Evangelical Christian and Growing Pains actor Kirk Cameron showed off every bit of white privilege he has in a video promoting his upcoming documentary, The Homeschool Awakening. In a YouTube video posted on Saturday, Cameron included a trailer for the documentary promoting homeschooling as an alternative to traditional public school. After that trailer played, he went on to describe what he considered to be failings of the public education system. I know what you’re thinking if you haven’t seen the video yet: Why, it must be an analysis of the funding inequities that have for decades led to fewer resources for schools serving Black and brown students. That would be a worthy critique. Cameron, however, didn’t even attempt to broach the subject. Instead, he went on a rant about perceived immorality in public school education.
“Since the pandemic, we’ve been made grossly aware of the inaccurate and the immoral things that the public school system has been teaching our children and our grandchildren,” the actor said. “And it’s up to us as parents to cultivate the hearts and minds and souls of our children toward what is good, toward what is right, beautiful, and true.”
Cameron never mentioned critical race theory by name. But given he recently gave evangelical podcast host Josh Daws a platform to critic the framework as in “conflict with the gospel,” it’s not difficult to read between the lines of Cameron’s latest video.
“And the public school system, unfortunately, has not been working with us, but actively working against us,” the actor said. “In my opinion, the public school system has become public enemy No. 1.”
“We need to take back the education of our children because whoever controls the textbooks controls the future. Whoever’s shaping the hearts and minds and souls of our children will determine whether or not we live in a free country and we have freedom of speech, and economic freedom, and educational and political freedom, and religious freedom.”
Actor Kirk Cameron on his new movie ‘Home School Awakening:’ “We’ve become grossly aware of the inaccurate and immoral things that the public school system has been teaching our children .. The public school system has been public enemy number one.” pic.twitter.com/y0GWnqt7kG
— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@RonFilipkowski) May 1, 2022
It’s quite interesting that the response to Black people demanding an end to racial profiling, racism, and white supremacy is Republicans asserting that their freedom is being threatened. That presumed freedom to treat others as less than is as direct of an admission of white supremacy as we’re going to get.
Of course white supremacists would consider critical race theory a threat. That framework for interpreting law maintains racism has an undeniable effect on the legal foundation of American society. As such, the framework threatens to expose the white supremacists hiding among us.
Still, it was never widely taught in K-12 classrooms, and it would be pretty exclusively confined to law schools if not for Republicans redefining it to mean anything that reveals the truth of racism or prejudice in America. Their push has been to ban that redefinition in classrooms, which has often translated to districts attempting to water down the already bland representation of Black history in K-12 education. And it hasn’t stopped at Black history.
After Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the disgusting Don’t SayGaybill into law, which in effect bans educators from teaching about sexual orientation or gender identity, copycat legislative proposals followed in more than a dozen other states, NPR reported.
To name a few: Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, and Tennessee.
Stopping to think about what your neighbors really mean when they hang the American flag is simply frightening. I can only pray that everyone doesn’t homeschool their children because in some cases, public school is a child’s only chance to interact with those of us who are kind, loving, and liberated.
A recent court filing included urgent texts sent by Jordan Fuchs, then Georgia’s deputy secretary of state, to Mark Meadows, then the White House chief of staff, during the phone call on which Donald Trump pressured Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to “find” the votes needed to flip the state to Trump.
”Need to end this call,” Fuch texted Meadows. “I don’t think this will be productive much longer.” She made the stakes clear when she added, “Let’s save the relationship.” But Trump was not interested in saving the relationship. He was interested in overturning his election loss.
That phone call is at the dead center of Willis’ investigation, but there are lots of other things for her to look into when a special grand jury, which will exist to investigate rather than issue indictments, is convened this week. Willis has said she won’t call witnesses who are currently candidates for office until after the May 24 primary, but she’s not going to wait until November’s general election. This is more urgent than that.
One of the candidates in that primary is David Perdue, the former senator defeated by Sen. Jon Ossoff in the January 2021 runoff election. Perdue is Trump’s chosen vehicle to challenge Gov. Brian Kemp because of Kemp’s refusal to participate in the effort to overturn Trump’s loss. Perdue is all in on Trump’s Big Lie now, and investigations are turning up evidence that he was active in the coup attempt at the time.
Texts Meadows turned over to the select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol show Perdue reporting on his efforts to lobby Georgia officials to do Trump’s dirty work.
“Carr won’t be any help with SOS,” Perdue texted Meadows on Dec. 13, 2020, referring to Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr. “I have a call into the Governor’s general counsel now to see if they might help.”
On Dec. 29, Perdue texted Meadows, “I’m trying to set up this call with state legislature leaders and Rudy [Giuliani]. I just want to make sure I’m doing what you and the president want.”
So Perdue has definitely earned a spot in the Georgia investigation, along with many others. In April, Willis told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that at least 50 people had voluntarily testified, while she planned to subpoena at least 30 more, including some of Trump’s inner circle. Raffensperger has told CNN he will cooperate if subpoenaed, and members of his staff have voluntarily testified. Raffensperger, Carr, Kemp, and Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan have all received document preservation requests, but have been informed by Willis that they are likely not targets of the investigation.
As selection for the special grand jury is held Monday, officials are closing roads around the courthouse and dramatically increasing security, while prosecutors have been issued bulletproof vests. These measures come after a string of racist threats.
”I’ll tell your viewers and any other viewers: It does not offend me to call me Black. It just doesn’t. They’re wasting their time,” Willis on CNN in February. “However, they continue to send those very nasty messages. I’ve never been called the N-word so much in my life.” How surprising that the people opposing an investigation into Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the election would go to racism in their threats. Nobody could have predicted.
A federal judge has ruled in favor of the Jan. 6 committee and has found that the Republican National Committee (RNC) cannot hide information about marketing materials it used to further ex-President Donald Trump’s lies about fraud in the 2020 election.
The decision was handed down by Trump appointee U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly and stems from a lawsuit that the party apparatus filed in response to a subpoena for records from investigators in February.
Not only did Kelly find that the RNC must soon part with some of its records barring a successful appeal, but critically, Kelly also tore asunder the most often used legal arguments by opponents to the investigation by affirming that the Jan. 6 committee is properly constituted and that its subpoenas have full legal effect.
The RNC, according to the 53-page opinion, will have a chance to appeal by May 5, so the records will not be transmitted immediately.
Investigators were specifically after materials the RNC sent out through massive software vendor Salesforce from Election Day 2020 through Jan. 6, 2021. They argued that reviewing this would give the panel a chance to determine the breadth and depth of the RNC’s push to its supporters about Trump’s “Big Lie.”
In March, a spokesman for the committee, Tim Mulvey, defended the panel’s lawsuit succinctly.
“These emails encouraged supporters to put pressure on Congress to keep President Trump in power,” Mulvey said.
The RNC sued to stop the subpoena issued to Salesforce, claiming gross overreach. They argued that compliance would give the Jan. 6 probe an “all-access pass” to confidential party strategies, fundraising appeals, and other sensitive member information.
In fact, he wrote, the Jan. 6 committee is not asking them to go about “producing any disaggregated information about any RNC’s donors, volunteers, or email recipients, including any person’s personally identifiable information.
“Moreover even the RNC’s own confidential information that is undeniably at issue is relatively narrow in scope,” he continued.
The suggestion that the initial subpoena from investigators exploring the Jan. 6 attack is little more than a bald attempt to expose competing inner party workings was shot down, too.
Kelly did acknowledge, however, that those sentiments may very well be reasonable “given the obvious political dynamics involved” of the day and the “unusual” circumstances and demands now present in this “exceedingly rare spectacle of a congressional committee subpoenaing the records of one of our country’s two major political parties.”
Nonetheless, there are still several conflicts within the RNC’s attempt to stop the transfer of records and discredit the panel.
In short, Kelly explained that the Jan. 6 committee is properly authorized and rightfully constituted to do its work because its members were lawfully appointed and are valid representatives on a special committee that operates within the confines of the legislative branch.
There was also an explicit win tucked into the ruling for Liz Cheney, the Wyoming Republican who has borne seemingly endless political attacks since disavowing Trump’s incitement of an insurrection at the Capitol.
In the myriad reasons the RNC claimed the subpoena was unenforceable, it cited a line from the select committee’s authorizing resolution, or in simpler terms, what amounts to its founding charter.
The authorizing resolution notes that Committee Chair Bennie Thompson, when issuing a subpoena, must consult with the body’s “ranking minority member.” The RNC argued that Cheney, despite being the most senior Republican on the probe, was not officially given the title of “ranking minority member,” therefore making the subpoenas bunk.
But again, Kelly found otherwise.
“True, for whatever reason the select committee did not give her—or anyone else—the formal title ‘ranking member.’ But to the extent there is any uncertainty about whether she fits the bill, on this record the Court must defer to the select committee’s decision to treat Representative Cheney as the ranking minority member for consultation purposes,” he wrote.
Sunday’s ruling is important for the committee because it further dilutes most contentions put forward by a wide array of Jan. 6 investigation critics and targets alike, from Republican House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy who has blasted the committee since its inception, to former Trump administration officials like Peter Navarro who have dubbed the body a partisan witch hunt comprising “domestic terrorists.”
One month after trundling out of Washington, D.C., with nothing but a few Ted Cruz photo ops under their belt, the “People’s Convoy” protest—a sort of rolling roadshow of far right-wing “Patriot” grievance, modeled after the truckers’ protest that shut down Ottawa in February—is still going, sort of, and can’t figure out when to call things quits.
The whole affair took on ominous undertones this weekend when, upon reaching the Pacific Northwest, shots were fired after protesters attempted harassing them from a freeway overpass. A badly organized rally in Olympia the next day was just a circus of far-right conspiracism and extremism. And at its end, the convoy organizers announced they intend to return to D.C., and this time they “mean business.”
The convoy, as it announced when it left Washington, headed to California so it could travel to Sacramento and protest the state Legislature over health mandates and “critical race theory”—which it did, to relatively little effect. It kept going after that, attempting to harass individual legislators by traveling to the home of a California Democratic leader in Oakland.
However, that protest turned into a fiasco for the convoy when they found themselves stuck on narrow streets in the middle of neighborhoods, leaving them sitting ducks for teenagers who began pelting them with eggs. One video showed a trucker getting out of his cab to confront his tormentors and being forced to flee back inside.
The protest then turned north and passed through the Portland area on Friday, which is where it encountered protesters along Interstate 205 northbound, as Vishal P. Singh reported for Kos. Videos recorded on livestreams show that about four or five people—one of whom draped a banner over the railing—threw objects at the trucks, in response to which someone from within the convoy fired gunshots directed at them; the same livestreams showed shots being fired at an overpass several miles farther north as well.
The first encounter occurred in Portland near the intersection of Interstates 205 and 84 at the overpass on Glisan Street, which cannot be accessed from the freeway. Video shows three or four people tossing objects—which appear mostly to be eggs and paint-filled balloons—in the direction of the trucks, which have stopped in a line across the three lanes of the freeway.
At one point, a fire truck participating in the convoy got out a water cannon and sprayed it in the direction of the protesters—but to no effect, since its range was too short. Eventually, as the protesters appeared to be leaving, one of the convoy participants could be seen pulling out a pistol, and several gunshots could be heard.
Then, 18 miles farther north on I-205, across the Columbia River near its junction with Interstate 5 in Vancouver, Washington, members of the convoy again apparently opened fire on people standing on the 134th Street overpass. One livestreamer claimed they were throwing objects, but their video showed the person standing on the overpass above them was waving a flag and appeared to be a supporter; nonetheless, in another video of drivers approaching that scene, multiple gunshots can be heard coming from the convoy.
Finally, in a video collected by antifascist activist @Johnthelefty, a police officer catches up with the caravan in Vancouver and, rather than inquire about the gunfire, chats with the activists agreeably and shakes their hands.
The convoys’ supporters thought the gunfire was justified. On Twitter, one of them posted:
What SHOULD people do if gangs of transvestite communist ninjas organize to try to cause accidents by throwing paint-bombs at Semi-truck windshields?
Well… These guys decided “Shoot the Bastards” is the appropriate response.
Pretty sure society is all reaching this conclusion.
The next morning, the convoy headed north to Olympia, where the plan was to hold a rally at the state Capitol. The “People’s Convoy” group arriving from the south were met by smaller convoys arriving from northern parts of Puget Sound (including Whidbey Island) and the Seattle Eastside. The majority of these vehicles were four-wheelers festooned with banners.
But after pulling up their big rigs and parking along the avenues to the east of the Capitol, the convoy participants got out to discover that the 1 p.m. rally they were supposed to be attending was barely in motion. The livestreamer who operates 1st Responders Media, Josue “Big Joe” Felix, could be seen wandering the grounds in search of the rally venue, muttering: “I do not know where the rally’s gonna be at!”
It turned out to be a very small affair involving a few dozen people, taking place under and around some red portable shelters near the Tivoli Fountain, about 1/8 mile from the Capitol itself. And as it got underway under a drenching downpour, it became clear that its chief organizers—a group called We The People Against Communism (WTPAC)—were extremist conspiracy theorists of the first rank.
The first speaker was a woman from WTPAC who launched into a rant claiming that “democracy is socialism”:
We’re all sitting around waiting for voting to change what’s going on, and I need to tell you guys it’s not gonna change it. You guys have voted and voted and voted and voted and voted and where has it got us? Communism! Communism!
The next thing you guys need to figure out is you need to ask all your political candidates why do they support democracy? Democracy is socialism, socialism is communism, and that is how we got here! Democracy is not for the Republic!
America was founded upon God, and it is a Republic, not a democracy! And we need to remember that, and it is time that we stand up and defend! Our! Country!
We own it! The government does not own it! It is ours! We! Pay! Them!
Reverting to a bullhorn, she continued to rant that “we are going to take on the hospitals and the pharmacies,” and urged the rain-drenched audience: “And if you still have kids in school, get! Them! Out! These schools are just Communist government-ran camps! Get your children out of public school! Collapse the system! That’s how we win!”
One speaker defended Tusitala “Tiny” Toese, the Proud Boy currently in prison awaiting trial on charges involving his participation in protest violence in Portland in August 2020; another was a trucker who urged the Olympia gathering to get out larger crowds.
But the most striking speaker was a woman, apparently a member of WTPAC, who told the crowd she was born and raised in China and served in its military before coming to the United States after the Tiananmen Massacre in 1989, and had brought to the rally a sign proclaiming: “Stop CCP [Chinese Communist Party] Infiltration”.
“The CCP is the root of all evil,” she claimed. “They helped Joe Biden steal President Trump’s presidency.”
She went on to claim that COVID-19 was a Chinese bioweapon: “This time, so-called COVID-19, the Wuhan virus, we call it the CCP virus,” she said. “It unleashed a virus to attack the United States. Lock you down, into your house, wherever, so that you are not allowed to get together like this, we are today.”
She also claimed that Zoom and TikTok were part of a Chinese plot to collect facial-recognition data on everyone, “what you do, what is your social circle. This is a planned attack, planted by the CCP.” She also claimed that the Biden administration is releasing Chinese spies, and now Chinese intelligence is attacking “me and my colleagues here,” and that she and her family have been threatened. She then launched into a rant claiming that Biden is a puppet of Chinese Communists:
Biden is the biggest traitor I have ever seen in the United States! Biden, his brother James Biden, and his son, Hunter Biden, under this so-called fake president! He is not what we voted! He stole the position! But under the help of the Chinese Communist Party, CCP. We must not give up. And Biden is treason, and Biden is a traitor. That’s why, when we welcomed him, the slogan I had on the red curtain, banner, it said: ‘Impeach Traitor Joe Biden.’
One of the final speakers was a convoy leader named David Riddell, from Lebanon, Ohio, known among the truckers and their online fans as “Santa,” thanks to his beard and portly appearance. Riddell appeared to be taking on the role of convoy spokesperson, announcing that they were next taking their roadshow to Post Falls, Idaho, where the owners of a speedway had offered to host them, and they planned to spend at least week figuring out their next step.
But Riddell also made clear that their convoy protest would not end. Rather, they planned to return to Washington, D.C., in part because it was clear they felt humiliated:
You made fun of us, you placated us with cute little words, and you came out and had your little photo op meetings with us, that’s going to happen no more.
When we go back to D.C., we are not the same convoy that went there the first time. We are not the same convoy that left there. We are coming back with teeth and a backbone! That’s all there is to it! We are going there and we will be heard!
I don’t think they understand the sincerity and the hearts of American Patriots today! We are totally fed up with tyranny!
However, there never was a point in the event when it was clear exactly what they were protesting in Olympia—since most mandates in Washington state have been or are being rescinded—or what their demands might be. Instead, it was just Patriot movement angst:
So we’re going back to D.C. We want you to join with us. Come from wherever you are. Start forming your convoys. We’re doing the same thing we did before, but this time we’re serious about it. We’ve learned some stuff since last time. We’re going back there, and we’re going to be heard. How many’s gonna go with us?
We’re going in to do business. We don’t need 100 trucks. We don’t need 200 trucks. We don’t need 500 four-wheelers. We need tens of thousands of all you to get in your vehicles, join with us, and come to Washington, D.C.
You’ve taken our money and put it back into special interest groups that does not represent the people, and we’re coming to make sure that you understand that we’re not happy with that! We’re tired of that. The American people are fed up—we’re fed up with that nonsense. You’re struggling from week to week and trying to pay your bills, so some fat cat in Washington sells off his special-interest group and they buy him a house and give him a plane ticket to a great vacation somewhere, where you’re hoping just to go to an amusement park somewhere with your family! They tax you to death and do not represent you.
Just as their demands and their entire purpose is unclear, the “People’s Convoy” is also unclear about how it is able to keep operating, especially for people who claim to be barely able to live paycheck to paycheck. That fundraising income must be a powerful incentive to just keep going and going anyway.
The Daily Kos Elections Morning Digest is compiled by David Nir, Jeff Singer, Stephen Wolf, Daniel Donner, and Carolyn Fiddler, with additional contributions from David Jarman, Steve Singiser, James Lambert, David Beard, and Arjun Jaikumar.
●GA-Gov: As he always does when one of his endorsees starts to falter, Donald Trump is now inching away from his choice to unseat Gov. Brian Kemp in the May 24 GOP primary. “Remember, you know, my record is unblemished,” Trump told the New York Times‘ Reid Epstein on Thursday. “The real story should be on the endorsements—not the David Perdue one—and, by the way, no race is over.”
Of course, Trump’s record is very, very blemished, with dozens of failures under his belt, including some high-profile debacles this cycle (check in with Susan Wright and Sean Parnell for more). But Trump’s approach is even more confused than usual, since as the Atlanta Journal-Constitution‘s Greg Bluestein notes, he simultaneously appears to be amping up his efforts on behalf of Perdue, with a “tele-rally” set for Monday and continued spending to boost Perdue from Trumpworld.
There’s still plenty of time, though, for Trump to disavow Perdue before the primary, but given the lack of alternatives—Trump actually helped ease Kemp’s other challenger, former state Rep. Vernon Jordan, out of the race in February—and his towering hatred of the incumbent, he may just stick with the ex-senator until the very end. That end may come pretty soon: A new poll from SurveyUSA, taken for WXIA, gives Kemp a commanding 56-31 lead over Perdue, which makes it the fourth poll in a row to show the governor winning the majority he needs to avert a runoff.
Redistricting
●NY Redistricting: The New York trial court judge now tasked with implementing new congressional and state Senate districts following a decision by the state’s top court to strike down both maps has postponed affected primaries from June 28 to Aug. 23. If this order stands, then unless lawmakers act, the state will host two separate primaries, with all other races on the ballot on the original date in June.
Judge Patrick McAllister also issued a separate order giving Carnegie Mellon’s Dr. Jonathan Cervas, the special master who will actually draw new maps, until May 16 to submit his proposals; the order says the court will issue final maps by May 20. The court will hold a hearing on the matter on May 6.
Senate
●OH-Sen: Protect Ohio Values has dropped one more poll from Fabrizio, Lee & Associates that shows its man, venture capitalist J.D. Vance, beating Josh Mandel 31-19 in Tuesday’s Republican primary, which is an improvement from his 25-18 edge a week before. The Peter Thiel-funded group, though, is still treating the former state treasurer as a threat, as it’s launched a new ad that essentially goes after Mandel for being involved in pre-Trump Republican politics.
The spot features footage of John McCain, Mitt Romney, and then-Gov. John Kasich praising Mandel, with the late McCain calling him a “centrist.” The narrator also twice uses one of Mandel’s favorite insults against him by dubbing him a “squish.”
●OK-Sen-B: Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, who perhaps thinks he has far more appeal in Oklahoma than he actually has, stars in a new $750,000 ad buy from Protect Freedom PAC in support of Republican state Sen. Nathan Dahm in the June 28 primary. Paul tells the audience, “Nathan Dahm will join me in demanding that Fauci is fired and removed from office,” which may have sounded tougher on the page than it does out loud.
Democratic incumbents are currently defending Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, and New Hampshire, while Wisconsin has a GOP incumbent and Pennsylvania is a Republican open seat. The DSCC’s reservations follow on the recent news of both main super PACs in Senate races, Senate Majority PAC for Democrats and the Senate Leadership Fund for Republicans, placing their initial fall ad reservations, each of which were significantly higher at more than $100 million. However, the DSCC’s initial reservations almost certainly will grow as the cycle progresses. The DSCC’s GOP counterpart, the NRSC, has yet to reveal its fall ad reservation plan.
Notably, the DSCC is the first of the three groups with reported reservations that included New Hampshire, where Democratic Sen. Maggie Hassan is seeking a second term, while both they and SMP omitted North Carolina, a state Trump won by less than two points with a Republican-held open seat that SLF included on their defense list.
Governors
●AZ-Gov: The August Republican primary got a little smaller and perhaps significantly less expensive on Thursday evening when wealthy businessman Steve Gaynor, who narrowly lost the 2018 general election for secretary of state, dropped out. While Gaynor, thanks to significant self-funding, ended March with a significant cash-on-hand edge over the rest of the field, he said he’d concluded his “chance of winning is low enough to be unrealistic.”
●GA-Gov, GA-Sen, GA-SoS: SurveyUSA’s new poll for WXIA finds a split decision in Georgia’s marquee contests this fall. The GOP comes out on top in the race for governor, with Gov. Brian Kemp leading Democrat Stacey Abrams 50-45 and former Sen. David Perdue sporting a slightly smaller 49-46 edge. In the race for Senate, however, Democratic Sen. Raphael Warnock enjoys a 50-45 advantage over former football star Herschel Walker, his likely GOP opponent.
In addition to their general election numbers, SurveyUSA also tested several primaries a bit further down the ballot (as well as the Kemp-vs.-Perdue matchup we mentioned in our top item). Interestingly, the firm diverges with the University of Georgia when it comes to the GOP’s contest for secretary of state. SurveyUSA shows incumbent Brad Raffensperger leading Trump’s endorsed candidate, Rep. Jody Hice, 31-20, while UGA recently had Raffensperger ahead by a considerably smaller 28-26; still, both polls have him well below the majority he’d need to avoid a second round in June, and many voters undecided.
The pollster also takes a look at the Democratic contest, finding that even fewer voters have made up their minds. They show state Rep. Bee Nguyen beating Michael Owens, who unsuccessfully sought the 13th Congressional District in the 2014 and 2020 primaries, by just a 12-9 margin, with 60% undecided. Nguyen, though, has widespread backing from the party establishment and recently began running ads, so her lead is only likely to grow.
●MD-Gov: Former nonprofit head Wes Moore has earned the endorsement of House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, who is a longtime congressman from the D.C. suburbs, for the July Democratic primary. Hoyer’s boss, the Baltimore-born Speaker Nancy Pelosi, previously backed former DNC chair Tom Perez.
●NE-Gov: University of Nebraska Regent Jim Pillen has released an internal from WPA Intelligence that shows him narrowly edging out wealthy businessman Charles Herbster 24-23 in the May 10 GOP primary, with state Sen. Brett Lindstrom at 20%.
A recent survey from Data Targeting for Neilan Strategy Group, which said it wasn’t working on behalf of any candidate or allied group, found things comparably close, though the order of the candidates was different: That firm gave Lindstrom a 28-26 advantage over Herbster, while Pillen took third with 24%. These are the only two polls we’ve seen since the Nebraska Examiner published an April 14 story where Republican state Sen. Julie Slama and seven other women accused Herbster of groping and other forms of sexual assault.
●PA-Gov: The Philadelphia Inquirer‘s Andrew Seidman reports that “most Pennsylvania Republican insiders” are fretting that state Sen. Doug Mastriano, who recently addressed a QAnon-aligned conference, could win the May 17 primary and jeopardize the party’s chances in the fall, but it remains to be seen if there will be any organized attempt to stop him. A newly established group called Pennsylvania Patriots for Election Integrity has launched a TV buy in rural areas that, improbable as it sounds, tries to out-Big Lie the Big Lie fanatic by claiming Mastriano “failed to audit the 2020 election,” but so far only $250,000 is going to the effort.
Mastriano has also been taking hits on TV from former U.S. Attorney Bill McSwain for supporting what his campaign calls “the unconstitutional mail-in voting law” that the Republican-run legislature passed in 2019 before Trump and his allies started to wage war on vote-by-mail. (Pennsylvania Patriots also hit Mastriano over mail-in voting.) The former prosecutor himself got some incredibly bad news weeks ago when his old boss, Donald Trump, implored Republicans not to vote for him, but McSwain is still strong in one area: Seidman writes that he has $3.4 million in TV ads reserved for the primary, more than many of his numerous intra-party rivals.
One of those other candidates is former Rep. Lou Barletta, who is now under attack by a group ostensibly set up to help him. Fellow Inquirer reporter Chris Brennan writes that an organization called the 1776 Project Committee registered in the state back in February as a pro-Barletta group, and it went on to set up a website bashing McSwain. Now, though, the 1776 Project has started running digital ads against Barletta dubbing him “Lobbyist Lou.” Brennan writes that the group, which as of Friday still lists itself as supporting Barletta, has not explained its apparent betrayal.
●RI-Gov: Secretary of State Nellie Gorbea has publicized a Lake Research Partners poll that shows her beating Gov. Dan McKee 30-24 in the September Democratic primary, with former Secretary of State Matt Brown taking 10%. This is the first survey we’ve seen of this race all year.
House
●FL-15: Political consultant Gavin Brown has announced that he’ll seek the Democratic nomination for this new 51-48 Trump seat in the northeast Tampa suburbs, arguing that it’s vital to have “candidates who can compromise in the middle.” Brown, who would be the star’s first LGBTQ member of Congress, joins a primary that includes comedian Eddie Geller. The GOP side pits former Rep. Dennis Ross, who represented a previous version of the 15th District, against state Rep. Jackie Toledo.
●FL-23: While Democratic state Sen. Gary Farmer expressed interest earlier this year in campaigning to succeed retiring Rep. Ted Deutch, he’s instead filed to run for a local judgeship.
●OH-11: Rep. Shontel Brown earned an endorsement from President Joe Biden on Friday just ahead of her May 3 Democratic primary rematch against former state Sen. Nina Turner.
●TX-28: AIPAC’s new United Democracy Project is spending at least $333,000 against attorney Jessica Cisneros ahead of her May 24 Democratic runoff against conservative Rep. Henry Cuellar, with its TV ad arguing she would jeopardize Border Patrol jobs.
Ad Roundup
Dollar amounts reflect the reported size of ad buys and may be larger.
Good morning, and welcome once again to our revered Monday C&J series: Is This Bipartisan Enough For Ya, Senators?
With the midterm primary season finally upon us, we thought we’d revisit the pulse of the For the People Act, which would include “15 days of early voting, same-day registration, and limiting the ability of states to curb the use of mail voting and ballot boxes. It would also rewrite federal campaign finance rules and establish nonpartisan redistricting commissions to end partisan gerrymandering.”
Two things we know for sure. 1) Republicans are now hellbent on passing a blizzard of laws that legally take away voting rights from Democrats while rigging the system so that we lose even if we get the most votes, and 2) a pair of Democrats—one from West Virginia, one from Arizona—refuse to make even a small carve-out exception to filibuster rules so that the FTPA can be passed to stop Republicans from their power grab. So let’s remind everyone what Republican voters in West Virginia and Arizona think of all this.…
Continued…
Polling shows that Republicans in Arizona and West Virginia overwhelmingly support the sweeping election bill. […] In West Virginia, 76 percent of registered GOP voters support the For the People Act. In Arizona, the bill has support from 78 percent of registered Republicans and 75 percent support from voters who backed Donald Trump in the 2020 election.
The End Citizens United/Let America Vote Action Fund survey, first shared with Newsweek, found HR 1—also known as the For the People Act—to be extremely popular among all voters in both states.
In West Virginia, respondents supported the bill by 79 percent. In Arizona, 84 percent of likely voters supported the bill, and 73 percent “strongly” backed the voting rights legislation.
Ding Ding Ding!!! Americans love it! Get on it, Senate—the For the People Act is still a bipartisan winner!
Join us next time for another exciting edition of Is This Bipartisan Enough For Ya, Senators?
And now, our feature presentation…
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Cheers and Jeers for Monday, May 2, 2022
Note: I have good news: I just purchased Twitter for $50 billion dollars. I also have bad news: You’re all co-signers. I’m Bill in Portland Maine…and this concludes my Contract Signature Forgery 101 Master Class.
CHEERS to May! The month of flowers, Mom’s Day, Teachers Day (the 3rd), Armed Forces Day, Victoria Day, Lost Sock Memorial Day, National Pet Week, “End of the Middle Ages” Day (May 29—for Republicans a day of mourning), and Cinco de Mayo. Midterm primaries break out, with Democrats choosing between candidates who love their country, and Republicans choosing between candidates who don’t.
Also this month: the Russki Turret Frisbee Olympics continue.
It’s National Hamburger Month for carnivores and National Salad Month for vegetarians. The Webby Awards (and their famous 5-word acceptance speeches) will be awarded on the 16th, a week after the Pulitzer Prizes are announced on the 9th. Memorial Day weekend kicks off the summer season in 25 days, but not before we celebrate Star Wars Day (i.e. “May the Fourth Be With You”) and mark the 52nd anniversary of the Kent State shootings. Full moon arrives on the 16th, so make a note to look up, think of Neil Armstrong and Michael Collins, and give it a wink. As for new movies and streaming stuffs, lots of what looks like forgettable murder, horror, and mayhem, but they all pale to the bantha in the room: the premiere of Obi-Wan Kenobi on the 27th on Satan’s Channel, aka Disney Plus.
And after a two-year pandemic-related hiatus, we’re happy to report that the Daily Kos contributing editors will once again dress in their frilly best this afternoon to dance around the Maypole. Also once again, they’ll end up with a bent pole, a huge granny knot, and a great big pile of phone-cams with their memories erased. Vive le return to normalcy.
JEERS to election skullduggery. Everybody heard our previous president try to coerce election officials in Georgia to “find” thousands of non-existence votes for him in order to cheat his way to a second term. I’m not sure if you know this, but—[whispers]—election fraud is illegal. Like, really, really illegal. And that’s why all eyes are on Fulton County today, where members of a special grand jury are being selected in anticipation of the Trial Of The Century:
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis asked a panel of judges in January for the special grand jury because of “information indicating a reasonable probability” that the election “was subject to possible criminal disruptions.”
Guilty!!!
Willis has said in interviews that the investigation includes a January 2, 2021 phone call in which Trump told Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, “I just want to find 11,780 votes.” Trump lost the state to Joe Biden by that margin—an outcome that was affirmed by several recounts. […]
Trump said in a January 20statement that “My phone call to the Secretary of State of Georgia was perfect.”
If charges end up being filed and Trump loses at trial, he could spend up to three years in prison. Perfect.
CHEERS to the days of lollipops and surpluses. On May 2, 1997, President Clinton and congressional Republicans came to terms on a plan to balance the budget over five years. Said Newt Gingrich of the bipartisan agreement: “This is a great moment for our children and our grandchildren and our country, and we are proud to be part of that.” Fourteen years later, as a presidential candidate, Gingrich foolishly raised his hand when asked if he would veto a budget with ten dollars in cuts for every 1 dollar in revenue increases. But in fairness, he did also offer jobs to our children and grandchildren. As janitors. On the moon. Amazingly, he didn’t become president.
CHEERS to redemption. It doesn’t happen often enough, but it does happen. A leader in the American Nazi movement has seen the error of his ways, burned his swastika armband, snapped his tiki torch in two, donated his khaki pants and polo shirt to Goodwill, moved to Norway, and embraced the reality-based left:
Evan McLaren, who played a pivotal role in the American white supremacist “alt-right” movement and attended a deadly fascist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in 2017, published a surprise statement Thursday renouncing his past racist and anti-Semitic activism.
McLaren’s conversion from the dark side was confirmed when he no longer broke down in tears of sadness while being shown a photo of the liberation of Paris.
“I am not and never will be connected to the far-right again,” McLaren wrote in the statement, published on Substack. “My revulsion for conservatism and the political right wing is total. I reject and disavow my past actions, views, and associations.” […]
It makes him one of the most high-profile defectors from right-wing extremism in recent memory. In his statement, McLaren, 37, said he is sorry for his white nationalist activism―which he described as “a desperate, foolish mistake, damaging to others, to myself, and to society”—but says he doesn’t expect, and isn’t asking for, any kind of absolution.
McLaren says he now listens to liberal podcasts like The Majority Report. Wow—from Hitler to Sam Seder. I hope his brain has supplemental whiplash insurance.
CHEERS to a memorable growth spurt. 91 years ago this week, in 1931, the Empire State Buildingwas dedicated. It was the tallest building in the pleasant village of New York until 1972, when the World Trade Center rose above it. It regained its “tallest” status in the worst possible way 28 years later. But today it plays third fiddle to the new One World Trade Center tower and the luxury apartments of 432 Park Avenue. There, there, Empire State—if it’s any consolation, King Kong always liked you best.
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Ten years ago in C&J: May 2, 2012
JEERS to my Alma Mater. Yeah, I graduated from Otterbein University (Class of ’86) in the lovely dry town of Westerville, Ohio. Yeah, they invited Mitt Romney to speak there last week. Yeah, he said something stupid:
If you’re young and you want to start your own business, Mitt Romney’s has some advice from you: Borrow money from your parents. At a “lecture” for students at Otterbein University in Ohio today, Mitt Romney told students that, his friend, Jimmy John, started a business by borrowing $20,000 from his parents at a low interest rate. Romney suggested anyone in the audience could do the same.
These days it’d be pretty easy: Mom and Dad can have the dog take the check downstairs to the basement where Junior will be crashing on an air mattress because Republicans destroyed the economy and our employment outlook. I hope the kid figures out why it’s made of rubber before he tries to cash it.
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And just one more…
CHEERS to blowing this popsicle stand. Whenever the shit gets too deep here on the bluish-brown marble, I head over to NASA’s site to see if our new Space Force—still a thing under the iron-fisted rule of Darth Biden—is conquering every ball of gas and rock in the known galaxy. Sorry to say the answer is no (although that little helicopter on Mars is still doing cool stuff) so we’ll just have to spend our days and nights gazing yonward and dreaming. This month’s major celestial events are a lunar eclipse and lots of hot planet-on-planet action. Here’s NASA with your monthly preview:
Biden ticks up, but GOP holds advantage on economy, Post-ABC poll finds
Republicans lose ground when it comes to which party voters see themselves casting ballots for in November and the parties are now at rough parity.
Today, 46 percent of registered voters say they would vote for the Democrat in their congressional district, compared with 45 percent who say they would vote for the Republican. Based on historical patterns, Democrats would likely need a bigger advantage to avoid losing their majority.
Yet last fall, Republicans held a 10-point edge and in February led by seven points on this question, known as the generic ballot. Nearly all of the change since February is the result of a shift toward the Democrats among self-identified independents, a group that can be volatile in public opinion polls.
Trust me when I say that if student loan cancellation really was a benefit to the wealthiest Americans it would’ve already been done.
Evidence mounts of GOP involvement in Trump election schemes
The text exchange, in an April 22 court filing from the congressional panel investigating the Jan. 6 riot, is in a batch of startling evidence that shows the deep involvement of some House Republicans in Trump’s desperate attempt to stay in power. A review of the evidence finds new details about how, long before the attack on the Capitol unfolded, several GOP lawmakers were participating directly in Trump’s campaign to reverse the results of a free and fair election.
QAnon followers have been convicted of terrorism, charged with murder, convicted of arson, charged for plotting an armed kidnapping raid, and of course participated in Jan. 6th in huge numbers. One must be willfully blind to not acknowledge that QAnon motivates crime and violence https://t.co/VWi8fScUX1
Raskin boxes in 3 Republicans before stomping the box
A masterclass in defusing fascist rhetoric.
[Jamie] Raskin 1) put the Republicans in a broad context with the highest of stakes, in this case Ukrainian democracy against Russian autocracy; and 2) found a Republican, in this case Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has said things you say only when your love of democracy is subordinate to your lust for power.
Actually sums up one of the great traps of military analysis. The US is different in military logistics because it has invested so heavily in them. This covers world-wide lift. No other power can compete. The US made something look easy which really isn’t. https://t.co/8gyU85XT4B
Three steps for Elon Musk if he’s serious about free speech at Twitter
But first, a primer for a somewhat confused billionaire on what the First Amendment actually entails
“It’s not just about turning up the free-speech dial, because there are always trade-offs,”[Jameel] Jaffer said. For example, if there are no limits on harassment and abusive speech, people — particularly women and members of minority groups who tend to be the targets — will leave the platform altogether.
“And that is not a win for free speech,” Jaffer said. “Nobody wants a platform on which anything goes.”
Even if viewed as generously as possible, Musk’s warped logic still falls into a common trap. He’s conflating First Amendment protections — which prohibit the United States government from swooping in to shut down speech via the courts — with the rules that a private company establishes to conduct its business. (Not to mention failing to take into account the laws of other countries where Twitter operates.)
When your reputation for lame interviewing gains this kind of cultural currency it might be time to ask yourself: why do so many people believe this about me? Trevor Noah’s Chuck Todd joke: pic.twitter.com/B52Aa9n5Og
Can Democrats knock Republicans off their two-faced midterm strategy?
Republicans are running two very different campaigns for November’s midterms. So far, it’s working.
To their base, they promote an unending culture war around race, education and LGBTQ issues.
But to appeal to independents and more moderate conservatives, Republicans are offering a thoroughly conventional “Had enough?” argument. Voters unhappy with the leadership of President Biden, inflation and the persistence of covid-19, they say, should communicate their discontent by ending Democratic control of the House and Senate….
Polls for congressional contests are closer than the conventional wisdom suggests about impending Democratic catastrophe. Some even give Democrats a slight lead in generic surveys for House races. A Washington Post/ABC News poll released Sunday found Democrats with 46 percent among registered voters, Republicans with 45. But the Republicans’ two-step, and enthusiasm in their base, give the GOP confidence about the fall.
With everything we have learned this week abt the insurrection & Meadows, Hannity, Greene; Musk & Twitter; the climate change warning from the U.N.; the drop in U.S. life expectancy, the decision in the NY redistricting suit, abt OK abortion; the Luttig blueprint for 2024 – THIS? https://t.co/vxaRbioN76
Passover in war-torn Odessa ‘I think the Rabbi made a dirty joke,’ Vlad informs me
I start talking to the man to my right. He’s called Michael and he’s just been to the nearby town of Mykolaiv where the fighting is fierce. Mykolaiv is what is stopping the Russian army reaching Odessa: if it falls, the Russians will be at the city gates. Michael works with the Jewish ambulance and is taking the wounded to safety. “Aren’t you worried?” I ask him. He looks upwards: “The Rebbe is with me,” he replies.
I tell him I want to go to Mykolaiv to see the front. The fussy man leans across the table. “Don’t do that,” he says. “I know you want a Pulitzer, but there is no guarantee you’ll come back.” He continues. “Look, this is not an army that respects the Geneva Convention. The Russians see the red cross of an ambulance as a target.”
The real reason to wipe out college debt in America and start over? We need to right a horrible wrong – young people who were sold a bill of goods about their loans and the value of their degrees And wiping out the debt is only the start. My new column https://t.co/YySMyBQrWI
Western artillery surging into Ukraine will reshape war with Russia
The expanded artillery battle follows Russia’s failed effort to rapidly seize Ukraine’s major population centers, including the capital, Kyiv. It comes as the government of President Volodymyr Zelensky and his Western benefactors brace for what is expected to be a grinding campaign in the Donbas region. The conflict there is expected to showcase the long-range cannons that are a centerpiece of Russia’s arsenal, weaponry already used to devastating effect in places such as Mariupol, a southern port city that has been pulverized by unrelenting bombardment.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, speaking alongside his Canadian counterpart at the Pentagon on Thursday, said long-range artillery will prove “decisive” in the next phase of the war. The Biden administration, which along with Canada is training small numbers of Ukrainian troops how to operate the dozens of 155 mm howitzers that both countries have pledged to provide, is expected to approve the transfer of even more artillery to Ukraine in the coming days, Austin said.
“Perhaps the most important victim of the wave of attacks has been the myth of Russian cyber-superiority, which for decades helped scare hackers in other countries — as well as criminals within its borders.” https://t.co/OQiLog1TDC
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi led a small congressional delegation to Ukraine on Saturday, the details of which were not publicized until she had again left the country. Pelosi, Rep. Adam Schiff and others met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in yet another show of support towards Ukrainians currently fighting for their nation’s continued existence.
The situation on the ground remains as it was; few Russian gains, but continued Russian atrocities. Details of what is happening to the Ukrainians forcibly “relocated” to Russia suggest Putin’s plan is to depopulate Ukraine of its citizens, scattering them throughout Russia, in a move meant to erase Ukraine’s own cultural identity and replace it with a more Russian version.
The eagerness of Putin and his government to engage in such war crimes is a primary reason the United States and NATO allies are now sending weapons and ammunition shipments to Ukraine in ever-increasing numbers. Ukraine has shown it can defend itself, and Putin and his associated oligarchs have shown themselves to be unfit leaders by every possible measure.
The debate over how some refugees are more deserving of aid and assistance than others isn’t new, especially in contrast with narratives of Latin and Caribbean American refugees and refugees from Southwest Asia and North Africa (SWANA); It demonstrates how humanity is not as advanced or progressed as far as it would like to believe itself to be—especially those of European descent. Western Civilization has long held itself above other nations, cultures, and civilizations: it has confused technological advancement with progress; misconstrued high-minded ideas, applied in a limited manner, with evolution; and failed to confront a history driven by military domination and destructive materialism.
How we view and talk about events of the modern world is rooted in its past—this world is a product of a root, trunk, and branches of a seed planted 1,000 years ago. We exist in a world born from those who see themselves as civilized and hold their conceptions of civilization as the epitome of human advancement and evolution.
To begin, we must ask, what is civilization? What does it mean to be “civilized”? Even those who do not consciously subscribe to white supremacist ideology have maintained ideas of a civilized and uncivilized world. Most recently, this has been seen in the coverage of Ukrainian refugees and how it has been noted that there seems to be more sympathy for them because of their “blonde hair and blue eyes.”
Western Civilization has evolved over the past 500 years as it drew (illusionary) lines of divisions between civilizations. These false divisions have given rise to myths of isolated states, pure cultures, pure human genetics (i.e., race), and an illusion of forever borders between nations and civilizations. These so-called hard lines are more than arbitrary; they are intellectual hallucinations.
This specific perception of civilization is rooted in a colonial worldview—colonialism was a project meant to “civilize” the world through some of the most inventive forms of violence in human history and profiting off these “lesser” peoples. The seed and soil of the modern world were founded in the Middle Ages, laying root during the so-called “Renaissance,” sprouting from The Enlightenment, growing during the early imperial and the Age of Reason, and spreading its poisonous fruit across the world from the late 19th century to our present day.
The Roots
While there were Muslim states and Christian kingdoms, the idea of pure civilizations, of hard lines between the two, is a myth. The Crusades planted a seed in bloody soil; this seed created a narrative dividing line between “West” and “East;” It was the birth of a narrative of the “civilized” and the “savage.” This seed would root and eventually thrive as time progressed.
The West vs. East clash of civilizations is more of a modern conceit than the reality lived during the Middle Ages. In The Bright Ages: A New History of Medieval Europe, Matthew Gabriele and David M. Perry write, “holy war was never a permanent state. Christians and Muslims in the eleventh and twelfth century were sometimes enemies, sometimes friends, but in all cases lived together.”
This seed of narrative division, of the “civilized” and “savage,” slowly grew. It wasn’t until the so-called “Renaissance” that ideas of being civilized took root and sprouted. Fourteenth-century intellectuals reached back, past the Middle Ages, into Rome and Greece’s “classical” eras. They believed the knowledge of these civilizations was lost—it wasn’t—and wanted to cleave themselves off from what they saw as an age of darkness by “re-discovering” those eras’ achievements and ideas. This is where we get the term “Dark Ages”—most modern Medievalists (historians that study Medieval Europe) do not refer to this time in such a way.
A modern example of how arbitrary divisions are made is how we draw random lines between generations. Think about how many times authors have written about the death of literature or writing—nostalgia for the way things used to be. Perry and Gabriele elaborate further In The Bright Ages, writing:
“Petrarch and his contemporaries argued that the knowledge of antiquity had been lost for a thousand years but now was recovered, reborn, translated into their fourteenth- and fifteenth-century Italy. This argument was political as well as cultural … (they) may have laid the foundations for seeing the medieval world as backward and dark, but the Enlightenment … built the house in which we still live. … Europe had supposedly crawled out of the darkness and into the light. Those familiar terms—dark and light—mirrored the value judgment behind this investigation of the past, one that selectively privileged white skin.”
Dancers from Anahuacalmecac International University Preparatory of North America school for indigenous students pray before dancing on Hollywood Boulevard near the El Capitan Theatre and Jimmy Kimmel Live Studio during an event celebrating Indigenous Peoples Day on October 8, 2017, in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles, California.
As European intellectuals attempted to separate themselves from their past and their connected world, the actions of their ruling elites and justifications that arose became a potent combination in retrospect. Through the Crusades and Reconquista (an idea born in the first millennium of Christian kingdoms reconquering the Iberian peninsula from the Islamic rule of Moorish kingdoms that ended up forcibly converting or expelling Muslims and Jews from the Iberian peninsula), Christian kingdoms created a forced hierarchy, placing European Christians at the top, with Muslims and Jews seen as lesser than. The date the Reconquista came to its completion is notable, sharing a year with another monumental event in world history—1492.
In the ocean blue, Columbus’ so-called discovery of what we now call the Americas upended the world power axis, creating the rainfall needed for these aspiring empires. Trade soon morphed into colonial projects in West Africa, along with the expansion of the slave trade. Until the transatlantic slave trade, much of the world’s slave trade went on throughout SWANA and the Mediterranean world, comprising most of its victims from Eastern Europe (the word slave is derived from “Slav”) and North and East Africa.
This so-called discovery of the Americas by Columbus was transformative because of the lasting connections between the worlds of the Americas and those of the “old world.” The Enlightenment would give birth to the ideas that justified the coming of the New World—which was as much an idea as a geographic location.
The Trunk
The Americas provided the space, resources, and land these small kingdoms needed to feed their lusts. The discovery of Indigenous Americans in these lands served as a theological and intellectual complication. Jennifer Raff wrote in Origin: A Genetic History of the Americas:
“Many Europeans were shocked when they first realized that Native Americans were not Chinese or South Asian Indians but instead a people not described in the Bible. … Europeans fabricated elaborate mythologies to explain their presence. Most of these stories featured some version of a ‘lost race,’ fables of an ‘advanced’ people who were wiped out by contemporary Native Americans.”
We can see the idea of the primitive savage sprout in these early perceptions of Indigenous Americans. And these perceptions continued to evolve as the United States formed and set out to conquer the American West.
These kingdoms quickly abandoned trade with the civilizations they came into contact with. Instead, they brought indentured servants and enslaved people to aid with the manual labor required for resource extraction, which was how most colonialism at this time worked. It was yet to fully develop into settler colonialism—the use of settlers to expand the state, such as the American expansion west or Israeli settlements in Palestine.
As Portugal and Spain expanded their colonies, ideas of race and human hierarchies took shape. Thinkers like Voltaire and Immanuel Kant, who are still uplifted by many now, helped give birth to a parasite still alive today with racial hierarchy. Author Emmanuel C. Eze explores this with his 1997 book, Achieving Our Humanity: The Idea of the Postracial Future, and explores Kant, who wrote: “Humanity exists in its greatest perfection in the white race. The yellow Indians have a smaller amount of talent. The Negroes are lower, and the lowest are a part of the American peoples.”
Writer Jamelle Bouie does a great job of laying out the racism of not just Kant but of the Enlightenment itself where he writes:
“It is true that, in his Two Treatises on Government, Locke proclaimed himself an opponent of ‘slavery.’ But this ‘slavery’ refers to the political domination of an absolute monarch. In the second of the treatises, Locke provides a justification for slavery as a result of war, using the same ‘absolute power’ language that grants slave owners the power of life and death over their slaves. While his argument doesn’t fit the hereditary chattel slavery taking shape in the Americans, it was nonetheless used to justify the practice.”
Ideas of race, civilization, the civilized, and the savage began to thrive, becoming intellectualized during The Enlightenment. Adam Smith, in 1776 wrote in The Wealth of Nations that Africa “seem[ed] in all ages of the world to have been in the same barbarous and uncivilized state in which we find them at present.” These ideas during The Enlightenment and then the Age of Reason quickly advanced to what is now called race science.
The “civilized” conductors of the transatlantic slave trade shipped over 12.5 million Africans to the Americas over the slave trade’s history. They committed genocide, before 1492, on between 75-100 million Indigenous people who were living within what is now the Americas. By the 20th century, 4-4.5 million Indigenous people remained in the Americas. The 19th through the mid-20th century would see millions more die or become subjugated across the globe, all in the so-called name of civilization.
Even as these men of “western civilization” believed themselves to “progress,” such as banning the international slave trade, their progress was finding more acceptable ways to commit horrific acts. The interior slave trade of America would prove far more financially rewarding for the growing elites of America. In Stamped from the Beginning, author Ibram Kendi details Thomas Jefferson’s thoughts on the “Second middle passage” that moved over one million enslaved people to the interior of the United States after the Slave Trade Act of 1807, banning the international trading of enslaved people from Africa.
The brutality that created this “civilized” land of the United States is seen as justified. The ideas born of The Enlightenment and The Age of Reason were vital to the birth of the United States of America and its domination of the American continents. Race science gave rise to ideas that would evolve into what we now call eugenics. As the Age of Reason grew out of The Enlightenment, European kingdoms, states, and empires began to move past religious doctrine and justification to evolution and biology, yet still “under god.” By 1914, 84% of the world was under European domination.
Branches and Leaves
The late 19th century to the present has been filled with wars, brutal conflicts, genocide, and ethnic cleansing. And at almost every turn, direct involvement, a hand, and connections can be drawn to the so-called civilized nations steering the ship.
As humanity’s modern world came into being, the so-called civilized world enacted monumental atrocities across the globe. This period saw the “land of the free” complete its almost total genocide of Native Americans in what is now the continental United States. The U.S. war in the Philippines from 1898-1902 saw 200,000 civilians die. King Leopold II of Belgium and his occupation of the Congo from 1885 to 1908 led to over 10 million Congolese dead through massive brutality. Turkey’s Armenian Genocide led to over 800,000 Armenians being killed. India saw 12-24 million people die of starvation while living under the British Empire. These are just a few of the genocides and atrocities committed by non-Nazi western powers.
Native American land is still not safe in this country.
The quest for power, rule, and territory led these nations into direct conflict and provided the world with the most cataclysmic wars it has seen: World War I ended the lives of over 15 million people, and World War II with over 60 million dead. World War II also saw the United States become the first and so-far only nation to use nuclear weapons directly upon human populations, dropping two atomic bombs on Japan—the justification of their use is still debated today.
Post-WWII West hands are still bloodied with incursions too numerous to list. But in short, since WWII, the United States has placed over 700 military bases across the globe. Attempting to overturn some 72 governments, some launched decades of violence, such as the 1960 coup in the Congo. And today, with the “War on Terror,” millions have suffered: The Watson Institute of International and Public Affairs at Brown University Cost of War Project estimates nearly a million people have died as a result, with millions more displaced.
Ideas of civilization, the civilized, uncivilized, and civilizing people undergirded these actions by nations of Western Civilization. Ideas of whiteness evolved and shifted, evolving to protect itself. European “races” or nationalities created their own hierarchies of the European race. Irish, Italians, Polish, Slavic, and Ukrainians were seen as dirty, as lesser than, and less evolved—be it biologically or culturally, depending upon who was writing or lecturing. But as time went on, they became “white.”
Josiah Strong, a leading late 19th-century intellectual, wrote a book, Our Country, in1885, exemplifying the attitude of intellectuals during the Age of Reason. He talked about the “Anglo-Saxon race” and the rise of America. Richard White, author of The Republic for Which it Stands, wrote about Strong and his view of the rise of the United States: “God was ‘training the Anglo-Saxon race for an hour sure to come in the world’s future.’ The moment of a final contest between the races was at hand, and God was schooling Anglo-Saxons for victory and conquest.”
Many ethnic European identities would become white, but the sentimental driving force and justification of place in the world continued to be the undercurrent of intellectual thinking. The poor, the native, and the African were to be the underclass; The divine right of kings continued under a new name, using “science” and “reason” to justify it.
Ideas of biological race evolved into eugenics and the building of modern medicine. These “civilized” men experimented on enslaved people as a launching pad to create the modern world. The book Medical Apartheid, by Harriet A. Washington, gruesomely details this history. Enslaved people were put on medical display and experimented on without anesthesia while they were still alive—the entire field of gynecology was built through painful and invasive procedures on enslaved women. In the 20th century, America experimented on Black Americans, such as exposing Black GIs and forced sterilizations (still present today), to persistent medical racism. These are just a taste of monumental medical horrors in America, horrors the American narrative keeps buried.
As always, there was “progress,” and the narrative shifted to softer language: the First World, the Second World, and the Third World. Initially, this meant capitalist nations, Soviet allied nations, serving as First and Second world, respectively. The Third World were those who didn’t clearly fall into either camp. Many were former colonial subjects of the First and Second World, but the Third World quickly took on the meaning of “impoverished nations.”
It continued to evolve into “developed,” “developing,” and “undeveloped” nations. It erased the violence that made the wealthy nations “developed.” It ignored the continued robbery of the “Third World,” now referred to more commonly as the “global south,” and the plundering of the African continent continues to this day, much of it under the guise of “economic development.”
Crosses are placed to remember those who have died crossing the border at an interfaith vigil at Our Lady of Guadalupe Chapel April 23, 2006, in Des Plaines, Illinois. The vigil was held to call for reform of current immigration laws.
Refugees from SWANA, caused by American wars, serve as another example, as they are left to die,drowning in the ocean. No shred of humanity was granted to them, with people on the far-right calling these people invaders and the mainstream press embracing this frame, albeit diluted by using “caravan” as a substitute. And now, people who were once seen as the dirt of Europe are “civilized” because they must be to serve narratives that maintain our world order.
Yet those beaten, bred, mutilated, experimented on, doused with radiation, sterilized, stolen from their land, stolen from their language and history by the self-named civilized people of Western Civilization expose the very idea of “civilized” as a farce. How can one be “civilized,” labeling others as “savage” or “sub-human,” rejecting our common humanity, and participating in brutality that would make Genghis Khan blush?
We must question the very nature of civilization. What we call the very first civilizations in Mesopotamia were just “strongmen,” lording over some and enslaving others. War, slavery, rape, and domination were core components of what we call the first civilizations. If this is civilization, then what is uncivilized?
Should we look at being civilized as “good manners” and being well dressed? The British Empire, in all its brutality, had a wealth of manners.
So what is civilization? In the end, it is whatever we claim it to be. What about being civilized? Civilized, the essence of the very concept is the creation of judgment of others; the very idea places some above and others below.
Let’s reject the very idea of civilized, but in exchange, embrace a revolution of values, one that rejects aggressive competition between civilizations and people, zero-sum social dynamics, and materialism and militarism. While “the West” didn’t invent these things, it has embraced them to the edge of our species’ destruction.
