The Day After-- Is The Rittenhouse Verdict Our Modern Day "Dred Scott Decision"?

 



Well, now that it's legal for Trump supporters, including minors to carry assault weapons over state lines illegally to shoot unarmed protesters, what exactly is our recourse now for political action when Republican election officials void our votes and overturn results? It looks like peaceful rallies and marches are out the window, since the Judge In Kenosha just gave QAnon and the Nazis hunting licenses to shoot Democrats. 


The Civil Rights marches of the 60's had to contend with attack dogs, fire hoses and Billy clubs. Now we have to face AR-15's from fascist paranoid conspirophiles who are being told that Democrats drink the blood of Christian babies or work for Communist China.


I'm a lifelong Democrat, and was involved in international politics and human Rights for 40 years. I worked with veterans of the Civil Rights struggle, including some who organized the Selma campaign. I've also worked with people who were instrumental in the non-violent revolutions  of Eastern Europe in 1989-1992, and Chinese students who survived the Tienanmen Square massacre in 1989. Democracy and non-violence have been personal for me, something I've put myself in harms way to defend for many years. But at this point I don't see a viable electoral pathway to defeat Trumpism.


This is why I believe that President Biden will need to personally shift from his current FDR orientation, and instead orient toward Lincoln's Presidency. I think most people here who have learned from Professor Heather Cox Richardson know what that means.


I'm not a pessimist, but who here thinks that the Democratic Party will unite sufficiently and reign in the Centrists to carve out the filibuster and push voting rights through? And who believes the Trump States will comply with Federal Law even if it is passed? It took how many years to enforce Brown vs Education. 12? It required Federal Troops in some States to enforce it. 


So all of us who have studied history and the Civil War can see chaos, Rebellion and Secession on the horizon. As of now, we have to ask if the prospect of economic benefits flowing from BBB are sufficient to mitigate this impending threat from the growing fascist/terrorist movement being deployed by Donald Trump.  And we have to also ask, "who advised President Biden to defend the travesty of "the jury's  call" on Rittenhouse and say that "the jury system works"? 


Lincoln fired his Generals until he found his fighting commanders Grant and Sherman. Who are the political analogs of the General McClellans of today that Biden needs to fire and replace? That is the question that woke me up at 3 am and won't let me go back to sleep.

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