Putting White Supremacy Into the Dustbin of History, Where It Belongs
With the torrent of awful rulings from a corrupt Supreme Court over the last few days, I struggled to put all my thoughts into something cogent before the day ended. So instead, I send along an excerpt from an essay I wrote in September 2020, which spelled out my hopes for a Biden Presidency:
When WWII was coming to an end FDR forged a comprehensive plan to “build back better.” It was based on the inspiring and universal principles found in the Four Freedoms – freedom from want and fear, freedom of speech and religion. So simple, so powerful. From these words came the post WWII global order, the building of institutions like the UN and the WTO, the ending of colonialism and the institutionalization of the fight against authoritarianism through the building of NATO and the prosecution of the Cold War. We did big things, and did them over a long period of time.
Of all the big things we have to do in the coming years there is one more – to honor and build on the work of FDR American leaders should forcefully denounce white supremacy in all of its forms. We have to make clear that American, Western, liberal, Four Freedom values are universal values, values of all people everywhere, regardless of race, religion or country of origin. They belong to all of us. White supremacy is not just a malicious legacy belief system from our racist and colonial past, it’s also profoundly anti-modern; for who could, after seeing the advances and potential of the people all over the world over these past fifty years ever believe that any race or religion or culture was somehow not capable of extraordinary things, and the people of all nations not deserving of the opportunities and freedoms we cherish. Trump’s white supremacy must be returned, aggressively, to the dustbin of history, where it belongs.
No doubt we have a lot of work to do in the days ahead.
Keep working hard all - Simon
This topic, above all others, is why I'm a Democrat. I'm a student of history (the ugly history and the pleasant history), so I'm well aware of the disgraceful past of the Dem party.....that we were the fuel behind slave states, secessionists, the KKK.....it's so despicable that my stomach churns just thinking about it. And YET.....in my lifetime, and really even my parents' lifetimes (Baby Boomers born in 1947), it is ONLY the Democratic Party that has been on a slow path of redemption, improvement, modernization, and virtuous evolution. And we have the scars to show for it politically.....because of the incredible work done from visionary activists like MLK, Malcom X, John Lewis, and many others less well known, applying pressure for decades on both parties, there was a clear choice to be made.....Harry Truman started the ball rolling with the integration of the military....Eisenhower tried to maintain the Republicans' claim to Lincoln's legacy with the beginning of integrating schools....but it was the DEMOCRATIC PARTY that took the difficult path in the 60s and used their political capital to make serious structural changes. The laws weren't perfect and need reform to this day....but we TRIED. And the Republicans took that moment to lean into a majority white America feeling anxious about change and fed them cynical bullshit with their "southern strategy" and the "silent majority"......feeding and rewarding racism and winning 5 out of 6 Presidential Elections, 2 with 49 state drubbings, and two others in landslides that would be historically embarrassing for us on their own had it not been for the two 49 staters.......we managed to eke out a 2 point victory a year and a half after the sitting Republican President resigned from office in disgrace because he was such a criminal that his own party was going to help remove him from office via impeachment.
It's that history that made me a Democrat.....I knew society would eventually catch up, and that the sacrifices to their brand and frankly their souls would not age well......and here we are. My party isn't perfect, but on the central question that faces America in this new age of profound diversity, interconnectivity, and interdependence.....are the opportunities and endless bounty of the American experiment for EVERYONE, or not?.....the Democratic Party is the ONLY serious political institution who has tried to grow with the times and answer that question with a resounding YES.
We'll never be perfect.....but I'm proud to be part of a party that TRIES to be an advocate for every American, because despite the million specific policy disagreements we will always continue to have, philosophically, there's really nothing else that matters.
That a small group of individuals, the majority of whom have led a life of extreme privilege and who have never endured the indignity of poverty or the pain of racism can justify attempts at remedying these blights through education is beyond me. White nationalism is backward and dangerous. We are facing enormous challenges and the more voices we hear from the better. There is a seduction in that privileged bubble but it is, in the end, an empty shell.