April 11, 2022
When Donald Trump was elected seven years ago, Dr. Henry Louis Gates solemnly predicted that “it was the end of the second Reconstruction.” During the four years of his presidency, the country endured an endless assault on democracy and the Rule of Law, while those of us with marginalized identities also endured an endless assault on our very humanity.
We were all relieved when Trump was defeated in 2020 and relished his arraignment last week on 34 felony counts as a sign that he might finally be held accountable. Yet it was clear after January 6th that Trump left 1000 malignant seeds in his wake, prepared to sow chaos in his absence. In every corner of the country, the hoods have come off, with hundreds of politicians seeking to ride a wave of hatred to power.
These people are hellbent on getting and keeping power in order to control and oppress anyone who is not like them and they react to any challenge with blind fury. Witness this past week. In the hotly contested Wisconsin Supreme Court race, when Judge Janet Protasiewicz bested election-denying, anti-abortion zealot, Dan Kelly, he called her a “serial liar” and an unworthy opponent, (Source: “What others are saying on Dan Kelly’s Supreme Court concession speech,” by Hunter Turpin,The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 4/7/23). Not to be outdone, newly elected Republican Dan Knodl, vowed to impeach Protasiewicz, presumably for the high crime of winning the election by double digits.
The egregiously racist ouster of Justin Jones and Justin Pearson in Tennessee may be the high profile horror show, but it is far from the only one in the past week. Around the country, Republican officials are tripping over themselves in their race to outdo each other in ostentatious displays of racism, misogyny and transphobia. Last Wednesday, the Kansas state legislature overrode the Democratic governor’s veto to ban transgender girls from competing in women’s sports. The bill currently impacts a mere three students, a move that Taryn Jones, head of Equality Kansas said, “has to feel like bullying and erasure,” (Source: “Kansas bans women’s sports as Legislature overrides Kelly’s veto,” by Katie Bernard and Jenna Barackman, The Kansas City Star, 4/5/23).
On Friday, Texas federal “Judge” Matthew Kacamaryk issued a nationwide injunction suspending FDA approval of mifepristone, the widely used “abortion-inducing drug that has been on the market for more than 20 years,” (Source: “Federal judge in Texas suspends FDA approval of abortion pill,” by Eleanor Klebanoff, The Texas Tribune, 4/7/23).
On Saturday, one day after a jury convicted Army Sgt. Daniel Perry of murdering Garrett Foster at an Austin Black Lives Matter protest, Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced that he would seek to pardon Perry, (Source: “Governor Greg Abbott backs call for pardon for Daniel Perry, who killed Austin protester in 2020,” by William Melhadi, The Texas Tribune, 4/8/23).
Yesterday, we were unable to savor the swift and unanimous Nashville Metro Council vote reinstating Justin Jones because we were reeling from the news of yet another mass shooting in Louisville, KY that left 5 people dead and 8 seriously injured, (Source: “Gunman Kills 5 Co-Workers at Louisville Bank on Livestream, Police Say,” by Kevin Williams, Amanda Holpuch and Campbell Robertson, The New York Times, 4/10/23).
It is long past time for us to confront the fact that Republicans are waging an undeclared holy war against the rest of us. That is the thread uniting their attacks on women’s autonomy, Black history, and trans lives. They reject gun control not just because they are bought and paid for by the gun lobby, but because they know that a vitriolic minority cannot control a majority without weapons of war. Yes, we need to vote and overwhelm them at the ballot box, but that will not be enough. We have to become ungovernable. Don’t let them hide behind “decorum” to silence us. We need to clog the halls of state capitals and the streets. We need to disrupt “business as usual,” because business as usual is killing us.
Each of your postings are incredibly inspiring. What are steps we can take that will make a difference? Am campaigning to get Supreme Court judges elected, marching, informing voters to vote, contributing, calling, pushing my Congress and Senate representatives on what they need to fight for.
What do you suggest will make a difference and break through that won’t be ‘business’ as usual?
Linda, I think we need to deploy every strategy— protests, voting, running for office. We need to add term limits to Supreme Court justices and expand the court, but we can’t do that until we retake the House and get a filibuster proof majority in the Senate.