right to vote. on that notion, you mentioned the idea of almost this notion of a post-racial world that was alluded to prior when section 5 was gutted and the idea of turning a blind eye. well, rick, republicans would argue and let s play devil s advocate here in this position that, look, we should have race-blind mapping here. you know, you shouldn t be taking into consideration the race. certainly there s racial bloc voting, of course, as derrick talked about, the idea of having enough concentration of power to elect a candidate of your choice, not having that voting strength diluted and never being guaranteed to vote for the winner but having the opportunity to do so. what do you say to the argument that says, if you don t want race to infect our voting and election systems, then why would you draw a majority black district in the first place? yeah, that s a great question. but i would put it this way. you mentioned racially polarized voting.
we must pass voting rights protection in the senate. the senate must do their job. we re going to see this happen over and over, if in fact members of the senate don t develop courage and stand up and protect our constitution and protect the right to vote. you know, on that notion, you mentioned the idea of almost this notion of a post-racial world that was alluded when section 5 was gutted. and the idea of turning a blind eye. rick, republicans would argue, and let s play devil s advocate, we should have race-blind mapping here. you shouldn t be taking into consideration the race. certainly there is racial bloc voting, the idea of having enough concentration of power to elect a candidate of your choice, not having that voting strength diluted. and having the opportunity to vote for the winner. what do you say to the argument
maps in ways that would put voters of color at a disadvantage. and how often have we seen this happen over the course of even recent history, let alone even prior to and since 1965? so the question, of course, is and we ll talk about it what s the fix now? what s the fix now that two voting rights bills are dead on arrival in the senate? i want to bring in two experts on this to carry on the conversation. let s turn to rick hassan, professor of law at uc irvine and coed for of the election law journal. he s also the author of the new book cheep speech: how disinformation poisons our politics, which comes out next month, everyone. also with me, derek johnson, president of the naacp. gentlemen, i m very glad you re here. can we talk to you about this? i was a voting attorney in the civil rights division of doj, and i can tell you i can t believe here we are finding ourselves time and time again in a world that feels a lot more like 1964 than 2022.
so, and then you ask, who is soft on crime now? talk more about that. yeah, so, look, crime has always been a political issue as much as a social issue. and republicans forever have been tagging democrats as soft on crime. i m old enough to remember willie horton, mike dukakis 1988, that sank him. say what you will about soft on crime or hard on crime, the policies in the red states aren t working because the crime rates and the murder rates are simply higher. let s play devil s advocate here for a moment. what do you say to republicans who will, not unjustifiably given the data, who say, but, but, chicago. well, i ve been getting a lot of that on twitter and they re
supreme court confirmation hearings are meant to be sober events where our wise lawmakers ensure the judge in question is qualified for a lifetime appointment on the highest bench in the land. instead, the circus came to town. let s focus on actual child pornography cases. i am questioning your discretion, your judgment. do you really expect this committee to believe you don t remember what happened? put their as in jail. can you provide a definition for the word woman? child pornography cases? when you approach these child pornography cases? so, on a scale of one to ten, how faithful would you say you are? in terms of religion? do you agree with this book being taught to kids that babies are racist?