Thus, when thirty-one states are vying to develop new and more ruthless ways to disfranchise their population, and when the others are searching desperately for ways to bring millions of citizens into the electorate, we have created a nation where democracy is simultaneously atrophying and growing—depending solely on where one lives. History makes clear, however, that this is simply not sustainable. It wasn’t sustainable in the antebellum era.48 It wasn’t sustainable when the poll tax and literacy test gave disproportionate power in Congress to Southern Democrats.49 And it’s certainly not
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