1/ Putting aside the absurdity of Trump's claims to have done more for black folk than any president except Lincoln, given his racist rhetoric & support for police violence, I'm thinking LBJ presiding over the Civil & Voting Rights Acts beats whatever he thinks he's done...
2/ And of course it's inherently racist to say you "did things" for black people anyway...black folks pushed Lincoln to whatever greatness he achieved, via rebellions against enslavement and service in the war...likewise, black folks' movement pushed LBJ too...
3/ In Trump's case, black folks have been pushing criminal justice reform (and much broader reform than he signed) for years, and he would never have done it had he not thought it was politically expedient. Neither Trump not LBJ nor Lincoln were "great white saviors" of anyone...
4/ Whatever liberation black folks have achieved was achieved by dint of THEIR labor, blood, sweat and tears, & the solidarity of others who followed their lead. It never came from the top down as some gift. To claim otherwise is inherently a white supremacist mentality...

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More from @timjacobwise

14 Oct
1/ Barrett's totally absurd articulation of "super precedent" and why Brown is an example but Roe isn't, shows her mendacity. Her position is, well Brown is settled law because everyone accepts it basically. Putting aside if that's true, note the contradiction, please...
2/ IF Brown is now settled & accepted, that shows that things evolve, and the law must keep up with that evolution. Bc it wasn't always accepted. There were 20 years of resistance to it. So, the basis of originalism/textualism (the law is fixed) is undermined by this argument...
3/ And if Roe is not as universally accepted, thereby making it NOT super precedent, or if Obergefell isn't, that is simply a function of time, possibly. It may become accepted if given time. But if she ignores precedent to overturn it, she isn't willing to let that play out...
Read 5 tweets
9 Oct
1/ I love when people like Ben Shapiro argue anti-discrimination law shouldn't have been applied to private businesses and the way to deal w/private sector racism is through market pressure...yet NO conservatives in history EVER launched concerted boycotts of racist businesses...
2/ So putting aside the absurdity of thinking that would have sufficed in the 60s, and putting aside the immorality of prioritizing the rights of businesses over the people they harmed, even on their own terms, conservatives and libertarians are full of shit...
3/ They say segregation was evil of course and they would NEVER have patronized segregated businesses personally, but that's a lie. Conservative whites of that era patronized such places all the time and none condemned racist businesses owners in any concerted way, if at all...
Read 11 tweets
8 Oct
1/ The idea that it's wrong -- let alone religious bigotry or imposition of a religious "test" -- to ask Amy Coney Barrett (or any judicial nominee) about religious views they hold that might bear directly on their jurisprudence and adjudication of particular cases, is absurd...
2/ Prohibiting formal religious tests doesn't bar asking about one's views & basing support/opposition on that. Conservatives who say otherwise are hypocrites: they would all vote against a Muslim who supported a caliphate, (not that any such person would be nominated)...
3/ Yet they insist it is wrong to ask a fundie Christian about their views? Ridiculous. Obviously there should be no bar to office or judgeship based on views, but knowing what a person thinks and how that might impact their rulings/actions is just informed consent...
Read 7 tweets
6 Oct
1/ Donald Trump constantly insults many in his own voter base: By acting as if "defeating COVID" is what he did, and what anyone can do if they're strong enough, he insults all those who have died, including tens of thousands who voted for him, by suggesting they were weak...
2/ ...By mocking Joe Biden for going to a state school in Delaware for college, during the debate, he insulted millions of people who didn't go to college at all, let alone an Ivy institution, and again--most of his base is in this camp...
3/ And by mocking Hunter Biden for his past drug problem he insulted the 20m who struggle with addiction and substance abuse disorders, the 1/2m who've died of overdoses in the past 20 years, the families destroyed by opioids--again, MANY in his base and towns he carried...
Read 6 tweets
30 Sep
1/ Biden could have ended this race for good if he had just looked into the camera when Trump was being especially belligerent and constantly interrupting to try and smear Hunter (or really at any point) and said the following...
2/ "Ya know, Donald Trump once gave an interview in which he said, proudly, that he was basically the same person now, in terms of temperament, as when he was 5 years old. As he's proved tonight, it's one of the few true things he's ever said...doesn't America deserve better?..."
3/ "When asked to wait his turn he interrupts like a child, when frustrated he lashes out like a baby, demeans others, even questions their intelligence by making fun of the college they attended. What does that say about how he views millions who didn't go to college at all?.."
Read 4 tweets
28 Sep
1/ Dems are going about this tax story the wrong way. They really think working class white people like him bc they see him as a regular guy and talking about how he pays less than they do in taxes will flip them...bullshit...that was never why they liked him...(cont)..
2/ talking about working class folks paying more taxes in a month than he has for years won't matter. He and many others can write that off to him being 'smart enuf' to work the system. These white folks don't dislike the rich, they wish they could pull the same scams...(cont)..
3/ Instead, they should hammer at the fact that he's such a shit businessman that he lost (by his own admission) billions, year after year. He's a loser. A failure, even on his own terms. THAT will get under his skin and cause him to flail wildly, turning off all but his base...
Read 4 tweets

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