HOW DEMOCRATS SHOULD RESPOND TO TRUMPIAN THUGS
On Jan. 6, Trumpian thugs invaded the Capitol Building to disrupt the lawful transition of the federal administration from a racist, corrupt Republican to the BidenHarris team. That day’s most riveting image says more than a thousand words. A photo shows a White Trumpian thug carrying a Confederate battle flag on the floor of the U.S. Congress. This naked assault on American democracy by Trumpian Republicans necessitates the building of an institutional “blue firewall.”
At core of the deluded call for a Trumpian dictatorship is what I call the Southern poison. In “Animal Farm,” British satirist George Orwell introduced the political philosophy of mythical pigs that had led a revolution against human farmers. All animals are equal, said the pigs, but some animals are more equal.
In truth, Orwellian pigs in human form have wielded power here since before the American Revolution. In 1619, the first Black Americans were kidnapped and sold as slaves in the U.S. The sale and ownership of human beings is the starkest and the most debased application of Orwellian pig-think: Some people — White Americans — are more equal than others — Black Americans.
The 246 years of slavery in the South provided the incubator for the most virulent strain of the Southern poison. After America crushed the Southern insurrection, the Southern poison mutated into Jim Crow laws.
In 1964, Republicans and Democrats united to fight the Southern poison. They enacted the Civil Rights Act to prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex or national origin. To crush Jim Crow laws designed to prevent Black Americans
from voting, Republicans and Democrats enacted the Voting Rights Act of 1965.
Presidents Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan engineered the “Southern strategy.” The GOP became the de facto party of White supremacists. Infected with the racist Southern poison, so-called “Dixiecrats” bolted the Democratic Party.
The GOP became a house divided. Rich folks and corporations that own and operate the GOP had to accommodate the rabble they deeply despise. Infected with the Southern poison, poorly educated White Americans provided the GOP with enough votes to rule through “law and order” sloganeering. President Donald Trump is simply the most perverse specter of the corrosive Southern poison.
To build a blue firewall, the Senate must abolish the filibuster. The next strategic move is the admission of the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico as states. These
Americans deserve representation in the Senate. This would likely add two Black and two Latinx senators to what would be a 104-member body.
The Democratic majority must pass a new Voting Rights Act of 2021. This law should require federal review and litigation of any state law that seeks to limit or marginalize the right to vote.
This legislation should pay special attention to any state efforts to reduce the right to vote of Black Americans and other persons of color.
With Democratic control of both wings of Congress and the presidency, Democrats should notify the GOP of a planned expansion of the U.S. Supreme Court. In the spirit of bipartisanship, Democrats should offer the GOP a two-person expansion of the court. Both jurists would be progressives. This would leave the high court with a oneperson conservative majority. That offer might stay on the table for one week. Democrats should require a dozen Republican senators to join Democrats for a supermajority. If Minority Leader Mitch McConnell cannot find a dozen GOP votes, then the offer is withdrawn. The Democrats should then expand the Supreme Court to 13 members on a party-line vote, adding four progressives from diverse backgrounds to the high court.
Tactically, Biden and Harris must confront the coronavirus, the broken economy, unemployment, evictions, climate change and the collapse of small businesses. Strategically, they have a sovereign duty to build a blue firewall until the Southern poison is eradicated from the GOP and from our land.
Democrats must admit the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico as states. These Americans deserve representation in the Senate. This would likely add two Black and two Latinx senators to what would be a 104-member body.
Dozier