It was 1987 and my dad was talking to me about the importance of becoming an American citizen. I wanted to as well because I wanted to vote and take part in the democratic franchise. At the time, I remember telling one of my Political Science professors that I am a fiscal conservative and social liberal. I presented my choices of the two major political parties as a clear choice although my professor did not think so. He thought I was surely a democrat.
I recently realized that I was raised to be conservative, except my immigrant family had no tradition with one party or another so I had the opportunity to “freely choose”, although many assumed I would be a Democratic Party voter. Yes, I am a Democratic Party voter, but I am also a degree holder in Political Science/Public Service, so I have an allegiance to our form of government regardless of parties. I also appreciate the tension of good faith opposing political views.
Notice the adjective, “good faith”? I mostly chose the Democratic Party to support because of the bad faith I saw the Republican Party operate in since I have been studying them in history and observed them in my lifetime, starting with President Nixon. I loved the analogy that my friend Lindsay suggested to me during election season, I am taking the bus that gets me closest to where I am going. The Republican Party always struck me as heading nowhere near my values, not even considering the overwhelming Whiteness of it since I can remember.
I can also note, just like I do in other areas of my life, the character of the Republicans, they strike me as always on the side of racism – the first reason I did not choose them, profits before people, lowered taxes achieved by cutting stuff I care about, trickledown economics that is a Ponzi scheme, corporate rights, and several other ideas that are never what they are talking about. They always seem to be practicing a lie of many kinds in many ways.
The democrats in President Lincoln’s day were not the democrats of today, although we have some hold overs still in the party today. They did literally move from one party to the next, President Reagan was the first modern day presidential candidate that made a pact with racism by starting his campaign in Mississippi with a state’s rights speech (see Lost Cause videos). Recently, Nikole Hannah-Jones and Steven Schmidt joined Joy Ann Reid for a segment about where the Republican party is considering the recent siege of The Capitol Building. Joy Ann Reid well characterized the caucus as being about “White Interests Party Politics”.
Ms. Hannah-Jones said it all in this clip that has been floating around the internet. I decided to record the whole segment because it was highly instructive. My friend Marino will enjoy it because I could not keep my mouth shut when recording it. 😉
The Republicans have been bullying at worst, and manipulating at best, the other side as long as I have been watching politics. It is why I am not exactly a flag waving Democrat, they have let me down plenty especially when it came to keeping the Republicans accountable. One of the number one ways they have let me down since I have been reading the history of this country, no matter what label the “good guys” had, they always unified the White part of the country with no respect to the oppressed in the country. Reconstruction was undone as outlined in these videos about The Lost Cause and how that narrative became American history (WaPo). Matthew Cooke did a brilliant job talking about the consistency of a lack of accountability to these insurrectionists in a recent video that demanded this update. A common thread that I saw, after insurrection, they got to go to the comfort of their homes. I obviously disagree with The Cynical Historian about the 1619 project because systemic racism does animate this country’s ideals. Also, he mistakenly says race/slavery is not the main deal all the while giving evidence that it is the main deal. Until this country, especially the Republican Party, fully breaks up with racism versus always compromising with it and using it whenever they want to, we will not realize the healthy democracy we keep selling to other countries. This ideal is what causes people like my family to leave their homes to come looking for an American ideal that doesn’t really exist for most that look like me here. In compromising with expressions of systemic racism, we refuse to hold these people accountable and their acting out gets worse by the year until we are hearing talk about the Congressional representatives and Senators being afraid to work with their domestic terroristic/treasonous colleagues.
Their manipulated, heated and overinflated language has been the main problem of interacting with them besides their continual operation in bad faith. I believe the Rogers (Ailes and Stone) along with Newt Gingrich later censured by Congress, started operating in the Nixon era with their dirty tricks campaigns (a worthy internet search). The Trump administration took looting the government coffers to a whole new level to the point that the news outlets could not seem to look away, to the tune of his campaign not really needing to spend any money on ad buys for all the times they mentioned his name. By the way, name recognition is one of the main determinants of a candidate’s success. The media has been a problem as many are recently admitting but still going head long after the multiple hydras that have replaced the deTwittered (DJT). This past week’s news has been filled with the latest seditionists seeming to hope to replace DJT with one of them. Have they not learned anything from the past 5 years, or do they need a nemesis to keep the money coming in?
As I mentioned, the Republicans (White Interests Party Politics) has always known that they were the minority party. They have done countless things to skew the voting public to their advantage. I would not exactly mind except it amounts to disenfranchising my fellow citizens, especially those who look like me. The biggest issue I have had with Republicans during the Trump era is how they are trying to slide up under the banner of MSNBC, not that the network has not had its share of conservative anchors. I like how Chris Hayes calls them “MSNBC Republicans”. Have any of you besides Nicolle Wallace repented for the path you paved and the things you upheld that lead to Trump?
Character-wise, I feel sorry the opposition when the Lincoln Project turns itself toward competing for a spot on the national stage. I hope they have broken up with racism, although by Steve’s answer to Nikole Hannah-Jones, defending Ronald Reagan in the very same vein they have always excused themselves; I am not confident that they will come all the way around although they say some of the right things. He absolutely did not answer her point about who the Republicans really are. I am glad that Joy corrected the historical record of terror that has been carried out by that faction of our society that has only at best been locked in a cave until Trump took it out for a ravage.
Honestly, I wonder about you all who wrap yourself in conservatism as if it is the thing to do. While you “conserve” other aspects of this society, you also conserve the lie of White Supremacy and systemic racism, along with other -isms that hinder our society. I hope you disabuse yourself of this faulty history that leads to faulty solutions that cause us more harm than good. Many who hold a myopic view of these issues think solutions have been had that have not been realized. I am optimistic about Susan Rice’s efforts directing the United States Domestic Policy Council focusing on racial justice and universal equity.
I am concerned about those who have been duped and lied to for many years by the dirty tricksters. The people who make money off it are the ones manipulating their supporters to vote against their interests. Nikole Hannah-Jones does a great job outlining who the Republican Party has always been in our lifetime. They do rely on the “plausible deniability” that allows their dirty tricks to hide. They also rely on those voting against their interests to believe the American Dream can be theirs over the lives of those who are constantly oppressed by this exploitation economic system, including themselves. They rely on the ignorance of those they dupe about how the our system of government has always operated. I am thankful for the organizing that the Poor People’s Campaign is doing to educate poor and working-class people about how to vote in their interests.
Currently, Republicans are looking at ways to further mess with voters’ access to the ballot as is being reported by many outlets. This is what they do without fail. At some point there will be an opposition party to the democrats that operates in good faith, enfranchising voters and able to govern if they ever adopt a majority electorate platform. We are at a crossroads in the country and so is our party system. Who will the opposition part(ies) be? Will they continue to be the party they have been? Will Trump enfranchise a 1776 party that promotes the original systemic racism of the founders, or will the USA perfect the union by honoring the democracy that enfranchises all its citizens? What an incredible time to be alive. We are living through history. I hope we get it right this time.
Where we are now.
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