Why are the Democrats Afraid to Confront White Supremacy?
The Democrats have made it clear: when it comes down to choosing solidarity with constituents of color or bipartisanship with white supremacists, they will choose white supremacy every single time.
Every. Single. Time.
The GOP launches whatever attack they want, the Democrats assume a public moral highground, the media snarks, all three suppress the efforts of the communities forced to absorb these attacks, take one down and pass it around and 98 bottles of beer on the wall.
This week’s complete lack of response to the clear white nationalist attack on communities of color serves as the perfect example of this absolute bullshit.
On Wednesday, white supremacist and Attorney General Jeff Sessions and his former employee turned “White House Senior Advisor” Stephen Miller launched a coordinated attack on the rights and lives of both black and brown communities.
This attack was launched on behalf of the hate group the Federation on Immigration Reform (the organization that brought you Kris Kobach, the Interstate Crosscheck System and the most racist law in modern history), the Project on Fair Representation (the organization that funded the gutting of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act), the American Enterprise Institute (who’s star player Ed Blum runs the Project on Fair Representation), and Bert Rein (Watergate alumnus and lawyer that gutted Section 5 of the VRA and fought on behalf of Abbey Fisher in the SCOTUS case that claimed the Admissions process at the University of Texas was racist against white people). All of these organizations and actors are products of collaborations between Robert Mercer, the Koch Brothers, Sheldon Adelson, the Scaife Family and the Donor’s Trust.
Their first phase came through Jeff Sessions and the Department of Justice. In a document released by the New York Times, it was revealed that the DoJ would be reallocating resources to attack Affirmative Action efforts in higher education and prosecute those engaging in what is being framed as discrimination against white people. As reported by Salon:
“The Justice Department’s civil rights division is going to have some of its resources allocated toward lawsuits against universities over affirmative action policies perceived as hostile to white people, according to a document reported by The New York Times. The Times also reports that the internal announcement to the civil rights division explicitly asks for lawyers who would be willing to pursue “investigations and possible litigation related to intentional race-based discrimination in college and university admissions.”
This move repurposes the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice from a federal organization dedicated to protecting target communities from white supremacy to an institution poised to defend white power and attack communities struggling against it. It also gives us a clear indication that the Koch Brothers, the Project on Fair Representation, the American Enterprise Institute, the Federation on American Immigration Reform (FAIR), Bert Rein and Robert Mercer are all operating behind the scenes at the White House and making bold moves to implement their white nationalist agendas.
Hours later, the white power network operating through the White House launched their second attack — the proposal to pass the RAISE Act. This hate crime disguised as policy serves to pit the white and black working classes against brown workers, eugenically rate brown people’s work based on white supremacist values, and cut legal immigration in the name of the economy.
The White House placed white nativist Stephen Miller at the forefront of this maneuver.
Stephen Miller is a close friend and associate of white nationalist and promoter of “peaceful ethnic cleansing” Richard Spencer, worked under Jeff Sessions in Alabama, has called for violent action against Muslims and accused Maya Angelou of racial paranoia.
He eagerly presented the Raise Act to the public through a White House Press Conference turned white supremacist dog whistle and horse and pony show.
In a political performance that felt more like a white power rally than a press conference, Miller used the RAISE Act to blame legal immigrants for the destruction of the economy, eugenically delegitimize and numerically rank the worth of laboring immigrants and people that do not speak English, and pit white and black members of the working class against brown immigrant workers.
Miller also managed to attack the Statue of Liberty.
And for all his efforts, he must have made his white nationalists counterparts — especially accomplices at the Federation on American Immigration Reform (FAIR) — very proud. As previously reported by the Strategic Institute of Intersectional Policy (SIIP):
“With funding, resources and strategic support from the Pioneer Fund, the torch of political cleansing was passed from the American Eugenic Society to FAIR. John Tanton, renown white supremacist, anti-immigration crusader and Ku Klux Klan conspirator was placed at the head of the organization.
Tanton, who is still listed as a member of FAIR’s Board of Directors, is most famously quoted for his assertion:
“To govern is to populate … Will the present majority peaceably hand over its political power to a group that is simply more fertile? … As Whites see their power and control over their lives declining, will they simply go quietly into the night? Or will there be an explosion?”
Today, FAIR boasts 1.3 million members and funding from close to 50 private foundations supporting their agenda which includes:
“Reducing legal immigration from well over one million presently, to 300,000 a year over a sustained period will allow America to more sensibly manage its growth, address its environmental needs, and maintain a high quality of life. To make that happen, we work for policies that put the interests of American citizens ahead of big business and special interests demands.”
The RAISE Act is an attempt to make this ethnically cleansed vision a political reality.
It would be expected that there would be a strong and collective condemnation of both the repurposing of the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice and the introduction of the RAISE Act from the party whose platform claims:
“…we know that our nation’s long struggle with race is far from over. More than half a century after Rosa Parks sat and Dr. King marched and John Lewis bled, more than half a century after César Chávez, Dolores Huerta, and Larry Itliong organized, race still plays a significant role in determining who gets ahead in America and who gets left behind. We must face that reality and we must fix it.”
The Democratic Party, though, responded with a united and coordinated effort to do absolutely nothing.
There was no call for unity against the GOP. There was no collective confrontation of white supremacy. There was no acknowledgement that white supremacists and white nativist organizations had taken over the White House and were rolling out policy on behalf of the Federal Government.
There wasn’t even one tweet from one Senator that even came close to acknowledging organized white power’s attack on black and brown citizens and immigrants. At best, there were vague tweets claiming immigrants are people and Civil Rights are important. Overall, though, most Democrats chose not to comment at all.
There was no unity. There was no solidarity. They let black and brown communities take the hit and they turned their backs on us. Again.
Under the strategic guidance of organizations such as the Federation on American Immigration Reform (FAIR), the Heritage Foundation, the Project on Fair Representation and the Nazi suborganization the Vitézi Rend and through White House Officials and Mouthpieces such as Seb Gorka, Richard Spencer, Kris Kobach, Steve Bannon, Stephen Miller and Paul Winfree — the white power movement has effectively dismantled federal authority, inserted a Confederate model of state and private rights, removed Civil rights legislation, defunded and deconstructed vital public services in education, housing, women’s and children’s programs, health and nutrition services. And we haven’t even made it through their Budget and Tax reform assaults, yet.
The GOP and the Trump Administration have worked tirelessly on all fronts to strip every single protection, service, and safety net for the targets of white nativists, white supremacists and the alt-right. The Democrats have worked tirelessly to do absolutely nothing to stop them.
It is far past time for communities of struggle to collectively start calling on the Democrats to start living up to their promise and stop selling us out to the white nationalists in the White House. It’s time for the Democrats to stop calling for bipartisanship with white supremacists and to start engaging in solidarity with the people.
And it’s far past time for the Democratic Party to stop pretending their only authority is through Congress and Twitter and start enforcing our rights in the lower federal courts and advancing our protections at the state and local level with every bit of legal, social, economic, and political capital they have.
The Republicans have been using no less to target us for generations. It will take an even more aggressive approach to stop them now.
Communities of struggle can no longer be complicit in the destruction of our rights and lives by supporting candidates from a party that refuses to fight on our behalf even in the face of the most blatant and brutal white supremacist attacks. If the Democrats seek bipartisanship over solidarity, they should not expect our loyalty. They should not expect our support. And they should not expect those of us that can vote to cast a vote for them in 2018 or 2020.
