There’s no denying that the primary cause of the Civil War was the attempt by Southerners to retain, and to even expand, their slave economy nationwide. In a similar vein, the attempt by Republicans to systematically suppress the ability of Blacks and Hispanics to exercise their right to vote is unfolding as the primary cause of another.
I have been warning about the latter in such commentaries as:
- “Tribalism and Dysfunction in American Politics,” June 24, 2018
- “Impeachment Vote Is as Much About Tribalism as Trumpism,” November 3, 2019
- “Republican and Democrats Began Governing Like Sunnis and Shias. Now Washington Is Looking Like Baghdad,” January 17, 2021.
- “Commemorating, and Finally Recognizing, Tulsa Race Massacre … 100 Years Later,” June 1, 2021
- “Every Dem Senator Can Play Kingmaker. But Manchin Is the Only One Playing It. Why?” June 9, 2021
- “Online Comments and the Fate of Democracy” (Podcast) June 12, 2021
But even I could not have foreseen the fateful symmetry now playing out in Washington DC, which the July 13 edition of the Chicago Tribune reported on as follows:
_________
Texas Democrats who hurriedly took off to Washington to block sweeping new election laws urged Congress on Tuesday to quickly pass legislation protecting voting rights, while Republican Gov. Greg Abbott threatened them with arrest the moment they return.
Speaking to reporters outside the Capitol, the Democrats were realistic about the limits of their gambit, noting they can hold up the GOP-backed proposals at home for only so long and arguing that only federal legislation would prevent some of the new restrictions from becoming law. In Austin, House Republicans authorized state troopers to find and corral missing legislators.
‘A sergeant-at-arms and any officers appointed by him are directed to send for all absentees whose attendance is not excused, for the purpose of securing and maintaining their attendance, by warrant of arrest if necessary,’ Republican House Speaker Dade Phelan said.
________
In other words, it cannot be lost on anyone who knows their American history that these Texas Democrats and Gov. Abbott are effectively playing out the Fugitive Slave Act. That Act required Northerners to return slaves who escaped from southern plantations to their masters.
Its enactment in 1850 galvanized politics on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line in the years before the Civil War. Not least because it made the “federal government responsible for finding, returning, and trying escaped slaves.”
The way the Supreme Court gutted what remained of the Voting Rights Act earlier this month is bound to have the same galvanizing effect. After all, it effectively ruled that red states controlled by Republican legislatures have carte blanche to suppress the voting rights of Blacks and Hispanics.
But I’ve already written more than I cared to on this percolating civil war. And, if I write any more, I fear I might come across like a mythological child of Nostradamus and Cassandra.
So I’m going to suffice to share the following on Senators Joe Manchin (D-W.Va) and Tim Scott (R-SC):
Much has been made about these fugitive Democrats making a pilgrimage to plead their case to Sen. Manchin. This, because as the fifth of the commentary titles I bulleted above indicates, he has fashioned himself as the deus ex machina (aka a white savior) for the voting rights of Black and Brown folks.
But, frankly, I resent that Manchin is obliging them to kowtow to him like this. Not least because this SOB clearly believes preserving the Jim-Crow filibuster rule whites used to stall voting rights (for Blacks) in the 20th century is more important than protecting voting rights (for Blacks) in the 21st century.
In other words, for Manchin, filibustering in defense of whites suppressing the voting rights of Blacks is no vice.
Senator Joe Manchin said he wouldn’t carve out an exemption to the chamber’s filibuster rule for voting rights legislation, effectively dashing chances that Democrats could maneuver around Republican opposition to overhauling the nation’s elections laws.
The West Virginia Democrat made the remarks after meeting with a group of Texas House Democrats who left the state to stall a vote on Republican-backed legislation that they say would restrict voting.
‘Forget the filibuster,’ Manchin told reporters after the meeting.
(Bloomberg, July 15, 2021)
And so here we have Manchin taking a filibuster now, filibuster tomorrow, filibuster forever stand against Democrats using a party-line vote to pass anything, while standing by as Republicans use a party-line vote to oppose everything. And this is the same Manchin who had no issue when Republicans used the very filibuster “carveout” to pass tax cuts and appoint right-wing federal judges that Democrats are trying to use to protect voting rights.
But forget Manchin! Where the hell is Black Sen. Tim Scott? Because, arguably, everyone should be lobbying him even more heavily than Manchin to support this critical vote. Or is it generally accepted that he’s more Republican than Black?
Meanwhile, reports are that he’s building up a war chest to run for president in 2024. The problem, of course, is that at least 10 pompous, wannabe-Trump contenders are lying in wait to remind this uppity senator of his token place in the Republican Party.
Besides, even if Scott managed to win a (rigged) Republican presidential nomination, he’ll never win a presidential election, no matter how rigged. This, because even a critical mass of white voters will never forgive him for standing by as Republicans systematically enacted laws to frustrate the ability of Blacks and Hispanics to exercise their right to vote.
Indeed, apropos of never forgiving, let alone forgetting, we cannot lose sight of the fact that not a single white Republican in the Senate seems to think the voting rights of Blacks and Hispanics are worth crossing party lines to support.
But mark my words, such are the lines along which civil wars are drawn …
Related commentaries:
Tribalism… impeachment… Sunni and Shias… Tulsa… Manchin… fate of Democracy…
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