Proof the Voting Rights Act is still crucial is seen by how fast racist Republicans acted to exploit the Supreme Court ruling.
We also see evidence the last few years of your point that the wedge issues aren't important to them, just that they have one. They cried so much about CRT a few years ago but I don't hear much now. They just try a bunch of hateful things and go with the one that seems to stick at the moment.
We share a common concern. My most recent newsletter touched on the same topic, though without the depth you brought to it. I've linked to your article and encouraged my readers to subscribe to your newsletter.
Wow. Thank you for this succinct masterpiece of scholarship, insight, words fail me. Pushed me over the line to subscribe! I also love the plan to retake Texas. It seems to me, though, that the fears and prejudices that have fed this devoted chain of conspiracy are based in a southern DNA that can't be legislated away. How to do this so we don't have to start over in 50 years? It might help a bit that the "base" who cling to the lies have had an opportunity to see where their votes will lead: through AI (standing behind him on inauguration day) to a godless, jobless future ruled by an unapproachable corporate machine with equal condescension toward subjects of all persuasions. Is this a "teaching moment" and if so, how best to use it?
All great questions. And maybe the answers have to be my follow up, but I’d have to think on it. We have to win in November, or it might take us 50 years to wrestle it back.
Can it be legislated away? Yes, but the legislation needs a huge focus on education (especially critical thinking), where America currently is suffering. And we need some sort of version of the fairness doctrine and the ability to hold social media companies accountable. Yeah, I’ll have to write a follow up.
"Southern DNA that can't be legislated away." Southern culture infected Texas when the tide of the Civil War turned against the Confederacy, and enslavers force marched the captives to the Blackland Prairie in East Texas. The black soil was stripped of prairie and used to grow cotton. Those unfortunate enslaved people were prevented from knowing about the Emancipation Proclamation. Not until Union soldiers showed up in Texas did they find out, two years after the fact, and Juneteenth celebrates their freedom day.
For the purposes of this discussion, it's important to note that only East Texas, and it's commercial capital, Dallas, were colonized by Southerners. They had little in common with the other regions of Texas, not the Hispanics in South Texas, nor the Appalachian, German and Czech immigrants in Central Texas, or the tough, independent people who lived in West Texas and the Panhandle in those days. Texas is so big, and has had so many different people colonize it, that it is unique, and different in all it's parts. (Even the Comanche were nomadic people who moved down from WY and CO.) Modern Texas is not the South, and a lot of the far right extremists here now have come from out of state to revive a legacy of white supremacy that for the most part was stomped out in the 20th century by native Texans themselves.
Remember when they used to say, the south shall rise again? I saw Criswell preach once - a friend of mine in elementary school invited me to church with her - I'm sure she was trying to make a southern baptist out of me. The only things I remember now are how very big the church was and how shrill he was.
Thank you for showing us how this machine has been working so precisely all these years. Everything is poised to continue ramming through the southern ideal. Democrats and moderates have always been too passive.
Excellent piece of writing. My gosh! This comment is off topic, kinda, but this is as good a place as any to bring this up. The candidate running in the newly gerrymandered CD 10 is Chris Gober He spent over a million dollars winning the primary and he's marketing himself as a down home country boy. He was born in Throckmorton, went to A&M, attended Harvard and became a lawyer. He then went to work for Musk. He defended Musk's lawsuit in Pennsylvania regarding the massive sums of money being spent to buy elections there. He then returned to Texas, got involved in the gerrymandering efforts, and drew himself a district. That new district grabs a small piece of Austin and then shoots off into a big blank white rural space. He plans to "beat the hell out of the Democrats". I'm not so sure the people who vote there know his back story. Teach me how to do this kind of deep dive. The voters of CD 10 deserve to know the truth.
Thank you for the history lesson.
Proof the Voting Rights Act is still crucial is seen by how fast racist Republicans acted to exploit the Supreme Court ruling.
We also see evidence the last few years of your point that the wedge issues aren't important to them, just that they have one. They cried so much about CRT a few years ago but I don't hear much now. They just try a bunch of hateful things and go with the one that seems to stick at the moment.
We share a common concern. My most recent newsletter touched on the same topic, though without the depth you brought to it. I've linked to your article and encouraged my readers to subscribe to your newsletter.
https://scattershooting.substack.com/p/michelle-h-davis-is-someone-i-know?r=h4wvh&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&showWelcomeOnShare=true
My most recent article on the topic of Christian Nationalism:
https://scattershooting.substack.com/p/rolling-in-their-graves?r=h4wvh
Wow. Thank you for this succinct masterpiece of scholarship, insight, words fail me. Pushed me over the line to subscribe! I also love the plan to retake Texas. It seems to me, though, that the fears and prejudices that have fed this devoted chain of conspiracy are based in a southern DNA that can't be legislated away. How to do this so we don't have to start over in 50 years? It might help a bit that the "base" who cling to the lies have had an opportunity to see where their votes will lead: through AI (standing behind him on inauguration day) to a godless, jobless future ruled by an unapproachable corporate machine with equal condescension toward subjects of all persuasions. Is this a "teaching moment" and if so, how best to use it?
All great questions. And maybe the answers have to be my follow up, but I’d have to think on it. We have to win in November, or it might take us 50 years to wrestle it back.
Can it be legislated away? Yes, but the legislation needs a huge focus on education (especially critical thinking), where America currently is suffering. And we need some sort of version of the fairness doctrine and the ability to hold social media companies accountable. Yeah, I’ll have to write a follow up.
"Southern DNA that can't be legislated away." Southern culture infected Texas when the tide of the Civil War turned against the Confederacy, and enslavers force marched the captives to the Blackland Prairie in East Texas. The black soil was stripped of prairie and used to grow cotton. Those unfortunate enslaved people were prevented from knowing about the Emancipation Proclamation. Not until Union soldiers showed up in Texas did they find out, two years after the fact, and Juneteenth celebrates their freedom day.
For the purposes of this discussion, it's important to note that only East Texas, and it's commercial capital, Dallas, were colonized by Southerners. They had little in common with the other regions of Texas, not the Hispanics in South Texas, nor the Appalachian, German and Czech immigrants in Central Texas, or the tough, independent people who lived in West Texas and the Panhandle in those days. Texas is so big, and has had so many different people colonize it, that it is unique, and different in all it's parts. (Even the Comanche were nomadic people who moved down from WY and CO.) Modern Texas is not the South, and a lot of the far right extremists here now have come from out of state to revive a legacy of white supremacy that for the most part was stomped out in the 20th century by native Texans themselves.
Remember when they used to say, the south shall rise again? I saw Criswell preach once - a friend of mine in elementary school invited me to church with her - I'm sure she was trying to make a southern baptist out of me. The only things I remember now are how very big the church was and how shrill he was.
Thank you for showing us how this machine has been working so precisely all these years. Everything is poised to continue ramming through the southern ideal. Democrats and moderates have always been too passive.
Wow - thank you for this wealth of information, and especially for connecting it up.
Excellent piece of writing. My gosh! This comment is off topic, kinda, but this is as good a place as any to bring this up. The candidate running in the newly gerrymandered CD 10 is Chris Gober He spent over a million dollars winning the primary and he's marketing himself as a down home country boy. He was born in Throckmorton, went to A&M, attended Harvard and became a lawyer. He then went to work for Musk. He defended Musk's lawsuit in Pennsylvania regarding the massive sums of money being spent to buy elections there. He then returned to Texas, got involved in the gerrymandering efforts, and drew himself a district. That new district grabs a small piece of Austin and then shoots off into a big blank white rural space. He plans to "beat the hell out of the Democrats". I'm not so sure the people who vote there know his back story. Teach me how to do this kind of deep dive. The voters of CD 10 deserve to know the truth.
Absolutely brilliant. And I hope like hell you’re right.
I love that thought about their longterm strategy: “ if it can be built here, it can be broken here”
You always have zingers💪
If it can be built here