… Carter is largely remembered as a feckless leader; even his own party tends to ignore his time in the White House. But he had a strong record on civil rights, and his work to advance the cause would have been far more consequential if his successor, Ronald Reagan, had not reversed course. …
When we look back on Reagan’s victory over Carter, we think of the end of the Iran hostage crisis and the beginning of “Morning in America.” Less well known is that Reagan’s triumph also ushered in a counterrevolution against the country’s civil rights laws. …
Now we live in the world Reagan created. The five conservative justices on the Supreme Court who gutted the Voting Rights Act in the 2013 decision Shelby County vs. Holder were all appointed by Reagan or served in his administration. Reagan’s ideological descendants, post-Shelby, have imposed strict voter-ID laws, cut early voting and eliminated same-day voter registration. CONT.
Ari Berman, Los Angeles Times