Notwithstanding its pledge of allegiance, America has never, ever, been “one Nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” It has always been a collection of diverse peoples from different countries, with different histories, cultures, languages. Not surprisingly, they settled in enclaves, both rural and urban. When they have moved or migrated, they have mixed but not compounded with others, with a resulting sense of isolation and instability in their neighborhoods or communities. For many, the antidote is compensatory alternatives, many inherently competitive, offering a shared, unifying experience, like sport-team fandom and, now, more than ever, political partisanship. Those not understanding these psycho-social dynamics in the context of American history are not going to understand the nature, magnitude, and urgency of the problems in dealing with their political manifestations now threatening American democracy.
Most mainstream media commentators have largely passed over the facts of this past for a fascination with the present. So they mainly describe rather than explain, the political phenom of our times. Yes, Donald Trump is a vivid, revolting spectacle of psycho-social diseases and disorders on the political stage. More importantly, he is an acute manifestation of an endemic disease in the American body politic, one which traces itself back to the beginning of this country: resistance or opposition to democracy. What has survived and spread for centuries is not going to shrink when he leaves office or disappear in the course of a few elections. It is important to understand why.
Today’s post-election commentary reflects a tardy recognition that Republicans are waging an accelerating campaign against American democracy, its lofty values in The Declaration of Independence, and its structures and operations in The Constitution of the United States. Accordingly, recent decisions by a Republican-majority Supreme Court which equate money and speech, declare racism dead in formerly Confederate states, and curtail voting rights and voting disproportionately affecting minorities reinforce anti-democratic practices. But these are only recent, intensified developments.
Yesterday’s news—that is, history—show that today’s Republicans descend from those who have opposed democratic values from the beginning to the present. Many of the men who signed both foundational documents agreed on a contradiction: the idealism of human equality and the actuality of legal slavery. During the American Revolution, the population split into thirds: one-third supported the rebellion; one-third; the monarchy; and one-third stood aloof from the struggle. Although these divisions did not closely correlate attitudes about equality and slavery, regional differences existed.
The Civil War converted the contradiction into a conflict. Although racism was prevalent north and south, the North had ended slavery more than half a century before fighting began and resisted the expansion of slavery beyond the South. Neither the Union defeat of the Confederacy nor Reconstruction ended racism, its spread, or its poisoning of politics. Worse, the North’s generosity and forgiveness in victory were repaid by the South’s resentment, resistance, and revenge in defeat. The North tried no Confederate leader for treason and punished few for other illegal conduct during the war, but it was clumsy in liberating slaves and enabling liberated slaves to positions of political and economic power. To counter their rise and restore white supremacy, the South resorted to Jim Crow laws and the KKK.
Meanwhile, endemic Southern poverty, increased by wartime devastation, economic disruption, and social and political dislocations, prompted more poor whites to abandon Dixie and migrate on the Oregon Trail to the Northwest, where its bigotries metastasized. These destination states—Idaho, Oregon, Washington—became home to militant groups of bigots, xenophobes, isolationists, and Aryan or Christian culture warriors. They took with them their hatred of the “Union” and nostalgia for Dixie. White Southerners and sympathizers rued the loss of, romanticized about, and yearned for a restoration of, the “Southern Way of Life.” They honored the “Lost Cause” by erecting monuments to and statues of traitors to the United States. Their message: “the South will rise again.”
The influx of European immigrants in the decades just before and after the turn of the century prompted the KKK revival in the South. The Depression between the two world wars propelled another wave of poor Southerners, white and black, to the North Central states. There, whites, abetted by new KKK groups, polluted politics by exploiting the racism of mid-nineteenth-century European immigrants to reduce competition from blacks for jobs in heavy industries. Political acrimony and instability resulted in part from this racial animus.
The “Second Reconstruction,” as racists perceived it, began slowly with Brown vs. the Board of Education of Topeka, continued with the Civil Rights Movement in the 50s and 60s, and seemed to triumph with the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Then the racist reaction once again set in. Arizona Senator Barry Goldwater, campaigning for the presidency, led Republican delegates at their national convention to oppose the act. Four years later, Alabama governor George Wallace, famous for urging “segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever," demonstrated the political appeal of racist rejection of civil rights, in Upper Midwest states like Michigan and Wisconsin, and in Dixie-bordering states like Maryland. To counter his appeal and convert Dixie racists from Democrats to Republicans, Richard Nixon adopted a “Southern strategy.” Ever since, Republicans have been the white peoples’ party. Today, another third of the nation, much of it with Southern roots, supports the attitudes and values of “Dixie.” It constitutes Trump’s “base” and will continue support of his anti-democratic successors.
Thus, America is divided, with Democrats accepting and promoting democracy, Republicans decrying or repudiating democracy. They know that the dynamics of demographic growth are generally unfavorable to them; most people of color (except macho Latinos or anachronistically anti-communist Latinx) are going to constitute a majority-minority electorate and dominate American politics in a few years. To retain political power and remain politically viable, Republicans know, as Trump himself has admitted, that they must not rely only on their advantage in the Electoral College, but use additional anti-democratic means in attempts to win elections. They know that, failing to manipulate elections to elect Republicans, they must turn to courts and Republican legislatures with fact-free or fabricated claims of large-scale voter fraud and numerous ballot-processing or vote-counting irregularities to justify overturning popular elections. Trump’s efforts, based on just such blatant but baseless claims failed in 2020, but similar efforts in future elections might prevail. Of course, the purpose of these efforts is to rig elections for Republicans or to delegitimize elections of Democrats. If they succeed, they would transform America from a constitutional democracy into an apartheid autocracy ruled by a shrinking minority of whites.
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This summary of relevant history rebuts the mainstream media storyline that, during the Trump administration, Republicans in Congress are afraid to admit the truth about the election or public-spirited in trying to soothe Trump's ego to help him save face and ease him out the door without doing more damage to democracy. Far from being afraid or public-spirited, Republicans are backing Trump’s rebellion against democracy. The latest give-away of latent racism is that, even as his time in office runs out and his hold of presidential power nears its end, House Republicans—most leaders and about half the rank-and-file members—signed their support of the Texas case to the Supreme Court to overturn Biden’s election, which, in the targeted states, targeted metropolitan areas with large, Democratic-inclined, minority populations. Some people think that the Court’s prompt rejection of that case will end Republican coup attempts against democracy. They let the wish father the thought. The down-ballot results in state elections should chasten such reckless hopes.
One conclusion is inevitable. That anti-democratic, necessarily racist, third of the electorate is not going away and is likely to become more determined, more skilled, and more effective in its opposition to democracy and its core values: equality, justice, and liberty. Unless checked, it will increase in numbers, strength, and daring. Mainstream media bromides about civility, decency, respect, reason, truth, et cetera, et cetera, alone will be of little help in resisting this trend. For Trump has transformed this silent but restrained minority into a loud and unleashed pack. His behavior has released those aggrieved and resentful in the middle class from its inhibiting norms of respectability. The Right has abandoned that ethos, the Left is forsaking it, and the path away from it leads to political chaos, civil disorder, and the death of democracy.
The prescriptions to avoid this dystopian future are numerous. Among the many, I offer a few suggestions. First, let history give some hope of recovery and betterment, though its fulfillment will take time. Patience and persistence must attend constructive efforts; the prompts to racism cannot be overcome in a minute. Second, realize, not just read about, the core values and core social values of democracy; practice them in one’s private and public life, not least by thinking and treating all people as political equals in this democracy. Third, give more attention to the foundational policies and practices of democracy: the census, voting rights and regulations, campaign regulations, and the reform of anti-democratic provisions in the Constitution and in Congress. To that end, do not be content to contain anti-democratic forces but commit to their reduction in numbers and strength. The main strategies should be enhanced political education at all times and broadly acceptable reforms.
Post-election political education should focus on public accountability of Trump’s and his administration’s conduct. Vengeance may be the Lord's, but accountability is ours. Since Republicans deny the truth, Democrats must realize that forgiveness leads to forgetfulness if not tacitly accepted falsehood. All Americans, those who revile Trump and those who revere him, need to know the truth to better guide us as a democracy. Otherwise, silence amounts to denial of or complicity in its demise. I rephrase Jefferson: the price of democracy is eternal vigilance. I add that freedom in America includes an end to racism and equality for all.
Public accountability is necessary without mandating civil or criminal prosecutions—and shouted down as political vendetta. An irony, even a silver lining, of Trump’s pardoning many likely involved in illegal activities is that they can be subpoenaed to testify about their conduct without fear of prosecution—ergo, no vendetta. The pardon voids appeals to the Fifth Amendment but does not protect them from prosecution for contempt for refusing to testify or perjury for lying under oath. So Biden can charge the Department of Justice to create a truth commission independent of the White House yet enable civil or criminal investigations against those not pardoned. This charge would affirm the government’s commitment to truth and the rule of law, and set a standard by which justice should be done.
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