By John Johnson II
Since its inception, America’s Democracy has been guilty of genocide, slavery, voter suppression, segregation, discrimination, lynching, and unfair justice. America’s guilt continues to this very day. Democracy created by our Founding Fathers as a process of governing has continued to ensure that white people would fully enjoy all rights inscribed within the U.S. Constitution.
Historians have raved about the Constitution being a living document. This is because Congress has added seventeen amendments to the original ten, to expressly extend as well as protect the rights of its people.
America’s democracy is guilty. It has supported systemic racism which has denied Black and Brown people their equal rights as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. Shamefully, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia is treating Jan. 6, 2021 insurrectionists with similar heartfelt Confederate leniency.
A review of the following amendments clearly reveals America’s guilt:
* The 13th Amendment, 1865, abolished slavery. However, Jim Crow laws allowed white supremacists to terrorize and lynch Black people through the 19th century. Lynching never was made a Federal crime.
* The 14th Amendment, 1868, punished states for denying the right to vote and defines citizenship. Yet, states are currently aggressively passing voter suppression legislations.
* The 15th Amendment, 1870, guaranteed all citizens the right to vote. However, Voters’ Rights Acts of 1965 and 1970 passed were exclusively meant to protect Black voters. Republican Legislators have brazenly passed draconian voter suppression legislation without any regards for this Amendment.
* The 19th Amendment, 1920, established Women’s Right to vote. For Black women, the fight had just begun. White supremacists in the south made voting a living hell for Black women.
Regrettably, Black people remain the only people needing additional protection such that Congress has over the years passed 8 Civil Rights Acts, which included multiple Voting Right Acts, and a Fair Housing Act. It’s unimaginable, but beginning in 1870 thru 1871,there were three Ku Klux Klan Acts passed to protect Black People from lynchings and other acts of terror.
Despite Constitutional Amendments and passage of various Acts, America’s government has failed to fully protect the rights of Black and Brown people. Why? Unfortunately, this government of, for, and by the people harbors a segment of people who are white supremacist themselves. Senators Ron Johnson and Jim Jordan role as Senators is more repugnant than if they were hooded Klansmen.
It isn’t new that racism is systemic, and democracy is bulging with guilt. However, the strengthening of Black people’s political and economic empowerment represents new paradigm changes. Consequently, these changes have caused a Nationwide divide far wider than the one which led to the Civil War of 1861.
Republicans realize that they’re unlikely to win a presidential election unless they successfully suppress Black people’s voting rights. White supremacists are aware that the demographics are changing, and Democracy no longer allows them to terrorize and murder Black people with complete immunity.
Sadly, rather than atoning for America’s guilt, Republicans and their white supremacists base have decided that the use of democracy as a weapon to maintain ultimate power and control isn’t working. Therefore, they have continued to attempt to overthrow the government and install an illegitimate president. Thereby destroying Democracy and establishing an Autocracy.
Yes, America’s Democracy is guilty! But Black, Brown, and white democrats refuse to allow Republicans and their base of white supremacists to overthrow this government. Should, the January 6, 2021, insurrection represent the beginning of the second Civil War, its ending will be far more devastating for the domestic terrorists. You be the judge!
