Barbra Streisand Slams GOP Voting Restrictions, 'Attempts to Silence People of Color'
Barbra Streisand has criticized Republican efforts to introduce new voting restrictions as GOP legislators throughout the country have proposed bills to tighten election regulations.
The singer and actor compared resisting Republican voting measures to the Civil Rights movement in a fundraising email for the National Democratic Redistricting Committee (NDRC).
It's not uncommon for celebrities or other well-known personalities to help political groups with fundraising efforts by adding their names to emails to potential donors or sharing their own views through a group's mailing list.
An email on Saturday signed by Streisand and distributed by the NDRC called for donations to the group and strongly criticized recent GOP plans on voting.
"Our democracy is at a crossroads. If we do nothing, Republicans will continue to spread lies, pass voter suppression laws, and use this year's redistricting process to ensure they keep power for a decade or more," the email read.
"I got involved in the fight for civil rights back in the 1960s, so I can't tell you how disheartening it is to see attempts to silence people of color at the polls 60 years later," Streisand's email went on.
"The tactics Republicans are using today to restrict access to voting may have different names, but it's the same old strategy: Keep anyone who disagrees with you - or who might look different than you - from expressing themselves in the political sphere. That's exactly what gerrymandering and voter suppression do."
Republicans have introduced measures to restrict voting access in at least 14 states, including recently enacted laws in Georgia and Florida, while a controversial new law is currently wending its way through the Texas legislature.
Critics, including President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, have said the measures are attempts at voter suppression and disproportionately affect Black Americans.
"There are people who refuse to let Republicans get away with it, people like former Attorney General Eric Holder and the staff of the NDRC," Streisand's email said.
"For the past four years, they've been fighting hard against the manipulation of district lines and voting restrictions. They've had many victories, but with the entire GOP repeating Donald Trump's reckless lies about fraudulent elections, 2021 is proving to be more difficult than anyone imagined."
Holder, who was attorney general under former President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2015, is chair of the NDRC. The group describes itself as "the first-ever strategic hub for a comprehensive redistricting strategy."
The NDRC's aim is to fight back against Republicans who have "gerrymandered the country more aggressively than at any time in our history" since 2011.
Newsweek has asked the NDRC for comment.
