Just Foreign Policy joins with MoveOn to help you tell President Obama and Congress to adhere to our Constitution and our laws when considering whether to go to war in Iraq and/or Syria. In sighing, you'd ask for specific Congressional and U.N. authorization, diplomacy before bombs, and limits to the time and geographic scope of any resolution authorizing action. The House did pass H.Con.Res. 105 in July, a resolution that would require Mr. Obama to come to Congress before beginning any military shenanigans in Iraq, by a staggering 370-40 margin, but the Senate hasn't taken up that resolution, and I wouldn't be surprised if Harry Reid doesn't want to take it up out of fear that it would pass and then Democrats would get the blame for whatever happened afterward right before a midterm. But service in Congress should require courage, and it's appalling that we've accepted that it doesn't. And Democrats need to be taught, again, not to lean on the "safe" strategy before midterms. And such a strategy isn't exactly "safe" for Iraqis and Syrians in America's crosshairs anyway.
Meanwhile, a bipartisan collection of House Reps and Senators have introduced the Voting Rights Amendment Act in both houses of Congress, but the bills can't seem to gain any traction. Think maybe we should tie passage of spending bills to the passage of the Voting Rights Amendment Act? If we tried that, the "liberal" media would call us obstructionists and worse, this while pretending that tying cruel immigration "reforms" to continuing resolutions is perfectly reasonable and proper. We're better than that anyway -- we need only tell our Congressfolk, as often as is necessary, that the Supreme Court's ruling in Shelby County v. Holder hamstrings our government's ability to work on our behalf to protect the rights of all voters, and that the Voting Rights Amendment Act would restore our government's ability to do that, by replacing the formula the Court found unfairly targeted Southern states with a new formula that would target any state or municipality demonstrating a clear pattern of voting rights violations. So CREDO helps you tell Congress to pass the Voting Rights Amendment Act.