An example of institutionalized structural racism:
1. Laws exist in all 50 states making militia groups illegal. Yet they only people who are regularly policed, interrogated and harassed are groups like the Black Panther Party.
2. Racist white militia groups march with and and uniforms claiming to provide "security" and to "assist" police. Yet because those groups are illegal, how is anything that they do legal, let alone acceptable or tolerated?
3. Racist white militia groups come into black communities with guns for "enforcement" during peaceful protests. Yet the violence that occurs is almost uniformly instigated by militia members. Whereas, unarmed blacks are called rioters and dissidents for disrupting people meals.
There are countless examples where these same kinds of dynamics exist and persist. People get tired of hearing about and dealing with racism. That's because it's has been designed and implemented over centuries to be exhausting. That way, it's primacy remains unchallenged.
Although I was a kid, I do vaguely recall the infighting and dissent with the democratic party between 1968 - 1972. From what I could tell, it was pretty bitter and acrimonious even to the mind of a kid who was more interested in Ultraman, Marine Boy, and Gun Smoke than politics.
Democrats managed to get it together, sort of, by 1976 to elect Carter. But, remnants of those struggles continue through today. Yet at no point do I remember republicans extending a hand to assist democrats in dealing with our political problem, or supporting us as we struggled.
On the contrary, the GOP exploited the opportunity at every turn. So Carter lost in 1980 and, just over a decade later, we had lost both congressional houses.
The republicans have completely misread the history and specific factors. They thought they could just obstruct and sabotage ACA, too, and it would just fall apart while becoming unpopular. It didn't. It became the popular standard with the people. msn.com/en-us/news/pol…
Despite the fact that many republicans hate democrats, even republican voters know that the democrats are the one governing party to get stuff done. Now with over 500,000 dead and a crushed economy, they pretend they can do the same old thing, and get the same results as 2010.
Frank Luntz is dead wrong in this article. None of it has anything to do with the GOP articulating their policies. They have none. That GOP M.O. is dead. The only way they can be half way assured of "success" is to be confident that their voter suppression schemes will work.
The only thing that'll change the minds of opportunistic, cowardly GOP congressmen and women is when they start getting killed in the streets at home or the halls of the Capitol by rabid racist insurrectionists and rightwing extremists, too. But, then they'll be dead, won't they?
Some of them think they're being cute and coy. Others think that they are immune to being harmed because they parrot the words of the insurrectionists or even cooperate in the conspiracies. Others are just to afraid of everything to say a word.
The republicans are essentially making coffee and sandwiches for the mass marauders who are plundering the castle.
While most republican voters support increasing the minimum wage, most also still support Trump. So their political support won't change much despite the benefits they'll get from democratic policy.
Still, a few republican voters will still peel off because of republican party inaction, and that will go along way towards cementing the democratic House Majority in 2022.
And, if democrats play their cards right, they could use that to gain support from a couple of senate republicans like Toomey, Burr, and maybe even Portman who are retiring and their states are perilously close to flipping their seats blue.
We the democratic voters - need to be on the same page regarding what we want and need. Specifically, we have been demanding that the John Lewis Voting
Rights Act (HR-4) be passed and implemented into law. That is critical.
It is necessary in order to restore preclearance and other measures stripped from the VRA 1965 by the Roberts Court in 2013 to hold states accountable. Otherwise, republicans in red states will continue to run roughshod over voters with all kinds of voter suppression tactics.
But equally as important is the passage and implementation of the For the People Act (HR-1), which garners much less discussion. Some people may consider them to be the same thing, but they aren't.
Despite cheating, electioneering, attempted election theft, crime, and even insurrection, democratic voters delivered the WH and a senate majority. We did it for a reason. It is a non-negotiable mandate to address the needs and will of the people.
We have heard for years that elections have consequences. Senate democrats need to understand and own that. The voters clearly do.
One of the most important items to the vast majority of most democrats, and to large pluralities of republicans, is the $15/hr. minimum wage.
Not only has it been the capstone of the decade long fight against income inequality, it is one of the most important measures necessary to recover from the #COVID19 economic collapse.