Democrats Should Simply Remove The Stumbling Block
There is no easy path to a free country.
My high interest right now, to no one's great surprise, is reading about the mistakes of American history – the routes Americans could have taken to a more stable, robust democracy, the routes that would not eventually lead to the Supreme Court clearing the way for the nation's first king.
Mostly I'm reading about Reconstruction because a real Reconstruction – not just in the South, but in northern states where abolitionists were vastly outnumbered – would have addressed our original sin of slavery and put into place governmental safeguards against the determined opponents of American democracy, who now rule us with near impunity. Reconstruction was our way out, and we fucking blew it. We live with those consequences today. It's why my overactive imagination has recently toyed with the idea of a Great Redo, a modern take on Reconstruction.
But before Reconstruction – the chance to turn the United States in a real democracy – there were abolitionists who understood that no one could be free unless everyone was free. Freedom included freedom for women, much to the consternation of white dudes who joined abolitionist groups in the first half of the 19th century.
Women who vehemently opposed the institution of slavery in those days told their anti-slavery compatriots that any viable pro-freedom movement would have to include full economic and political rights for women in the US. Sexual and gender equality, they said, was the only path to a truly free American society purged of the horrors of slavery. It's all connected, they cried out. How will people take our abolitionist movement seriously until and unless women enjoy the same freedoms as their brothers and husbands and fathers and sons? It was a question with only one answer.
The bros who opposed slavery but weren't too keen on the whole women's right thing said hold up a minute, we don't want to move too far, too fast. Let's pump the goddamn brakes ladies. We don't want to enrage the enemies of democracy more than we need to. The last thing we want to do is provoke the Bad Guys, who will surely go along with our plans to outlaw slavery if only we keep women subjugated in all aspects of American life.
It was a foolish stance, and one that resonates today in all the worst ways. We're watching elected Democrats in Congress and elsewhere gnash their collective teeth over which marginalized groups to abandon in desperate hopes that maybe they can lure a few red-pilled MAGA freaks to the blue side in 2o26 and 2028 (I stand by my take that Democrats won't even need an agenda to sweep the midterms if President Stephen Miller allows there to be midterms).
Do we abandon transgender folks, or maybe just trans athletes? Do we abandon immigrants seeking a halfway decent life far from the economic and political violence of their homelands? Do we abandon college students being arrested and hauled off by secret police for their opposition to the horrors in Gaza? What would a coal miner in rural Pennsylvania think of these groups? What would a retiree in Wisconsin who watches Newsmax nine hours a day and subscribes to a Facebook group called "Fauci is SATAN" think of these groups? This is what consumes large swaths of the Democratic Party right now, in a moment of escalating authoritarianism.
Denny Carter
I'm learning these days that the history of the United States is a history of tepid pro-democracy forces unwilling to do what needs to be done if the country is ever to be a vibrant, multiracial, multicultural democracy. Forget the haters. Defend the people who need defending and see what happens. Watch as support comes from parts of the population you have written off as unreliable voters. Create a coalition of the formerly unengaged who can swamp anti-democracy voters and their leaders. We saw a sliver of this in the 2020 election, which Americans treated as a national emergency. We can have it again – in a bigger and better way – if Democrats don't agonize over who can and cannot be free. It's everyone or no one. That's the deal, Jack.
There is no easy path to a free country, and love of these groups will never, ever be popular. The sooner elected Democrats come to terms with this, the sooner we can remove the stumbling block, the sooner we can "push forward with all our might." The ladies knew it 200 years ago. Listen to the ladies. They knew their shit.
Follow Denny Carter on Bluesky at @dennycarter.bsky.social.
Comments ()