It feels like that old arc of the moral universe is a finicky business. One or two Stephen Millers or Donald Trumps can easily bend it in bad directions. And then it takes decades of sweat and effort by millions of ordinary good people to bend it back again. I wish this ratio worked the other way. But here we are!
That's why people of good will should never give up-- it may take decades to undo the damage but if enough people see it and don't give up, we will succeed.
Remember that virtually every reform passed from the New Deal right through Obamacare was first proposed during the Progressive Era (1900-20). If people had given up with the initial defeat, we'd still be living in the first "Gilded Age" (as opposed to the second we're living in now)
This may be my favorite holiday, Jen. I’ll be restacking your piece to remind folks why we should guard and protect our right to have our voices heard.
As a result, Blacks and whites suffered. The oligarchs in power used the hysteria of White nationalism and the bogeyman of Black violence to distract from the government’s utter failure to provide basic social services, education, and economically equality.
Dr. King recognized that oppressing African-Americans was a side show by the white aristocracy in the South-- by keeping working-class whites at the throats of African-Americans, both sides would be so preoccupied with it that nobody would notice that the wealthy white land-owners were robbing both groups!
Lyndon Johnson, a son of the South, knew this all along. Bill Moyers quotes him from the 1960 Presidential campaign:
I'll tell you what's at the bottom of it. If you can convince the lowest white man [sic] he's better than the best colored [sic] man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.
It sounds like a good many white folk haven't learned a damned thing since then.
The more things change, the more they remain the same.
I believe I'll be quoting that old saw (old but also true), all this day. The ICE thugs who have and will be murdering people in the streets are no different than the sheriff who murdered Jonathan Daniels, when he moved to save a young Black woman, trying to buy a soft drink.
And I know, without turning on the television, or radio, that the "right" voices will use this day to push their picture of MLK Jr., being a white, conservative, follower of Republican Jesus.
Your column is wonderful, and should be read by everybody who believes in voting rights for all. May MLK day remind everyone how important it is to stand up to Trump and Maga, and free our country of blithering idiots!
It's worse than that. The idiots have now taken on acts of criminality to make their case. Filthy dentention centers, murder of a citizen and shooting others, denial of rights, and armed invasion of our cities - nothing is apparently too low for the people in power to go.
MLK'd greatest achievement was his habit of courage in the face of danger, which had to be the consequence of many small acts of courage over his lifetime.
Yes Steve, let us never forget civil rights activist John Lewis who preached "Make good trouble" until his death in 2020 after serving in Congress for 33 years. He is my true American hero.
Martin Luther King's moral courage is undeniable. He persisted inspite of beatings, jailings and death threats. In my opinion, he is a true American hero. He is a total contrast to Loose Cannon in the White House.
Hate and Racism are the foci of Authoritarianism. Unfortunately, all we did was sweep them under the rug in 1965. Fox/Murdoch has been fanning them back into flames for 30 years now. And, all for filthy lucre.
Yes, he pulled the Union army out of the south too soon. Lincoln chose him to try to unite the country and work with him. I think we would have been in a better place today had Lincoln lived...
Thank you for your amazing work. Your resignation from WAPO and creating this organization with Norm Eisen and others is just a shining beacon in the storm we are now in. Please write a column about the use of DARVO and the intentional manipulation of parasocial relationships by the Orange lunatic and his cabal. This is one of the real stories underlying the mess...besides the Peter Thiel through line as well...I fear the storm will worsen and it is difficult for me to feel positive. I have joined a local Indivisible and that helps. But the corruption and atrocities (inviting Putin to his war board?) just keep piling up and it is ONLY MID - January. How will we last until November? The Republican Party is a wasteland. I never, ever thought I'd see this type of simple capitulation from so many elected officials, just willing to throw away the United States. We need a reckoning and the new US government tone reborn after this mess needs to step up and provide basic needs to the American people, like the Danish government does. March on!
Thank you so much for this stirring reminder Jen of the meaning of this day and how it is a clarion call to defend our democracy and our liberties in the face of authoritarianism. So many bled and died so that all of us would have the right to vote and be heard. We indeed have a sacred duty to uphold that right.
Thank you for this. Now we wait to see what SCOTUS does.......
Please consider doing a story on the proposed detention centers that are being planned in various red states (Social Circle GA) to house ICE captives, and the effect on voter suppression and loss of representation in blue states that may result. Timothy Snyder has a great piece on this in his book, On Freedom, and I would love to hear an interview with him on The Contrarians.
I'm fortunate to have lived during the late '50s and '60s to witness Martin Luther King's historic rise, his marches, speeches and how deftly he navigated American politics. But it was only until years later, after reading LBJ biographies that I came to appreciate the extent to which President Johnson, a deep south southerner, advanced some of King's most important civil and human rights victories.
Aging has its advantages, certainly in understanding history with greater depth and accuracy. As Carl Sagan said, "I don't want to believe, I want to know."
Aaron Parnas has revealed that thousands have left the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department because Trump has shifted their focus to reverse discrimination -- defending cases only where white citizens appear discriminated against. It's horrifying. I honestly don't understand the game Republicans are playing, how they can sleep at night, allowing this narcissist to destroy our democracy, install conflict-driven international and domestic policies, and corruptly deal with the world. There is one thing King gave us that no one can harm, is immortal. He gave us his poetry, his word, his vision of hope. It is tangible and illuminates how gilded and dark Trump's world is. His petulance is of a child; that he could reach the high office he has, twice, suggests to me he had the strong backing of Russia. And Republicans sleep.
It is fair to place blame where blame is due; Trump had the strong backing of an unfortunately large segment of the United States voting population. One that is racist, sexist, and white Christian nationalist.
True enough! At the same time, all that money flowing into Trump's campaign from international figures (including large corporations), and excessive, slanted press coverage were also large factors influencing public opinion. I will always be suspicious of Trump's allegiance to Putin. Trump has never said anything against Putin, and is now actually acting as his agent, doing everything Putin would have him do to destroy U.S. power, our democracy, and reputation worldwide. The Mueller Report concluded that Russian interference in 2016 was "sweeping and systematic," but they never followed the money. I am reading about Oleg Gorgievsky, a spy for Britain's MI6, and Aldrich Ames, who was the head of our country's counterintelligence at the time, but in reality was a Soviet spy. It is chilling, and a real education in how nations work to achieve their ends. Trump would easily sell out his country, and our foreign policy, for money and recognition. It's only a possibility. And no one will research it in my lifetime. It is just a gut feeling, with some basis in Mueller's findings, and all those 2016 prosecutions.
You make it sound as if President Lyndon Johnson had nothing to do with the civil rights advances of the 1960s. Without Johnson's political savvy the filibuster against the civil rights act of 1964 would never have been broken. He held strategy sessions at the WH with King, Andrew Young and other civil rights leaders to get the voting rights act passed. After King's assassination in 1968 and as a lame duck, Johnson got the fair housing act passed. Johnson appointed the first Black Supreme Court justice, Thurgood Marshall, and the first Black woman to be a federal district court judge, Constancy Baker Motley. King and Johnson were full partners in the civil rights advances of the 1960s.
"And here we are again." Indeed, though it is more like we are still going - with ICE operatives stepping on immigrants, (documented and not) and citizens too. The current attacks are on the freedoms and rights that we have fought for since the Civil Rights movement. It appears that we have to keep fighting for equality, dignity and decency, for there is always a noisy, fearful minority that wants to dispense with them in order to feel more powerful. It has gone from disgraceful to criminal.
Today's Republican Party is almost the exact opposite of the party founded by Lincoln and several other anti-slavery Whigs. Lincoln issued The Emancipation Proclamation as a further measure during the Civil War against the Conferderacy and the slave owning oligarchs. He took the first step in pressing for a Constitutional Amendment formally freeing the slaves. After his assassination, the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments were *supposed to* insure equality in the US.
The reason for the history is to point out how far the Republican Party has drifted from one of its founding principles. I can imagine Abraham Lincoln standing at full height shouting every four letter word he knows at the travesty of the party he help to found.
It feels like that old arc of the moral universe is a finicky business. One or two Stephen Millers or Donald Trumps can easily bend it in bad directions. And then it takes decades of sweat and effort by millions of ordinary good people to bend it back again. I wish this ratio worked the other way. But here we are!
That's why people of good will should never give up-- it may take decades to undo the damage but if enough people see it and don't give up, we will succeed.
Remember that virtually every reform passed from the New Deal right through Obamacare was first proposed during the Progressive Era (1900-20). If people had given up with the initial defeat, we'd still be living in the first "Gilded Age" (as opposed to the second we're living in now)
Outstanding Ivan. Damn right.
Steven Miller and Donald Trump had a lot of help; it’s not just those two, it’s an army of millions of panicing white nationalists.
I will start the list: John Roberts, Mitch McConnell, Mike Johnson, entirety of Faux News, Tucker Carlson - I could go on but it hurts my head.
I leave completion of the list to all after I add the indicted and convicted - Jeffrey Epstein.
And all the Republicans Senators who didn’t vote to impeach Trump when they should have.
This may be my favorite holiday, Jen. I’ll be restacking your piece to remind folks why we should guard and protect our right to have our voices heard.
As a result, Blacks and whites suffered. The oligarchs in power used the hysteria of White nationalism and the bogeyman of Black violence to distract from the government’s utter failure to provide basic social services, education, and economically equality.
Dr. King recognized that oppressing African-Americans was a side show by the white aristocracy in the South-- by keeping working-class whites at the throats of African-Americans, both sides would be so preoccupied with it that nobody would notice that the wealthy white land-owners were robbing both groups!
Lyndon Johnson, a son of the South, knew this all along. Bill Moyers quotes him from the 1960 Presidential campaign:
I'll tell you what's at the bottom of it. If you can convince the lowest white man [sic] he's better than the best colored [sic] man, he won't notice you're picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he'll empty his pockets for you.
It sounds like a good many white folk haven't learned a damned thing since then.
The more things change, the more they remain the same.
I believe I'll be quoting that old saw (old but also true), all this day. The ICE thugs who have and will be murdering people in the streets are no different than the sheriff who murdered Jonathan Daniels, when he moved to save a young Black woman, trying to buy a soft drink.
And I know, without turning on the television, or radio, that the "right" voices will use this day to push their picture of MLK Jr., being a white, conservative, follower of Republican Jesus.
not one damned thing
Your column is wonderful, and should be read by everybody who believes in voting rights for all. May MLK day remind everyone how important it is to stand up to Trump and Maga, and free our country of blithering idiots!
It's worse than that. The idiots have now taken on acts of criminality to make their case. Filthy dentention centers, murder of a citizen and shooting others, denial of rights, and armed invasion of our cities - nothing is apparently too low for the people in power to go.
MLK'd greatest achievement was his habit of courage in the face of danger, which had to be the consequence of many small acts of courage over his lifetime.
Don't forget the late John Lewis, who also marched, was beaten, and still rose to the House of Representatives.
Yes Steve, let us never forget civil rights activist John Lewis who preached "Make good trouble" until his death in 2020 after serving in Congress for 33 years. He is my true American hero.
I consider what all protesters are doing today is that "good trouble" of which he spoke. He never gave up, and neither should we.
what made him so great, in addition to his integrity and courage, was his humility in the best sense of that word.
Martin Luther King's moral courage is undeniable. He persisted inspite of beatings, jailings and death threats. In my opinion, he is a true American hero. He is a total contrast to Loose Cannon in the White House.
"Loose Cannon",,, Charles, you're much too kind.
Hate and Racism are the foci of Authoritarianism. Unfortunately, all we did was sweep them under the rug in 1965. Fox/Murdoch has been fanning them back into flames for 30 years now. And, all for filthy lucre.
I continue to blame Andrew Johnson.
Most evil in this world is done for filthy lucre in one form or another.
Yes, he pulled the Union army out of the south too soon. Lincoln chose him to try to unite the country and work with him. I think we would have been in a better place today had Lincoln lived...
Thank you for your amazing work. Your resignation from WAPO and creating this organization with Norm Eisen and others is just a shining beacon in the storm we are now in. Please write a column about the use of DARVO and the intentional manipulation of parasocial relationships by the Orange lunatic and his cabal. This is one of the real stories underlying the mess...besides the Peter Thiel through line as well...I fear the storm will worsen and it is difficult for me to feel positive. I have joined a local Indivisible and that helps. But the corruption and atrocities (inviting Putin to his war board?) just keep piling up and it is ONLY MID - January. How will we last until November? The Republican Party is a wasteland. I never, ever thought I'd see this type of simple capitulation from so many elected officials, just willing to throw away the United States. We need a reckoning and the new US government tone reborn after this mess needs to step up and provide basic needs to the American people, like the Danish government does. March on!
Thank you so much for this stirring reminder Jen of the meaning of this day and how it is a clarion call to defend our democracy and our liberties in the face of authoritarianism. So many bled and died so that all of us would have the right to vote and be heard. We indeed have a sacred duty to uphold that right.
Yet another great column! Let us cling to hope, our life raft in this vicious storm.
Thank you for this. Now we wait to see what SCOTUS does.......
Please consider doing a story on the proposed detention centers that are being planned in various red states (Social Circle GA) to house ICE captives, and the effect on voter suppression and loss of representation in blue states that may result. Timothy Snyder has a great piece on this in his book, On Freedom, and I would love to hear an interview with him on The Contrarians.
Yes -- more detention facilities proposed here in FL -- they see the $$$ and that's all they care about.
I'm fortunate to have lived during the late '50s and '60s to witness Martin Luther King's historic rise, his marches, speeches and how deftly he navigated American politics. But it was only until years later, after reading LBJ biographies that I came to appreciate the extent to which President Johnson, a deep south southerner, advanced some of King's most important civil and human rights victories.
Aging has its advantages, certainly in understanding history with greater depth and accuracy. As Carl Sagan said, "I don't want to believe, I want to know."
Aaron Parnas has revealed that thousands have left the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department because Trump has shifted their focus to reverse discrimination -- defending cases only where white citizens appear discriminated against. It's horrifying. I honestly don't understand the game Republicans are playing, how they can sleep at night, allowing this narcissist to destroy our democracy, install conflict-driven international and domestic policies, and corruptly deal with the world. There is one thing King gave us that no one can harm, is immortal. He gave us his poetry, his word, his vision of hope. It is tangible and illuminates how gilded and dark Trump's world is. His petulance is of a child; that he could reach the high office he has, twice, suggests to me he had the strong backing of Russia. And Republicans sleep.
It is fair to place blame where blame is due; Trump had the strong backing of an unfortunately large segment of the United States voting population. One that is racist, sexist, and white Christian nationalist.
True enough! At the same time, all that money flowing into Trump's campaign from international figures (including large corporations), and excessive, slanted press coverage were also large factors influencing public opinion. I will always be suspicious of Trump's allegiance to Putin. Trump has never said anything against Putin, and is now actually acting as his agent, doing everything Putin would have him do to destroy U.S. power, our democracy, and reputation worldwide. The Mueller Report concluded that Russian interference in 2016 was "sweeping and systematic," but they never followed the money. I am reading about Oleg Gorgievsky, a spy for Britain's MI6, and Aldrich Ames, who was the head of our country's counterintelligence at the time, but in reality was a Soviet spy. It is chilling, and a real education in how nations work to achieve their ends. Trump would easily sell out his country, and our foreign policy, for money and recognition. It's only a possibility. And no one will research it in my lifetime. It is just a gut feeling, with some basis in Mueller's findings, and all those 2016 prosecutions.
I now understand how normal everyday Germans supported the Nazis. It is happening before my very eyes in, what was once, a great country.
You make it sound as if President Lyndon Johnson had nothing to do with the civil rights advances of the 1960s. Without Johnson's political savvy the filibuster against the civil rights act of 1964 would never have been broken. He held strategy sessions at the WH with King, Andrew Young and other civil rights leaders to get the voting rights act passed. After King's assassination in 1968 and as a lame duck, Johnson got the fair housing act passed. Johnson appointed the first Black Supreme Court justice, Thurgood Marshall, and the first Black woman to be a federal district court judge, Constancy Baker Motley. King and Johnson were full partners in the civil rights advances of the 1960s.
"And here we are again." Indeed, though it is more like we are still going - with ICE operatives stepping on immigrants, (documented and not) and citizens too. The current attacks are on the freedoms and rights that we have fought for since the Civil Rights movement. It appears that we have to keep fighting for equality, dignity and decency, for there is always a noisy, fearful minority that wants to dispense with them in order to feel more powerful. It has gone from disgraceful to criminal.
Today's Republican Party is almost the exact opposite of the party founded by Lincoln and several other anti-slavery Whigs. Lincoln issued The Emancipation Proclamation as a further measure during the Civil War against the Conferderacy and the slave owning oligarchs. He took the first step in pressing for a Constitutional Amendment formally freeing the slaves. After his assassination, the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments were *supposed to* insure equality in the US.
The reason for the history is to point out how far the Republican Party has drifted from one of its founding principles. I can imagine Abraham Lincoln standing at full height shouting every four letter word he knows at the travesty of the party he help to found.