All in: The Fight for Democracy is the 2020 documentary film. The film revolves around voter suppression in the United States. The central theme of the film is disenfranchisement. The directors, Liz Garbus and Lisa Cortés, used the 2018 election experience to show that the right to vote has always been problematic for lower or black Americans.
The directors bring up Stacey Abram’s story, who could have become the first African American woman elected as a governor but lost by a minor margin to the Republican Secretary of the state of Georgia. By showing her educational background and experience in politics, the creators demonstrate empathy, integrity, and insistence (Chen, 2020). Although the film criticizes the events that happened in 2018, it introduces several lawyers and experts to trace the right to vote back to the beginning of the USA’s political history.
At the beginning of the United States history, only white men were allowed to vote. Although the 15th Amendment passed, which allowed black men to vote, in 2013, the Supreme Court canceled the Voting Rights Act (Henderson, 2020).
This decision affected all the minor groups of the community, as many states banned African Americans, Asian Americans, and Indigenous people from voting until the Voting Rights Act was passed. Moreover, this policy impacted women as well because, despite the protests and marches, they had to wait for the 19th Amendment to be declared (Henderson, 2020).
The disenfranchisement restricted African Americans from voting. Even though legal discrimination against minority groups in politics is gone, Abram’s story demonstrates the opposite scene. The new voting preconditions have come instead.
The new voting requirements officially are additional identification so the democracy can work correctly. However, the Republicans, who drafted these requirements, failed to consider the impacts of new regulations on lower-class Americans and people of color.
The main characteristic of advocates and policymakers is the ability to understand others’ experiences and perspectives. Therefore, Abram’s story clearly shows the lack of empathy in the modern political system.
Ideally, democracy informs the citizens about the actual social issues and what actions the candidates take to solve these issues. Furthermore, the candidate’s position on a certain problem would be the crucial point of the election process, and the citizens would consider if the candidates were truly responsible for a certain issue. However, the election process itself was problematic for Americans for years, and this issue is covered in detail in the film.
Advocacy means support from another person who helps stand up for their rights. Even though the citizens are not obliged to vote, those who vote to play a role in democratic processes in the country. By voting, citizens choose the candidate to represent their ideas and interests.
The film is a reminder of voter suppression in United States history. In Abram’s story, it is seen that her opponent declined more than 50 thousand voters’ registrations, the majority of whom were black Americans (Henderson, 2020). This is another example of disenfranchisement in the modern history of the USA.
The directors have used actual evidence that proves the fact of disenfranchisement. They focus on historians’ and experts’ thoughts to demonstrate the truth about the modern election system. The reality of the existing policy and idealized ‘democracy’ cannot leave the audience indifferent to the current issue.
Moreover, the film makes the audience question democracy in the American election system. While the truth is that African Americans historically were restricted from voting, there are bright examples, such as Abram’s election story, that demonstrate the positive change in the American community.
The film is topical, considering the changes in the political stage that happened in recent years in the USA. The election system faced different changes until it became legal for minorities to vote and the requirement of modern democracy. The directors could portray the positive changes in the system and community.
References
Chen, S. A. (2020). [Review of the movie All in: the Fight for Democracy]. Common Sense Media.
Henderson, O. (2020) [Review of the movie All in: the Fight for Democracy].