Supreme Racism

 

"The Supreme Court betrayed Black voters, they betrayed America, and they betrayed our democracy."- Barack Obama

Before I proceed with my rant, let’s start with some insight from historian and fascism expert Ruth Ben Ghiat:

 

Elections as Tools of Autocracy and White Supremacy

In the 21st century, we have a proliferation of electoral autocracies, or countries with strongman leaders who keep a semblance of democracy going (opposition parties and, sometimes, a degree of independent media), including by holding elections. In a separate essay, I will analyze the bag of tricks autocrats deploy to turn elections to their advantage, including invalidating the will of the people by removing already-elected officials from their offices.

The central point here is that in 2026, the aim of “competitive authoritarianism” is to take away competition: to take the “fair” out of free and fair elections, while redefining freedom as a liberation from the corruption and chaos of democracy. During his 2024 campaign, Donald Trump described the act of voting to his Evangelical Christian followers as a kind of burden he would free them from. “In four years, you don’t have to vote again. We’ll have it fixed so good, you’re not gonna have to vote,” he promised them.

Authoritarianism in all its forms depends on people acting against their own interests, in this case seeing the abdication of agency and giving up of rights as something positive, as almost a relief. Let the leader decide for you! Let the leader, who is an agent of divine providence, decide your destiny! Getting people to believe this is one of the main functions of personality cults that depict the leader as infallible.

Of course, propaganda is not enough to “fix” the problem of voting. That is why autocrats work hard to achieve “autocratic capture” and have the courts, the media, and other institutions retooled to reflect the ideologies, priorities, and methods of the autocrat and his partners.

This is where the Supreme Court decision fits in. By striking down a key element of the Voting Rights Act, the Court has once again made itself the vehicle of the crusade to end American democracy as we know it. “Justices” such as Clarence Thomas (“Corrupted by Billionaires, Including Harlan Crow, Who Has a Garden of Dictator Statues”) and Samuel Alito (“Flew Insurrectionist Flags At His Homes”) act like far-right political operatives. Both long ago jettisoned democratic ideas of conflicts of interest and judicial impartiality.

Giving immunity to a head of state who incited a violent mob against Republican and Democratic lawmakers on January 6, 2021, was one blow to our democracy; legitimizing practices designed to disenfranchise Black voters is another.

Undoing Our Multiracial Democracy So That White Supremacy Can Prevail

Every authoritarian state has a central ideological pillar and fixation. In America, the retooling of institutions to serve autocracy and the fanatical desire to remake the country in the image of White Christian nationalism go hand in hand. I have written repeatedly about the ongoing war on Blacks, and how Donald Trump from 2016 on has made himself the protector of every kind of racist, from neo-Nazis to those who hate immigrants and religious minorities to people who never really accepted the end of Jim Crow and the democratic doctrine of racial equality.

This is why Trump continues his attacks on the Obamas ten years after they left the White House. The very idea of a Black man as president must be “undone” in the public mind.

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Democracy Docket founder Marc Elias warns: “Not only was the Supreme Court's Callais decision cynical and wrong, it has now resulted in the Republican governor of Louisiana declaring state of emergency to cancel the ongoing congressional election. If you think this ends in Louisiana or with redistricting, you are not paying attention.”

Reviving Institutional Racism

These are indeed the glory days for 21^st Century American racists and “Christian” nationalists. Their white privileged minority rule has just become set in concrete; thanks to the serial criminal they TWICE installed into the Oval Office.

White Christian Nationalists have their racist criminal president. They own Congress. And they own the Supreme Court, abetted by their token black White Nationalist. They have won their decades-long engineered coup by taking control of the legislative, judicial, and executive branches of our federal government. Now their corruption and rampaging abuses of power are overwhelming our ability to even keep track. Every day more cons, grifts, inside deals, extortions, cronyism, and nepotism come to light. But not to justice. 

I won’t mince words. Their long-term damage is more than likely fatal to our constitutionally weakened democracy, already undermined by the corrupt Supreme Court, antiquated electoral college, and anti-democratic and disproportional power in the Senate.

This weakness was exacerbated by an American electorate that was too racist, ignorant, misogynistic, and apathetic to vote against a second Trump presidency. A qualified woman of color was spurned in favor of a racist, corrupt, lying, indicted criminal and conman. This isn’t difficult to understand, considering enough racist, ignorant, misogynistic, and apathetic Americans rejected a qualified moderate white woman in favor of the racist pathological liar ten years ago.

Americans opened the door to the formation of a corrupt, highly partisan, white Christian nationalist Supreme Court. Americans didn’t learn from their demolition of women’s reproductive rights. They didn’t learn from the Court’s authoritarian decree of “presidential immunity”, demanded by the indicted Criminal President.

And there’s no reason to think they will learn from the destruction of Roe v Wade, fabricated presidential immunity that eliminated equal justice under law, and now the gutting of the Voting Rights Act. Gerrymandering by white Republicans has been greenlighted. Gerrymandering by Democrats for fair representation for African Americans has been virtually outlawed.

The racist majority on the Supreme Court has all but assured a white Republican Congress and presidency far into the future. The Louisiana v. Callais decision is nothing less than wholesale election rigging for the benefit of the Republican Party.

As the rights of Americans are falling like dominoes, the increasingly authoritarian Republican Party will continue to lock our country down into a white nationalist, antidemocratic tyranny under minority rule.

MAYBE enough Americans will be motivated to vote for a Democratic congressional majority this year after Trump’s recession arrives and bleeds our wallets dry. But remember this. Trump and his evil henchmen will do everything they can to control, disrupt, and deny the next two elections.

Election interference is already well under way. From Reuters:

In January, a DHS agent sought unredacted voter records and voter registration information from Franklin County, Ohio, without explaining the basis for the request. Reuters found similar federal requests for voter data, access to voting machines or revived fraud investigations in at least eight states, including Nevada, Colorado, Michigan and Missouri, often tied to claims previously rejected by courts.

There’s the very real threat of massive voter intimidation by armed ICE agents stationed at Democratic leaning polling places.

I’m afraid I can see this evil dictatorship going for another 10 years at least. The next two elections will face every obstruction and authoritarian measure Trump, ICE, and SCOTUS impose on them, likely including inciting mass disorder and canceling the elections by declaring a state of emergency. He won't leave willingly. Sorry to be such a downer, but the arc of justice has been bent towards an arc of tyranny. If they win the next two elections this coup will extend indefinitely.

The forces of white nationalist tyranny, abetted by corporate and oligarchic interests, are expanding their control over the former mainstream news media, making it even more difficult for American voters to have access to vital information. The post-truth era is upon us and the tyrants and oligarchs are more than adept at using every tool of disinformation it to consolidate power.

President Biden’s plan for Supreme Court reform will never be revived as long as MAGA racists dominate our congress and high court. He knew what needed to be done by suggesting a constitutional amendment to “make clear that there is no immunity for crimes a former president committed while in office.” The court’s recent decision last month in Trump v. United States, Biden wrote, “means there are virtually no limits on what a president can do.” But the United States, Biden stressed, “was founded on a simple yet profound principle: No one is above the law.”

At the behest of the Criminal President the Alito Court terminated our quaint notion carved into the portico of the Supreme Court building. “Equal Justice Under Law” is no longer an American ideal.

I don’t want to be the negative grumpy guy at the party, but the chances for needed reform are rapidly slipping away.

It’s come down to this. Democrats can only hope to reverse the destruction of the remnants of our democracy by winning a supermajority, with DC statehood and expanded SCOTUS. This will require unified and disciplined messaging that seems almost impossible for them. It’s reasonable to presume there are always going to be the Sinemas, Manchins, and Fettermans to drag them down.

More than ever, we need younger American voters to turn out in record numbers. We also need millions of older Americans to wake up and smell the tyranny.

I won't hold my breath because I honestly don't expect to live long enough see a free and remotely democratic republic again. I'm afraid the American people will suffer through austerity and privation before real change can happen.

However, I will not abandon hope that younger Americans will learn from the ongoing debacle and impending collapse of what we once had, and they realize what needs to be done. It will be up to them to drive the final stake through the fetid heart of Trumpism.