Eric Holder Says People Should March Against Republicans: 'Power Cedes Nothing Without a Demand'
Election integrity laws are something Americans should protest against, according to former Attorney General Eric Holder.
Holder, who served as attorney general in the administration of former President Barack Obama, made his comments during MSNBC’s ”Rachel Maddow Show” on Thursday, Newsmax reported.
According to a report from the Washington Free Beacon, Holder prefers protests to actually getting involved in drawing fair district lines.
The Free Beacon reported that Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan had asked him to serve on an independent commission drawing congressional district lines, but Holder refused.
Speaking Thursday, he said only Republicans break the rules.
“Republicans have to cheat in order to win. So yeah, they’ll try to do what they can in Texas and Georgia, Florida, North Carolina. We’ll bring lawsuits if we have to do that,” Holder said, according to the Daily Caller.
“If you fight for that which is fair, if we are successful in that fight, Democrats will do as I said, just fine. We don’t have to cheat. Republicans have to cheat in order to win, and that’s why they are in favor of partisan and racial gerrymandering.”
Holder argued that protests are needed.
”Power cedes nothing without a demand,” he said.
“And we too often underestimate the power that we have as regular American citizens by marching, by protesting, by raising our voices,” the former AG went on.
”If we make our voices known, if we demand the kind of change, the fair change that we’re seeking, I think it will help in the process.”
Holder said Republicans cannot be swayed by what Americans want.
”It’s not going to probably move Republicans. I’m being realistic about that. On the other hand, Democrats are going to have to think to themselves, ‘Do I want to be seen as … those people before, who stood against the passage of [the] Civil Rights bill? Do I want to have that as my legacy?'”
Holder said no one working for change at the dawn of the civil rights movement expected to succeed.
”If you asked people in the 1950s, ‘Do you think marching, demonstrating is going to bring down a system of American apartheid?’ You probably would have said, ‘That’s just not gonna happen.’ And we should not lose faith right now,” he said.
Holder added that protests are essential to ousting Republicans.
“Citizens can make a change. Citizens need to be in the streets. Citizens need to be demonstrating, citizens need to be calling representatives to demand the time of change that will make this country more representative, make our democracy more fair,” he said.
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