Mark Reviews Movies: ALL IN: THE FIGHT FOR DEMOCRACY

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Review by Mark Dujsik | September 8, 2020

The history of voter suppression in the United States began at the country's start. At that time, only white, male property owners were allowed to vote (with a few exceptions in certain states, which wouldn't last), and All In: The Fight for Democracy, a smartly and precisely assembled documentary about how voting rights have been assaulted throughout the course of this country's story, puts that initial idea into the form of a staggering statistic. When George Washington was elected the first President of the United States in 1789, only 6% of the population was eligible to vote.

In regards to voting rights, things have, in theory and in practice and in law, improved in this country, but Lisa Cortés and Liz Garbus' film isn't just about making improvements. Indeed, the long course of the history of the United States—beginning with those stipulations of who could vote and reaching into our current troubles of certain restrictions and regulations serving as mere window dressing for actively limiting who can vote—may be about improvement, but it's also about various forces seeking to undo those improvements. The reasons for such backsliding are as relatively innocent as maintaining political power (It's not actually innocent, of course) and as insidious as preventing people their fundamental rights on the basis of immutable characteristics, primarily race and ethnicity.

This is, obviously, a rather tough accusation, allegation, and condemnation of certain political ideologies, political parties (well, in our current climate, one of them, which has been planning for such measures and were almost too quick to jump on the opportunities when they became available, for sure), and politicians. At this point, too much is at stake in the United States to ignore the obvious, to play polite, or to obscure the truth with the safe, centrist mentality that both sides of the political divide do less-than-upstanding things.

There's only one side of the left-right political divide (the right), one party (Republican), and a whole lot of people who adhere to or stand with that ideology and that party trying to prevent wide and growing segments of the U.S. population from implementing their right to vote. The specific right may not explicitly exist in the Constitution (This film helps to explain why and how such a national standard has been enacted), although the framework for that right is certainly present. One could—and, perhaps, should—make a First Amendment case against these various restrictions on voting—from ID laws, to polling place closures, to voting registry purges, to gerrymandering.

In that amendment's spirit is the protection of political speech, and there is no greater form of political speech that exists in this country than one's ability to determine who represents all of us in various positions of governmental power. That's why so many, especially politicians belonging to a party that can only be elected when fewer people vote, fear the vote of the people so much.

All of these ideas may not be presented by or spoken about within the film, but that's also part of this documentary's power. In the way it presents its argument—that voting rights have been and remain uncertain, especially for people of minority racial and ethnic backgrounds—and details the assorted machinations throughout the country's history to curb the right to vote, the film encourages us, not only to see the clear and full picture of the problem, but to read between the lines.

Cortés and Garbus' case is airtight. Its research and conclusions may be familiar, but the presentation of the argument is put together with such strength and intent of purpose that the case feels new—and newly infuriating—again.

The filmmakers, with the help of various experts and some political actors (all of them speaking to the camera in wide, empty spaces that draw our attention toward the subject, instead of merely forcing us with close-ups) actively and wisely connect the dots. From the country's founding (with its proclamation of "We the people" and its troublesome definition of who counted among the "we") until our current predicaments (The film is about as up-to-date as possible, with images of long lines in Wisconsin for the recent primary election in the middle of a global pandemic and with some information as recent as July of this year), there have been pre-meditated, concerted efforts to limit who can vote. Superficially, the reasons have changed over time—from overt racism to false proclamations of trying to deter voter fraud (which is limited, already illegal, and easily discovered and prosecuted). The end result, though, shows that the initial reason almost certainly remains. It simply has glossed over with a less obvious surface.

The documentary uses history—from the first presidential election, to the voting boom of Reconstruction, to the pernicious era of Jim Crow—and statistics—showing how the number of registered Black voters in the South quickly rose after the Civil War, only for that percentage to drop precipitously with the implementation of "Black codes," poll taxes, and "literacy" tests (A law professor points out that even his advanced students were unable to answer these questions). It paints a line forward through the progress of the end of slavery and the victories of the civil rights movement and the election of Barack Obama, only to show how that line reverses with new laws, new political rhetoric, and a recent and naïve Supreme Court ruling.

Throughout this history and political lesson, the filmmakers prepare us for a specific case study, showing how the recent and ongoing changes to and within the voting system have a real-world impact. That story belongs to Stacey Abrams, who ran in the 2018 Georgia gubernatorial election and would have become the country's first African-American woman to serve as governor. Abrams' story is inspiring—until the schemes of her Republican opponent, then in charge of Georgia's elections process as Secretary of State (a clear and unaddressed conflict of interest), put on full display the corruption of voter suppression.

All In: The Fight for Democracy is a strong, intelligent, and perceptive dissection of perhaps the most egregious attack on one of the fundamental rights of American citizens. At this immediate point in our history, it's essential viewing.

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