African Americans

The Horrors Of The California Recall Election For Governor: The Threat Of Right Wing Extremist Larry Elder!

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On Tuesday, September 14, California, the largest state in population, once again faces the disgrace of a Gubernatorial Recall election, as they did in 2003, when Grey Davis was recalled, and Arnold Schwarzenegger became Republican Governor of the “Golden State”!

While that recall election was something that should not have happened, thankfully, Schwarzenegger turned out to be a moderate, reasonable governor for more than seven years.

Now, however, a horror awaits the state and the nation, if right wing extremist talk show host Larry Elder, who is African American but repudiated by the vast majority of people of his heritage, is somehow catapulted into the governorship. Based on recent public opinion polls, Elder is the number one alternative, if a majority of those who vote reject the sitting governor, indicating a wish for a change after less than three years in office for Governor Gavin Newsom.

One does not have to agree with everything Newsom has said and done to realize what a mockery and a horror it would be if this incompetent and dangerously reckless talk show host, somehow ends up on top of the heap after the Recall vote is counted!

Elder is so far Right, it is shocking that he has any chance of becoming Governor in a state heavily Democratic in population, and in the state legislature, and in the House of Representatives delegation, and with two Democratic Senators.

And it is not just the danger to Governor Newsom, but also the reality that Senator Dianne Feinstein, who clearly has dementia at age 88, and should resign but has not resigned, could be replaced if she does resign, or become incapacitated, or die, and that would tip the balance to a Republican US Senate!

There will be more discussion and development in the news media and by this blogger and author about the extremism and craziness of Larry Elder, but for now, the move has to be to get the votes out in California to insure that Gavin Newsom remains as Governor of the state!

Republicans Are A Dinosaur, Only Representing White Rural Areas, Wealthy, Bigots, In Nation Rapidly Changing

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The Republican Party has become a shell of its old self, and is no longer truly representative of conservative ideology.

It no longer is concerned about deficits and increase in the national debt, except when the Democratic opposition is in power.

It no longer concerned about national defense, as many of its present officeholders have attacked the military leadership for standing up to insurrectionists who attacked the US Capitol on January 6, including General Mark Milley, Chairman of the Joints Chief of Staff being criticized by the likes of Congressman Matt Gaetz of Florida, and Fox News Channel talk show hosts.

It is no longer concerned about truth and facts, as it attacks science knowledge and historical knowledge, and is unconcerned about global warming and climate change.

It is no longer concerned about racial equality and fairness, part of its founding principles under Abraham Lincoln.

It no longer appeals to millions of African Americans, Hispanic-Latino Americans, college educated suburbanites, urban areas, the middle class, women voters, and the younger generation.

They are more concerned about rural areas, where most people are whites, but can wield power due to gerrymandering, and the ability to control the Electoral College and the US Senate, where democracy has been under attack, and favors fewer voters nationally.

They are more concerned about representing those who hate immigrants, and people of color, and want to control women’s reproductive choices.

They are appealing to the extremely wealthy and powerful corporations, while working to undermine workers’ rights and labor unions.

They want to promote mind control and dictate to educators how science and history are taught.

They represent a dwindling white population stirred to fear by bigots in the Republican Party, who wish to resist the rapidly changing population which in 2045, will be a majority minority, with people of color together being the majority, and particularly so with people with Hispanic-Latino heritage.

The Republican Party Base Is Anti Immigrant, But They Are Also Anti Science And Anti Historical Fact!

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The Republican Party base is anti immigrant (nativist), and has prevented immigration reform, despite the efforts over the years of Republicans, such as John McCain and George W. Bush to deal with the issue, alongside Democrats, including Barack Obama, Joe Biden, and a multitude of others.

It is also anti Science, allowing right wing evangelical Christians to utilize mind control, and to attack evolution a century after the Scopes Trial, and to be anti vaccine and anti mask advocates, and also anti climate change, along with attacking Dr. Anthony Fauci.

And the Republican Party base is also anti history, wanting to promote a “white” history, without discussion of the horrendous treatment and abuse of African Americans, Native Americans, Hispanic-Latino Americans, and Asian Americans over the long run of American history.

The situation for teachers of the Social Sciences and American history, and also of American literature teachers who assign fiction that depicts and informs us of horrible mistreatment and racial language, is in crisis, as many teachers will lose their positions as state governments in many of the states dictate how their curriculums are to be controlled and presented.

Lawsuits are beginning by teachers’ unions and other groups to stop censorship of the truth, but the Republican Party base promoting “Know Nothingism” on immigration, science and history are an attack on academic freedom that must be fought through all legal means!

21 States Are Mounting Efforts Restricting Education On Racism, Bias, Contributions Of Specific Racial Or Ethnic Groups!

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It is extremely alarming that at least 21 states, and counting, are mounting efforts to restrict education on Racism, Bias, and Contributions of specific racial or ethnic groups in the teaching of American history (Social Studies) in public schools at all levels. This is occurring in Republican governed states.

This includes the Southern and Border States of Arkansas, Florida Georgia, Mississippi, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Kentucky, and Oklahoma.

It also includes the Midwestern states of Indiana, Iowa, Missouri, Michigan, Ohio, and South Dakota.

It also includes the Western states of Arizona, Idaho, Montana and Utah, and the New England states of New Hampshire and Rhode Island.

At the same time, at least 9 states are working to expand education on Racism, Bias, and Contributions of specific racial and ethnic groups, including the Northeastern states of Connecticut, Delaware, and New Jersey; the Midwestern states of Illinois and Minnesota; and the Western states of Colorado, Washington, Wyoming, and California.

To forbid truthful discussion of Slavery; Jim Crow Segregation Laws; Racial Violence Against African Americans; Mass Murder of Native Americans; Anti Hispanic and Anti Asian discrimination; and Discrimination Against Women is promoting a Big Lie, that none of this happened, and continues to be a reality!

Truth and Facts matter, and to promote Right Wing propaganda is outrageous, and makes the job of teachers of History and Social Studies an impossible position!

The Assassination Of Robert F. Kennedy 53 Years Ago Transformed The Future Of America!

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The world changed on June 5, 1968, 53 years ago, when Democratic Presidential contender, Senator Robert F. Kennedy of New York, was assassinated in Los Angeles.

This author has written about that tragic event in his 2015 book, 2017 in paperback—ASSASSINATIONS, THREATS, AND THE AMERICAN PRESIDENCY: FROM ANDREW JACKSON TO BARACK OBAMA (Rowman Littlefield Publishers).

While there was no certainty that RFK would have been the Democratic Party nominee in 1968, or that he would have been able to defeat Richard Nixon, many observers believe his death was a turning point that transformed the future of America!

RFK had been able to put together a coalition of working class whites, as well as African Americans and Hispanic Americans, and he was inspiring many young people to engage in the campaign, including those opposed to the war in Vietnam under Lyndon B. Johnson.

While no winner of the Presidency could, in reality, be expected to accomplish all the goals that had been set, there was great optimism and hope that RFK would have been a transformative President.

Instead, the right wing of the Republican Party won out under Richard Nixon, who appealed also to many George Wallace supporters, and Hubert Humphrey, despite his wonderful record of commitment, was lost in the anti war movement opposition to LBJ.

The next fifty years would be dominated by conservatives who wanted to push the nation backward, and the battle for Democrats has been to overcome their impact, and the battle is presently engaged under Joe Biden, at a very difficult time with Donald Trump promoting the “Big Lie”, that he won the election.

So America is in crisis, and Biden, having the same birthday as RFK, but 17 years later birth, is trying to bring about what RFK was promoting a half century ago!

Texas State Legislature Has Gone Totally Bonkers On So Many Issues!

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Texas has a long history of racism against African Americans and Latino Americans, but the state has gone way beyond those reprehensible examples of prejudice and hatred.

Now they are making it ever more difficult for people of color to be able to vote in future elections.

They have also made abortion practically impossible with their newly enacted laws that prevent a woman after six weeks, long before most would even know they are pregnant, from being able to have an abortion, and already, the number of abortion providers has been restricted in recent years.

Also, all restriction on guns are coming to an end, which alarms law enforcement professionals.

And the state is making it clear that teachers of the social sciences are not permitted to teach about the true history of America and of Texas, the realities of slavery, Jim Crow segregation, and about the extermination of native Americans, and other unpleasant truths, what the opponents call “critical race theory”. Instead, only a patriotic version of history is to be taught, which will hamstring teachers, and yet will not, necessarily, prevent students from learning the truth elsewhere, and wish to discuss it in classes.

As an historian and political scientist for a half century, if this author and blogger were much younger, he would be unable to “practice his craft”, teach truth and facts, and this is totally outrageous!

Lawsuits on all of these issues are essential, as Texas is undermining the rule of law in so many ways!

The Republican-Right Wing Attempt To Distort Historical Truth And Facts

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For anyone who teaches American history in the public schools and in colleges and universities, the warning is out, that Republican and Right Wing propagandists are working to prevent the teaching of historical truth and facts.

In Texas, and developing in other Republican controlled states, teachers are being informed that they may NOT teach the reality of American history, which has been covered up for too long, but in recent years, has been dredged out of secrecy or lack of research.

One can love America, and yet admit that there has been a lack of historical reality of the mistreatment of native Americans, African Americans, Latino Americans, Asian Americans, immigrants, Jews, and women as part of the discussion of our past.

Students need to learn and know the entire truth, in order for the nation to move ahead and overcome the racism, nativism, misogyny, antisemitism that were and are, sadly, part of the history of America.

How can we overcome the widespread prejudices, biases, and narrow mindedness still present in America, if we continue to promote a distorted view of reality?

The historical profession needs to engage in lobbying and other activities to insure that we do not have propaganda and lies being perpetuated in the future, as ignorance and naivete about our past can only undermine progress and change in the future!

Time For Washington DC To Become 51st State!

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It is long overdue for Washington, DC to become the 51st state, as was attempted by amendment from 1978 to 1985, but falling short by only having 16 states, 22 short of the number needed for ratification.

Now it can be done by vote of Congress, as has happened for every other state, and the only reason it did not occur in the 1978-1985 period was pure racism, because a majority of the federal district are African American citizens, which is a disgraceful excuse, and time to overcome!

If Washington, DC were to become the 51st state, it would likely have two Democratic Senators and one Democratic Congressman, which is why the Republican Party, which was founded on opposition to slavery, but has now become a racist, white supremacist party, opposes it, but also did decades ago for the same reason!

The District of Columbia would be 49th in population; First by Gross Domestic Product per Capita; First by Median Household Income; 34th by Total Domestic Product, and the first new state since Alaska and Hawaii were added to the Union as the 49th and 50th states in January and August 1959.

Both Alaska and Hawaii had much of their population being “minorities”, and it is time to overcome racial issues, and accept that residents in Washington, DC deserve statehood.

The residents are first in educational attainment with nearly 60 percent having a bachelor’s degree; and 34 percent having an advanced degree.

It has the greatest population density, nine times more than New Jersey, which is second, and 11,000 times more dense than Alaska, which has a density of one person per square mile!

And 46 percent of DC residents are white, and more whites have moved into DC in recent decades. And finally, DC residents pay more taxes than 19 states, so they deserve representation!

The Senate Filibuster Designed For Obstruction, And Historic Denial Of Basic Civil Rights

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The US Senate is the greatest deliberative legislative body in the world, but also condemned in history for promoting denial of civil rights for people of color, particularly, but not only for African Americans.

The filibuster was used to prevent federal anti lynching laws in the years after Reconstruction and through to the 1950s by Southern Democrats, and then it was used to prevent basic civil rights laws, until Lyndon B. Johnson showed great courage, and used various tactics to overcome the denial of civil rights, and accomplish the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Now, the Republicans have used it in the past decade to stop progress under President Barack Obama, and now are threatening the same under Joe Biden, and specifically in areas including voting rights, and inhumane treatment of various minorities, including people of color, women, gays and lesbians, disabled people, and immigrants from Latin America, Asia and Africa.

They claim the mantle of “minority rights”, but only for their narrowminded effort to promote white supremacy, and refuse to accept the reality of a multi ethnic and multi racial and diverse future America in the next 25 years.

The Senate has been an obstructionist legislative body, where Senators who represent far less than a majority of the population are able to prevent what a clear majority of the population wishes to see in the promotion of human rights and work against racism, nativism, misogyny, homophobia, antisemitism, and Islamophobia!

So a change, requiring a “spoken” filibuster, which used to be the norm, needs to be revived, and that will bring about the ability to overcome the filibuster in a short period, and allow for progress on so many important issues the Senate needs to address to advance American democracy!

Voting Rights Act 1965, And Now The Same Battle Again, This Time Caused By Republicans, NOT Southern Democrats!

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On this day, 56 years ago, President Lyndon B. Johnson spoke before Congress, and called for a Voting Rights Act to insure all Americans could vote.

This marked the South leaving the Democratic Party, and becoming Republicans, and now Republicans are working to deny African Americans and Latinos the right to vote all over again.

This is because the Supreme Court in 2013 allowed much of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to be repealed by the conservative Court, in Shelby County V. Holder, and opened up massive efforts to limit voting.

The new bills HR 1 and HR 4, now introduced in Congress, are trying to prevent state legislatures from bringing back the old days of voter suppression.

The Republican Party, rather than broaden their base, are trying to insure that only white voters, the Trump voters, will be able to control government, but it is a losing strategy long run, as nothing will prevent the white majority from declining to less than 50 percent of all Americans in the next quarter century.

So the Republican Party is in its death knell, unless and until they realize the future, and adapt to it soon!