the citizen and the state.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>The Voting Rights Act is part of a modern catechism that sees voting as practically the alpha and omega of freedom<\/strong>. In a speech when he signed the law, President Lyndon Johnson assured the audience: \u201cThis right to vote is the basic right without which all others are meaningless. It gives people, people as individuals, control over their own destinies.\u201d But permitting people to vote, however, provides no assurance that citizens will not be ravished after the polling booths close.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier in 1965, in a phone call to Martin Luther King, LBJ declared, \u201cI just don\u2019t see how anybody can say that a man can fight in Vietnam, but he can\u2019t vote.\u201d The fact that people could vote did nothing to nullify LBJ\u2019s dictatorial power over draftees. Tens of thousands of conscripts died in an unpopular war that occurred largely because the president had unlimited power to commit them into a pointless foreign conflict on false pretenses. Regardless of how many lies LBJ told about the war, young Americans were still obliged to follow his orders to the death in the jungles and rice paddies.<\/p>\n<p>LBJ also proclaimed that the Voting Rights Act \u201cis nothing less than granting every American Negro his freedom to enter the mainstream of American life.\u201d While LBJ lauded portraying himself as a savior, the act did nothing to protect blacks from federal rampages. King was targeted for endless wiretaps, harassment and blackmail by the FBI. Seeking to subvert black civil-rights organizations, the FBI ordered its field offices to \u201cexploit conflicts within and between groups; to use news media contacts to disrupt, ridicule, or discredit groups \u2026 and to gather information on the \u2018unsavory backgrounds\u2019 \u2014 immorality, subversive activity and criminal activity \u2014 of group members,\u201d according to a 1976 Senate report. In San Diego, the FBI instigated violence between the local Black Panthers and a rival black organization, helping spur several killings.<\/p>\n<p><strong>In Washington, however, piety trumps history every time<\/strong>. President Obama announced that he was \u201cdeeply disappointed\u201d by the Supreme Court ruling and promised that his administration will \u201cdo everything in its power to ensure a fair and equal voting process.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Yet the worst violation of \u201cvoting rights\u201d is the notion that election winners should have unlimited powe<\/strong>r. Nothing personifies that power more than Mr. Obama\u2019s drone assassination program by which he claims a prerogative to kill anyone in the world whom he labels a threat. If the president can seize as much power as he pleases, then Americans are voting for a master, not for a chief law enforcement officer. If the president is unconstrained, America is perilously close to what the Founding Fathers dreaded \u2014 \u201cslavery by constitutional forms.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>Trumpeting the importance of voting deludes people into thinking that they have a leash on the government.<\/strong> More than 300 years ago, William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania, declared, \u201cLet the people think they govern, and they will be governed.\u201d <strong>Having a vote does nothing to prevent a person from being molested by the Transportation Security Administration, spied on by the National Security Agency, or harassed by the Internal Revenue Service.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The more that voting is glorified as a panacea, the more lackadaisical people become about preserving their constitutional rights. Freedom to vote is valuable primarily as a means to safeguard other freedoms. <strong>At this point, though, voting is little more than an unreliable Kevlar jacket against political and bureaucratic assaults.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>James Bovard is the author most recently of a new e-book memoir, \u201c<a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Public-Policy-Hooligan-Rollicking-ebook\/dp\/B00AKZH97W\/ref=cm_rdp_product\">Public Policy Hooligan<\/a>\u201d (Sixth Street Books, 2012).<\/p>\n<p>** Thanks to <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtontimes.com\/multimedia\/image\/b1-bovard-ahjpg_735052\/\">Alexander Hunter<\/a> for the great illustration.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0The Washington Times, July 3, 2013 BOVARD: The voting rights mirage Satisfied to cast ballots, Americans stand idle while other freedoms are ravished by James Bovard Liberals are aghast at the Supreme Court ruling last week that struck down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg denounced the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5771,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[22,52,677,656,184,194,47,209,202,45,164,27,669,38,165,14,660,24,269],"class_list":{"0":"post-5769","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"hentry","7":"tag-attention-deficit-democracy","8":"tag-democracy","10":"tag-dictatorship","11":"tag-elective-dictatorship-2","12":"tag-epigrams","13":"tag-fbi","14":"tag-fraud-2","15":"tag-fraud","16":"tag-freedom","17":"tag-leviathan","18":"tag-lying","19":"tag-obama","21":"tag-paternalism","22":"tag-rule-of-law","23":"tag-supreme-court","25":"tag-voting"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The Voting Rights Mirage - James Bovard<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2013\/07\/03\/the-voting-rights-mirage\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Voting Rights Mirage - James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"\u00a0The Washington Times, July 3, 2013 BOVARD: The voting rights mirage Satisfied to cast ballots, Americans stand idle while other freedoms are ravished by James Bovard Liberals are aghast at the Supreme Court ruling last week that struck down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg denounced the [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2013\/07\/03\/the-voting-rights-mirage\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"James Bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-07-03T12:34:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/jpb-voting-rights-mirage-cartoon-wash-times-alexander-hunter-b1-bovard-ah_s640x640.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"640\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jim\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@jimbovard\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jim\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/07\\\/03\\\/the-voting-rights-mirage\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/07\\\/03\\\/the-voting-rights-mirage\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jim\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\"},\"headline\":\"The Voting Rights Mirage\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-07-03T12:34:28+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/07\\\/03\\\/the-voting-rights-mirage\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":850,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/07\\\/03\\\/the-voting-rights-mirage\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2013\\\/07\\\/jpb-voting-rights-mirage-cartoon-wash-times-alexander-hunter-b1-bovard-ah_s640x640.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Attention Deficit Democracy\",\"Democracy\",\"Democracy\",\"dictatorship\",\"elective dictatorship\",\"Epigrams\",\"FBI\",\"Fraud\",\"fraud\",\"Freedom\",\"leviathan\",\"Lying\",\"Obama\",\"Obama\",\"paternalism\",\"Rule of Law\",\"Supreme Court\",\"Supreme Court\",\"voting\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/07\\\/03\\\/the-voting-rights-mirage\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/07\\\/03\\\/the-voting-rights-mirage\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/07\\\/03\\\/the-voting-rights-mirage\\\/\",\"name\":\"The Voting Rights Mirage - James Bovard\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/07\\\/03\\\/the-voting-rights-mirage\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/07\\\/03\\\/the-voting-rights-mirage\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2013\\\/07\\\/jpb-voting-rights-mirage-cartoon-wash-times-alexander-hunter-b1-bovard-ah_s640x640.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2013-07-03T12:34:28+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/07\\\/03\\\/the-voting-rights-mirage\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/07\\\/03\\\/the-voting-rights-mirage\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/07\\\/03\\\/the-voting-rights-mirage\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2013\\\/07\\\/jpb-voting-rights-mirage-cartoon-wash-times-alexander-hunter-b1-bovard-ah_s640x640.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2013\\\/07\\\/jpb-voting-rights-mirage-cartoon-wash-times-alexander-hunter-b1-bovard-ah_s640x640.jpg\",\"width\":640,\"height\":640},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/2013\\\/07\\\/03\\\/the-voting-rights-mirage\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The Voting Rights Mirage\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/\",\"name\":\"James Bovard\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f\",\"name\":\"Jim\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/secure.gravatar.com\\\/avatar\\\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r\",\"caption\":\"Jim\"},\"description\":\"Bovard's homepage is at http:\\\/\\\/www.jimbovard.com He can be contacted at jim@jimbovard.com James Bovard is the author of ten books. The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \\\"the roving inspector general of the modern state\\\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \\\"one-man truth squad.\\\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism &amp; Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \\\"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\\\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. Bovard\u2019s writings have been publicly denounced by FBI director Louis Freeh, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Postmaster General, and the chiefs of the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as by many congressmen and other malcontents.\",\"sameAs\":[\"http:\\\/\\\/www.jimbovard.com\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/jim.bovard\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/jimbovard\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/jimbovard.com\\\/blog\\\/author\\\/admin\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The Voting Rights Mirage - James Bovard","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2013\/07\/03\/the-voting-rights-mirage\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"The Voting Rights Mirage - James Bovard","og_description":"\u00a0The Washington Times, July 3, 2013 BOVARD: The voting rights mirage Satisfied to cast ballots, Americans stand idle while other freedoms are ravished by James Bovard Liberals are aghast at the Supreme Court ruling last week that struck down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg denounced the [&hellip;]","og_url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2013\/07\/03\/the-voting-rights-mirage\/","og_site_name":"James Bovard","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard","article_published_time":"2013-07-03T12:34:28+00:00","og_image":[{"width":640,"height":640,"url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/jpb-voting-rights-mirage-cartoon-wash-times-alexander-hunter-b1-bovard-ah_s640x640.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Jim","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@jimbovard","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jim","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2013\/07\/03\/the-voting-rights-mirage\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2013\/07\/03\/the-voting-rights-mirage\/"},"author":{"name":"Jim","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f"},"headline":"The Voting Rights Mirage","datePublished":"2013-07-03T12:34:28+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2013\/07\/03\/the-voting-rights-mirage\/"},"wordCount":850,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2013\/07\/03\/the-voting-rights-mirage\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/jpb-voting-rights-mirage-cartoon-wash-times-alexander-hunter-b1-bovard-ah_s640x640.jpg","keywords":["Attention Deficit Democracy","Democracy","Democracy","dictatorship","elective dictatorship","Epigrams","FBI","Fraud","fraud","Freedom","leviathan","Lying","Obama","Obama","paternalism","Rule of Law","Supreme Court","Supreme Court","voting"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2013\/07\/03\/the-voting-rights-mirage\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2013\/07\/03\/the-voting-rights-mirage\/","url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2013\/07\/03\/the-voting-rights-mirage\/","name":"The Voting Rights Mirage - James Bovard","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2013\/07\/03\/the-voting-rights-mirage\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2013\/07\/03\/the-voting-rights-mirage\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/jpb-voting-rights-mirage-cartoon-wash-times-alexander-hunter-b1-bovard-ah_s640x640.jpg","datePublished":"2013-07-03T12:34:28+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2013\/07\/03\/the-voting-rights-mirage\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2013\/07\/03\/the-voting-rights-mirage\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2013\/07\/03\/the-voting-rights-mirage\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/jpb-voting-rights-mirage-cartoon-wash-times-alexander-hunter-b1-bovard-ah_s640x640.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/07\/jpb-voting-rights-mirage-cartoon-wash-times-alexander-hunter-b1-bovard-ah_s640x640.jpg","width":640,"height":640},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/2013\/07\/03\/the-voting-rights-mirage\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The Voting Rights Mirage"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#website","url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/","name":"James Bovard","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/79550830ad81c14be529a2c37469974f","name":"Jim","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/d95466cfd0934e38803c5035629df727ae4ec1f3f96c6883c05b5c52e2044505?s=96&d=mm&r=r","caption":"Jim"},"description":"Bovard's homepage is at http:\/\/www.jimbovard.com He can be contacted at jim@jimbovard.com James Bovard is the author of ten books. The Wall Street Journal called Bovard \"the roving inspector general of the modern state\" and Washington Post columnist George Will called him a \"one-man truth squad.\" His 1994 book, Lost Rights: The Destruction of American Liberty, received the Free Press Association\u2019s Mencken Award as Book of the Year. His Terrorism &amp; Tyranny won the Lysander Spooner \"Best Book on Liberty in 2003\" award. He received the Thomas Szasz Award for Civil Liberties work, awarded by the Center for Independent Thought and the Freedom Fund Award from the Firearms Civil Rights Defense Fund of the National Rifle Association. Bovard\u2019s writings have been publicly denounced by FBI director Louis Freeh, the Secretary of Agriculture, the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development, the Postmaster General, and the chiefs of the U.S. International Trade Commission, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as by many congressmen and other malcontents.","sameAs":["http:\/\/www.jimbovard.com","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/jim.bovard","https:\/\/x.com\/jimbovard"],"url":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/author\/admin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5769"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5769\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5779,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5769\/revisions\/5779"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5771"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jimbovard.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}