Joe Manchin in his op-ed today said he couldn't vote for a bill that he couldn't explain to the voters back home.

The good news, Joe, is that it isn't that hard.

Let me help, drawing a little inspiration from the history of Civil War & Reconstruction.

wvgazettemail.com/opinion/op_ed_…
I support pro-democracy measures, Joe Manchin might say—protecting voting rights, #DCStatehood, filibuster reform, &c—because:

1. they're just;

2. they're now made "partisan" by an assault on democracy by the leaders of the other party;

3. that assault hurts my constituents.
What's this got to do with Civil War & Reconstruction?

Before the war, some white Northerners forged an alliance with African Americans, opposing slavery and supporting equal rights on principle—think, abolitionists and Radical Republicans, swayed by argument #1. But ...
the success of anti-slavery politics depended on winning the support of white Northerners who weren't principled anti-racists.

They needed to be convinced that slavery before the war, and racial restrictions on the suffrage afterwards, hurt *them*—along the lines of argument #3.
GOP politicians obliged, drawing on ideas developed by abolitionists & Radicals.

They argued that the "slave power" perverted democracy, infringed on the rights of Americans everywhere in the country, and denied access to "free soil" in the territories.

dissentmagazine.org/online_article…
In 1866, moderate Republicans balked at equal suffrage.

But within a few years, they embraced it as the best means to achieve goals that mattered to them. A stable post-war peace required blocking the return of the pernicious "slave power" in new form.

If arguments from principle (#1) don't sway Joe Manchin and his constituents, arguments from interest should (#3).

It's increasingly clear that some mix of pro-democracy reforms are the only way to secure policies on infrastructure, health care, labor, etc. that they support.
Joe Manchin needs to make that case.

And he needs to accept the reality of #2—that leaders of the other party simply don't want bi-partisanship or compromise.

That was the case in the polarized politics of the Civil War era, and in our politics too.
To be clear:

This isn't an argument that history is repeating itself—that polarization is as bad now as it was then, or that we're headed for another Civil War.

It's not. We're not.

But there's still a lesson to be learned.
The success of anti-slavery politics depended on a broad coalition & a range of arguments.

If Democrats succeed today, they'll need both as well.

There's a clear path for Joe Manchin to explain this to his constituents & be part of that success—if he really wants to.

/fin

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More from @Stephen_A_West

21 Mar
"It's not a local issue anymore" - and in fact, it never was.

With a Congressional hearing scheduled Monday on #DCStatehood, let's trace the roots of opposition to democracy for DC—roots in the racist, late 19th century backlash against Reconstruction.

washingtonpost.com/politics/dc-st…
Elected local government existed in DC before the Civil War, but Black men were denied the vote.

Congress abolished slavery in DC in 1862, and in 1867 banned racial restrictions on voting.

Biracial democracy flourished briefly—tho not without opposition.
Less than a decade later, Congress eliminated local elected government in DC, part of a national retreat from Reconstruction.

On that brief flourishing and later retreat, I highly recommend @katemasur’s An Example for All the Land.

uncpress.org/book/978080787…
Read 9 tweets
9 Nov 20
Lincoln is getting quoted a lot, but selectively.

Everyone remembers "with malice towards none; with charity for all" from the 2d Inaugural.

Keep reading. Lincoln called as well for a "just, and a lasting peace."
Lincoln had a genius for using the language of conciliation even as he refused to compromise.

He had done it 4 years earlier too.

In the 1st Inaugural, he appealed to the "mystic chords of memory" that united Americans—even as refused to compromise on the extension of slavery.
And so, as Lincoln said in the 2d inaugural, "the war came."

That speech frustrated those who hoped he would lay out a vision of Reconstruction.

What would a "just…and lasting peace" entail?

Lincoln gave a hint 5 weeks later, in what would become his last public address.
Read 6 tweets
19 Sep 19
1956 Republican party platform:

"We favor self-government, national suffrage and representation in the Congress of the United States for residents of the District of Columbia."
1960 Republican party platform:

"Republicans will continue to work for Congressional representation and self-government for the District of Columbia and also support the constitutional amendment granting suffrage in national elections."
1964 Republican party platform on the District of Columbia:

[crickets]
Read 7 tweets
27 Oct 18
1. In the Reconstruction South, Democratic leaders publicly denied responsibility for the terrorism of the Ku Klux Klan and other groups.

They blamed violence on "poor whites" and said it had no political significance.

Those politicians were lying.
2. Their responsibility for terrorist violence took 2 forms.

One was direct participation. Democratic leaders personally organized and committed violence.

Before he was elected to the US Senate, M. C. Butler took part in the 1876 Hamburg massacre.

3. Historians generally view Reconstruction-era terrorism as decentralized, sharing common goals but lacking much coordination.

This great article from @bdproctor explores coded, interstate communication bwn 2 brothers - both Klansmen & ardent Democrats.

Read 6 tweets
4 Oct 18
1. “I’m a single white man from South Carolina,” an aggrieved Lindsey Graham declared last week.

Note: Graham’s Senate seat has never been occupied by anyone *but* a white man.

Before Graham, it was held for almost 50 years by Strom Thurmond.
2. “The Southern white man does more for the negro than any other man in any part of the country,” Thurmond declared in opposing the 1957 Civil Rights Act.

Running for president 9 years earlier, Thurmond had this to say (from @CrespinoJoe's great biography):
3. Coleman Blease (who held the seat, 1925-31) called African Americans “apes and baboons” and championed lynching.

"To hell with the Constitution," Blease shouted, if it "steps between me and the defense of the virtues of white women."
Read 7 tweets

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