Page 60 - 1619 Project Curriculum

The 1619 Project

anything that touched their region- South (except for Florida), where the inextricably tied to our system of designed to target black North Caro-

al prerogatives. white people of the region — among slavery. And while the racial content linians with ‘‘almost surgical preci-

Anti-lynching laws and some the most conservative in the coun- of that ideology has attenuated over sion,’’ according to the federal judges

pro-labor legislation died at the try, a direct legacy of slavery and the time, the basic framework remains: who struck the law down. When, in

hands of lawmakers from the society it built — flocked to the candi- fear of rival political majorities; of 2016, Democrats overcame these

‘‘Solid South’’ who took advantage date who stood against the constitu- demographic ‘‘replacement’’; of a obstacles to take back the governor’s

of Senate rules like the filibuster to tional demands of the black-freedom government that threatens privilege mansion, the Republican-controlled

eff ectively enact Calhoun’s idea of movement. Goldwater may have and hierarchy. Legislature tried to strip power from

a concurrent majority against leg- insisted that there are ‘‘some rights The past 10 years of Republican the office, to prevent Democrats

islation that threatened the South- that are clearly protected by valid extremism is emblematic. The Tea from reversing their eff orts to rig

’
ern racial status quo; the spirit of laws and are therefore ‘civil rights,’ ’ Party billed itself as a reaction to the game.

nullification lived on. When North- but he also declared that ‘‘states’ debt and spending, but a close look A similar thing happened in

ern liberal Democrats added a civil rights’’ were ‘‘disappearing under shows it was actually a reaction to an Wisconsin. Under Scott Walker,

rights plank to the party platform the piling sands of absolutism’’ and ascendant majority of black people, the governor at the time, Wiscon-

at the 1948 presidential convention, called Brown v. Board an ‘‘unconsti- Latinos, Asian-Americans and liberal sin Republicans gave themselves

in an eff ort to break the Southern tutional trespass into the legislative white people. In their survey-based a structural advantage in the State

conservatives’ hold on the party, sphere of government.’’ ‘‘I therefore study of the movement, the political Legislature through aggressive gerry-

35 delegates from Mississippi and support all eff orts by the States, scientists Christopher S. Parker and mandering. After the Democratic

Alabama walked out in protest: the excluding violence, of course,’’ Gold- Matt A. Barreto show that Tea Party candidate toppled Walker in the

prologue to the ‘‘Dixiecrat Revolt’’ water wrote in ‘‘The Conscience of Republicans were motivated ‘‘by the 2018 governor’s race, the Republican

that began the conservative migra- a Conservative,’’ ‘‘to preserve their fear and anxiety associated with the majority in the Legislature rapidly

tion into the eventual embrace of rightful powers over education.’’ perception that ‘real’ Americans are moved to limit the new governor’s
the Republican Party. Later, when key civil rights losing their country.’’ power and weaken other statewide

Calhoun’s idea that states could questions had been settled by law, The scholars Theda Skocpol and offices won by Democrats. They

veto the federal government would Buckley would essentially renounce Vanessa Williamson came to a simi- restricted the governor’s ability to

well following the decision
return as these views, praising the movement lar conclusion in their contempora- run public-benefit programs and set

v

in Brown . Board of Education, as and criticizing race-baiting dema- neous study of the movement, based rules on the implementation of state

segregationists announced ‘‘massive gogues like George C. Wallace. Still, on an ethnographic study of Tea laws. And they robbed the governor

resistance’’ to federal desegregation his initial impulse — to give political Party activists across the country. and the attorney general of the power

mandates and sympathizers defend- minorities a veto not just over policy ‘‘Tea Party resistance to giving more to continue, or end, legal action

ed white Southern actions with ideas but over democracy itself — reflect- to categories of people deemed against the Aff ordable Care Act.

and arguments that cribbed from Cal- ed a tendency that would express undeserving is more than just an Michigan Republicans took an

houn and recapitulated enslaver ide- itself again and again in the con- argument about taxes and spend- almost identical course of action after

ology for modern American politics. servative politics he ushered into ing,’’ they note in ‘‘The Tea Party Democrats in that state managed

‘‘The central question that emerges,’’ the mainstream, emerging when and the Remaking of Republican to win executive office, using their

the National Review founding editor political, cultural and demographic Conservatism’’; ‘‘it is a heartfelt cry gerrymandered legislative majority

William F. Buckley Jr. wrote in 1957, change threatened a narrow, exclu- about where they fear ‘their coun- to weaken the new Democratic gov-

amid congressional debate over the sionary vision of American democ- try’ may be headed.’’ And Tea Party ernor and attorney general. One pro-

first Civil Rights Act, ‘‘is whether the racy. Writing in the 1980s and ’90s, adherents’ ‘‘worries about racial and posed bill, for example, would have

white community in the South is Samuel Francis — a polemicist who ethnic minorities and overly entitled shifted oversight of campaign-finance

entitled to take such measures as are would eventually migrate to the very young people,’’ they write, ‘‘signal a law from the secretary of state to a

necessary to prevail, politically and far right of American conservatism larger fear about generational social six-person commission with mem-

culturally, in areas which it does not — identified this dynamic in the con- change in America.’’ bers nominated by the state Repub-

predominate numerically? The sober- text of David Duke’s campaign for To stop this change and its lican and Democratic parties, a move

ing answer is yes — the white com- governor of Louisiana: political consequences, right-wing designed to produce deadlock and

munity is so entitled because, for the ‘‘Reagan conservatism, in its conservatives have embarked keep elected Democrats from revers-

time being, it is the advanced race.’’ innermost meaning, had little to on a project to nullify oppo- ing previous decisions.

He continued: ‘‘It is more important do with supply-side economics nents and restrict the scope of The Republican rationale for tilt-

for any community, anywhere in and spreading democracy. It had democracy. Mitch McConnell’s ing the field in their permanent favor

the world, to affirm and live by civ- to do with the awakening of a peo- hyper-obstructionist rule in the Sen- or, failing that, nullifying the results

ilized standards, than to bow to the ple who face political, cultural and ate is the most high-profile example and limiting Democrats’ power as

demands of the numerical majority.’’ economic dispossession, who are of this strategy, but it’s far from the much as possible, has a familiar ring

It is a strikingly blunt defense of slowly beginning to glimpse the most egregious. to it. ‘‘Citizens from every corner of

white
Jim Crow and affirmation of fact of dispossession and what dis- In 2012, North Carolina Republi- Wisconsin deserve a strong legis-

supremacy from the father of the possession will mean for them and cans won legislative and executive lative branch that stands on equal

conservative movement. Conser- their descendants, and who also are power for the first time in more than a footing with an incoming adminis-

vatives drove the groundswell that starting to think about reversing the century. They used it to gerrymander tration that is based almost solely in

made Senator Barry Goldwater of processes and powers responsible the electoral map and impose new Madison,’’ one Wisconsin Republi-
Arizona, an opponent of the Civil for their dispossession.’’ restrictions on voting, specifi cally can said following the party’s lame-

Rights Act, the 1964 Republican aimed at the state’s African-American duck power grab. The speaker of the

Party nominee for president. He There is a homegrown ideology voters. One such restriction, a State Assembly, Robin Vos, made

lost in a landslide but won the Deep of reaction in the United States, strict voter-identifi cation law, was his point more explicit. ‘‘If you took

54