RECLAIMING AMERICA: THE RIGHT TO VOTE

LONG WAY HOME:  RECLAIMING DEMOCRACY

A CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT: 

THE RIGHT TO VOTE

  

“The individual citizen has no federal constitutional right to vote for electors for the President of the United States.” 

Justice Antonin Scalia for the Majority, Bush V. Gore 2000

It came as a surprise to many informed citizens when the Supreme Court ruled in Bush V. Gore that Americans did not possess a constitutional right to vote for the president of the United States.  It seems the constitution makes reference to the right to vote but not specifically in regard to federal elections. 

Ratified in 1870, the fifteenth amendment prohibits denying the right to vote on the basis of “race, color or previous condition of servitude.”  In 1913 the seventeenth amendment required the election of United States Senators.  Prior to that amendment senators could be chosen by a variety of means.  In 1920 women were granted the right to vote or rather the denial of the right to vote on the basis of sex was prohibited.  In 1961 residents of the District of Columbia were granted the right to vote in presidential elections – or rather the right to vote for members of the Electoral College.  In 1964 the poll tax was prohibited.  In 1971 the age requirement for the right to vote was lowered from 21 to 18. 

In the year 2000, with the Electoral College hanging by the loose chads of Florida in the presidential election, the Supreme Court reviewed all constitutional references and decided that there was in fact no right to vote in national elections.  A thin majority of justices came to this conclusion because it facilitated their purely partisan decision to award the election to fellow Republican George W. Bush.  They seemed to recognize how specious their argument was when they also pleaded with future justices not to give their decision the weight of precedence. 

Why was it important that the Supreme Court deny the right to vote?  Because, if the citizens of Florida possessed a right to vote, then the court could not deny that right by pre-empting a full recount in Florida.  The court could not end the recount process and choose the next president by a five to four majority.  That is exactly what the court did. 

We are left with a hole in the constitution the size of democracy itself.  If we follow the court’s reasoning, a theoretical right to vote cannot be denied on the basis of age above 18, race, color, sex or the ability to pay a poll tax but it can be denied for any other reason.  In the case of Florida the right to vote could be denied for expediency or partisanship. 

Does anyone really believe that the court’s decision to cut off the recount would have been the same if it awarded Albert Gore the presidency?  I don’t think so. 

As to the court’s plea to negate the decision’s precedent value, it is about as useful as a “theoretical” right to vote.  The Supreme Court delivers the law of land.  One of the few judicial powers it does not possess is the power to negate precedence. 

In the wake of Bush V. Gore the nation’s leaders should have rallied to reaffirm the institutions of democracy.  Instead they praised the wisdom of the founders in creating such anachronisms as the Electoral College.  Consequently, in the year 2016 we awarded a candidate with 3 million votes less than his opponent the White House.  With all due respect, this is not wisdom; it is idiocy.  That we have allowed a minority of voters to elect the president twice in less than two decades is a disgrace to all we hold dear.  Moreover, those two mistaken presidencies will likely be recorded in history as supreme catastrophes. 

If we wish to restore democracy in America it is imperative that we affirm the right to vote.  We can then proceed to the principle of one person, one vote or equivalent value of every vote.  That will be a hotly contested issue. 

Who can stand up in America and proclaim that an otherwise qualified individual does not possess the right to vote?  There are those who will advance contorted arguments of every flavor and description to justify gerrymandering, the Electoral College, special identification procedures and even unequal access to voting across districts but there are very few so bold as to proclaim that every law-abiding individual of age should not possess the right to vote. 

Only the Supreme Court has done so and yet they did so in such a sly and devious manner that few Americans have any idea that it is the law of the land.  We do not have a right to vote.  When it matters most – in the election of a president – we do not.  Antonin Scalia and his colleagues on the Supreme Court may like it that way.  Common citizens should not.  They have nullified the power of the people and they will continue to do so until we stop them. 

We must rectify this affront to the American republic.  We must advance a constitutional amendment so simple and pure that it defies anyone the impudence of denying it.  I propose the following: 

Section 1:  All citizens aged 18 or older possess the right to vote in appropriate elections of government officials and this right shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any state or local authority. 

Section 2:  Congress shall have the power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. 

Let the arguments begin. Those who stand in favor can be counted on as defenders of the democratic form of government.  Those stand against are the enemies of democracy.  While it seems as simple and obvious as gravity, the opposition will hire the finest and most expensive law firms to prevent its passage at all cost – just as they did the equal rights amendment. 

The first argument will likely concern those who have lost the right to vote because they were convicted of serious crimes and are either behind bars or serving periods of probation or parole. 

Certainly we could exempt the prisoner and parolee population but that would violate the principle of universal suffrage.  If the right to vote can be taken away it is no longer a right; it is a privilege.  We do not strip the imprisoned of the right to speak.  We do not revoke the right to worship as one pleases.  We do not take away the right to medical care – a right that is not yet recognized in America.  Why then should we take away the right to vote? 

Of course we do deny prisoners the freedom to live in open society and prisoners and parolees the right to possess firearms in the greater interest of society at large and prison officials in particular.  Is there an equivalent interest with the right to vote?  Despite the fact that we imprison more of our citizens than any other civilized nation on earth, those behind bars represent only .007 percent of the population.  There is no evidence to suggest that this small number would have a significant effect on elections.  To the extent that it could have an effect, there is no evidence to suggest that it would be detrimental to society.  While there are more individuals on parole than in prison, they have paid their debt and are entitled to their rights. 

The enemies of democracy will make this argument not because they think it’s important or because they think it is right.  The fact is they don’t care whether or not prisoners and parolees obtain the right to vote.  Most of them will not vote anyway.  They will make the argument because they believe it will provoke a knee-jerk reaction in good, law-abiding citizens.  They make the argument because it will empower them to go on denying the right to vote to people of color and people who are not likely to vote in their interest. 

What is their interest?  They represent the moneyed class, plain and simple.  They are the one-percent that the anti Wall Street movement and Bernie Sanders drew attention to in their respective movements.  They are the privileged individuals and corporations that are accustomed to controlling the strings of our government. 

The simple right to vote will threaten their control.  The simple right to vote will empower the people to their detriment. 

Those who defraud elections to their advantage have long exploited the parolee population.  While the recent trend is for voting rights to be restored upon completion of sentence, in the year 2000 Florida used its parolee list to disenfranchise tens of thousands of black voters.  That is the dirty little secret behind the election of George W. Bush.  Federal courts, including the Supreme Court, have long yielded the administration of elections to the states.  That would end with a constitutional recognition of the right to vote. 

Regardless of how you may feel about prisoners and/or parolees voting, it is not a reason to deny the fundamental right of all citizens to vote. 

What other arguments are there against a constitutional right to vote?  Let’s see.  There are none – at least none that are not flagrantly invalid or obviously tainted.  You could argue for states rights but that would conjure memories of how the Southern states denied blacks the right to vote for over a century.  No one who believes in the principles of democracy can seriously argue that an individual right to vote should be subject to the discretion of any given state.  In a democratic government no state should deny a person’s right to vote.  Ever. 

Had this principle been in place the disenfranchisement scheme in Ohio in the 2004 election – a scheme that may well have decided the presidential election in favor of Bush over Kerry – would have been subject to legal recourse.  Moreover, it could have been challenged in court prior to the election. 

The disenfranchisement schemes that have haunted our elections for decades are still in place.  They are being challenged in court but too often the challenges are falling because there is no federal recognition of the right to vote. 

That must change.  A society that does not embrace the right to vote has no right to call itself a democracy. 

Jazz. 

“Americans lack the right to vote.”  By Niko Bowie. Yale News, November 16 2005. 

Jack Random is the author of the Jazzman Chronicles as well as a variety of fictional works, including a trilogy of novels entitled Pawns to Players:  The Chess Series.  He is retired and living in central California. 

RECLAIMING AMERICA: THE SENATE

JAZZMAN CHRONICLES:  THE LONG WAY HOME.

A MORE DEMOCRATIC SENATE: 

ENDING THE FILIBUSTER

We have long been told that the genius of our system of government lies in the checks and balances not only between branches of government but within the legislative branch of government.  The House of Representatives possesses the power of the purse.  The President holds the power of executive action, including the veto.  The Senate has the power to withhold consent for executive appointments and to stifle all congressional action by requiring a 60% vote to bring any legislation to the floor. 

The “genius” of our system has become a chokehold on the government.  The current constellation of a Democratic House, a Republican Senate and a Republican White House means that no significant legislation can even be considered.  We could replace the president tomorrow with the candidate of our choice and still the government would remain paralyzed and unable to act.  The system has granted the Senate Majority Leader the power to veto all legislative action by refusing to take a measure to the floor. 

This must end with the next congress.  It does not serve the nation and it is not what the founders intended.  The senate has the power to change its rules with a simple majority vote at the beginning of a session and it must do so.  It can only happen if the Republicans yield control of the senate by losing at least three seats.  Even then, it would require a majority that is willing to do what no majority has been willing to do before:  Sacrifice power by ending the filibuster. 

Clearly, at a time when the nation and the world are facing crises critical to the future of the species, it no longer matters what the founders intended.  The system is inadequate to the needs of the people.  It is as if the patient is on life support with a failing lungs and the doctor is awaiting the approval of an insurance company executive to proceed with a critical operation.  While the scenario is not as farfetched as it should be, we are the patient and Mitch McConnell is the insurance executive.  Moscow Mitch has no intention of saving the patient. 

Those who consider this gridlock the product of genius clearly do not value the principles of democracy for the senate rivals the judiciary as the least democratic institution in all branches of government.  The senate did not have a black member until Hiram Revels of Mississippi in 1870 and has had only ten black senators in its entire history.  It welcomed its first Hispanic member, Octaviano Larrazolo of New Mexico, in 1928 and its first woman, Hattie Caraway of Arkansas, in 1932. 

Even today, the senate disproportionately represents white males.  Of one hundred senators, 75 are men and 91 are white.  While 12% of the population is black and another 12% is Hispanic, only three senators are black with one (Kamala Harris) being considered multi-racial and only four senators are Hispanic. 

These numbers represent a gross imbalance of power and it is not coincidental.  The founders meant for the Senate to represent the elite and to place a check on the common rabble of the lower chamber.  In other words the founders, who were composed entirely of white male landowners, wanted the Senate to impede the progress of the people.  In that it has succeeded beyond all expectations. 

Congress is not without its flaws but even when we factor in designer districting and disenfranchisement by various means it is infinitely more democratic that the Senate.  Each congressional district represents approximately 747,000 constituents.  This number holds fairly steady whether a district is in Florida or Missouri, Mississippi or California.  By contrast, a senator from the state of California represents approximately 40 million people while a senator from Wyoming represents approximately 580,000 people. 

If a handful of progressive billionaires wanted to change the landscape of American politics they could sponsor the relocation of half a million high tech employees from the progressive havens of San Francisco, Los Angeles, Portland and Seattle to beautiful Laramie, Wyoming.  The Democrats could then pick up two seats in the United States Senate and one in the lower house.  The city of Laramie would prosper in the balance. 

Because of the Senate, the citizens of California, New York, Florida and Texas are the least represented in America while the voters of Wyoming, Vermont, Alaska and North Dakota are the most over-represented.  Restated, in terms of senatorial representation, every voting citizen of Wyoming is worth roughly 69 Californians. 

Because the Electoral College allots electors using members of congress plus two for its senators, the imbalance of the senate is also reflected in our presidential elections.  Without that imbalance neither George W. Bush nor Donald Trump would have advanced to the White House.  We would likely not have entered the Iraq War and we would be leading the world in the effort to combat the ongoing catastrophe of global warming. 

Would we be better off?  You can be certain a majority of Americans believe so. 

As if the inherent inequity of the senate were not enough, the senate filibuster rule requires all legislative action to gain a three-fifths or 60-vote majority for consideration.  Unlike the Electoral College, that requirement is not grounded in the constitution.  It is not based on legislation.  It is an invention of the institution that can be undone at the beginning of a session.  In other words, it is a power grab by the most aristocratic institution in government. 

The filibuster has its roots in the early nineteenth century when a senator was allowed to block any vote by taking the floor and holding it for as long as he could speak without leaving the podium.  The filibuster was employed by Southern Democrats to defeat every significant civil rights law from 1917 to 1964. [1]  

In 1917 an incensed Woodrow Wilson pushed through a two-thirds vote requirement to close debate.  That worked for Wilson but it hardly works for us today.  In 1975 the filibuster was redefined for polite society.  A senator no longer has to hold the floor.  He or she can simply invoke the cloture rule and the required votes to end debate have been reduced from 67 to 60.  Now any senator can invoke cloture, killing any bill or measure until 60 senators vote to end the “filibuster.”  What was once a quaint senatorial courtesy has become a potent veto that strengthens the partisan divide and grinds all action to a halt. 

There may have been a time when the filibuster made sense to some but that time has long since expired.  Neither the founders nor the people envisioned granting that much power to the upper branch of congress. 

For decades the filibuster was the weapon of choice to Southern racists and white nationalists.  The infamous Senator Strom Thurmond of South Carolina conducted the longest continuous filibuster in senate history when he stopped a vote on the 1957 civil rights act for over 24 hours.  Under today’s rules that piece of legislation would have died in committee. 

The result is that nothing of substance can be accomplished without a consensus of two adversarial parties that have refused to find common ground since the global financial collapse of 2008.  Maybe that would be acceptable if the nation had no pressing needs but the nation has reached a crucible of pressing needs. 

The cloture requirement or virtual filibuster is why President Barrack Obama dared not propose a public option in the Affordable Care Act.  The filibuster is why neither comprehensive immigration reform nor the Dream Act could be enacted in law.  The filibuster is why our infrastructure has been allowed to crumble.  Who needs passable roads, safe bridges and working highways?  The filibuster is why we have not moved toward renewable energy in a manner that reflects the critical nature of the crisis.  The filibuster is why there has not been any serious effort at gun control legislation since the assault weapons ban of 1994 – allowed to expire in 2004. 

It is time for the United States Senate to join the 21^st century.  It is time for the senate to become a working part of a democratic system of government.  It is time for the senate to sacrifice the tools of aristocracy.  It is time for the senate to stop obstructing progress and start enabling it. 

Electing a Democratic majority in the senate is a necessary but insufficient first step.  If we are to advance the cause of democracy and empower the government to accomplish what must be accomplished, the next step is for the senate to repeal the filibuster entirely and become a more democratic institution. 

Neither the nation nor the world can afford to put up with another term of majority leader Mitch McConnell and the obstructionist senate. 

Jazz.

A SHORT HISTORY OF THE FILIBUSTER

1806:  Senate eliminates rule for ending debate.

1811:  House of Representatives enacts rules to limit debate, ending the filibuster in the lower chamber. 

1841:  Democrats hold the floor to prevent Whigs from firing Senate printer.  William King challenges Henry Clay to a duel.  Clay threatens new rule to cut off debate. 

1846:  Southerners successfully filibuster in favor of slavery in expansion bill.  

1903:  Ben Tillman of South Carolina successfully filibusters to collect a debt of $47,000.

1917:  Senate changes its rules to require 67 votes to end debate. 

1935:  Senator Huey Long of Louisiana holds the floor from noon to 3:50 am. 

1938:  Theodore Bilbo of Mississippi filibusters an anti-lynching bill.  Southern Democrats defeat other anti-lynching bills in 1922, 1935, 1938, 1948 and 1949. 

1949:  Lyndon Johnson filibusters a 1949 civil rights bill saying:  “The filibuster is the last defense of reason, the sole defense of minorities.” 

1950’s:  Less than one filibuster per session. 

1957:  Strom Thurmond opposes a toothless 1957 civil rights act. 

1964:  Robert Byrd of West Virginia concludes a 57-day chain filibuster to hold back civil rights.  The filibuster ends with 67 votes for cloture. 

1968:  GOP defeats the nomination of Abe Fortas as Chief Justice to the Supreme Court. 

1975:  Senate change cloture requirement to 60 votes. 

1987:  Republicans defeat campaign finance reform. 

2007-2008:  139 filibusters affect 70% of legislation. 

2013:  Democrats limit debate to approve judicial nominees. 

2019:  GOP limits debate to approve Trump nominees.  [2, 3]

1. “A Short History of the Filibuster.”  By Peter Carlson.  History Net. Circa 2019. 

2. “Senate Republicans have officially gone ‘Nuclear’ to confirm more Trump judges.”  By Li Zhou.  Vox April 3, 2019. 

3. “How a Filibuster Works.”  By John Kelly.  How Stuff Works, August 26, 2019. 

RECLAIMING AMERICA: THE NEXT PRESIDENT

JAZZMAN CHRONICLES:  THE LONG WAY HOME

BEYOND IMPEACHMENT: 

THE NEXT PRESIDENT

By Jack Random

In some ways impeaching a president is easy.  Convicting a president is not.  My answer to that fact is simple and direct:  It does not matter whether the president is removed from office by a two-thirds vote of the United States Senate.  What matters is that the case is laid out in painstaking detail before the American public.  We cannot expect the same senate that has summarily discarded all evidence of the chief executive’s misdeeds to somehow find its way to do the right thing in the end.  Absent a tsunami of public protest, it will not.  But that is no reason for not undertaking the action. 

Let majority leader and Moscow’s second best friend, Mitch McConnell, wrinkle his face with that sly grin that tells us all:  I know I’m lying and I’m lying anyway.  Let him tell us it’s a witch-hunt.  Let him face the cameras and proclaim his undying loyalty to the most corrupt and anti-democratic president in modern history.  It will only help us to accomplish the next step in reclaiming America. 

The second step – an absolute imperative – is electing a new president and one that is not timid in his or her desire to fundamentally change the political system.  We are at a critical time in our history.  We are facing challenges that will fundamentally alter the way people live not only in America but also in the world.  We do not need and cannot settle for half way measures and leaders whose greatest ambition is to compromise and get along.  We need a president who will embrace the challenge and inspire the people to demand necessary change. 

As I write these words the current crop of presidential challengers is led by Joe Biden, Barrack Obama’s vice president and a man who behind closed doors promised his wealthy contributors there would be no fundamental changes under his presidency. [1]  Biden once told “America’s mayor” Rudy Giuliani his every sentence was a noun, a verb and 9-11.  Now it seems Biden’s every sentence is a noun, a verb and Barrack Obama.  Old Joe would easily become the oldest US president at 78 on Inauguration Day.  With all respect, Biden was prone to gaffs the last time he ran for president – over a decade ago.  Now he has difficult formulating a cohesive thought. 

Even in his prime Old Joe was a get-along moderate.  There may have been a time for such a leader but that time is not now.  Biden is compromised on issues of war and foreign policy.  He supported the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Biden is compromised on civil rights, civil liberties and environmental protection.  When you’ve been in politics as long as Biden has and you’ve played the game as he has done, you look back and realize he’s turn around on virtually every controversial issue:  gun control, abortion rights, women’s rights, the crime bill, on and on. 

No one wants to attack Old Joe but he left his opportunity on the table when he allowed an even more compromised candidate in Hillary Clinton to take hold of the party nomination last time around.  It is too late now.  He needs to step aside even if it takes an attack dog to accomplish it.  Be assured Donald Trump, his team of hacks and his Russian allies would not go easy on him in the general election. 

The country is in critical condition.  Our democracy is under siege.  We have more weapons of war on our streets than in a war zone.  Innocent people are being slaughtered in churches, taverns, schools and retail outlets.  We just experienced the hottest month in recorded history.  While the president orders mass deportations our country is being battered by extreme storms from coast to coast.  While the president locks kids in cages and laughs at family separations, Greenland is melting and Florida is sinking into the sea. 

We cannot afford a moderate – aka corporate – Democrat any more than we can afford another term of Trump.  The market is finally beginning to recognize the utter ineptitude of the Trump administration.  It took George W. Bush eight years to push the global economy to the precipice of collapse with his policies of extreme deregulation and tax cuts for the rich.  Now it seems Trump may trigger a global recession in short order.  If that happens we will not need to worry about defeating Trump.  Our only concern will be:  What comes next? 

We need someone who recognizes the critical nature of the problems we face – not someone who buries his head in the sand.  We need someone who will reapportion our resources from the military and corporate profits to the people and their protection.  We need someone who recognizes that the earth’s air and water are being poisoned – not someone who destroys the Environmental Protection Agency.  We need someone who foresees the future of labor in this country and moves swiftly to a transition that allows the middle class to exist and expand – not someone who scapegoats Latin American immigrants. 

We need someone who acknowledges the reality of America’s broken promises and moves to reclaim the America of our dreams.  We need an America that stands at the forefront of world leadership – not an America that yields to Vladimir Putin and every other dictator who either kisses the president’s butt or helps him win an election. 

We should be ashamed of this president.  No doubt.  But it is not enough just to get rid of him.  We must replace him with a president of bold and decisive vision.  It is not enough to stop the policies of division and destruction.  We must build new alliances and rebuild the institutions that fortify and protect our democracy. 

The power of the presidency is such that the holder of that office can do a great deal of harm without the consent and support of congress.  The president can do very little good, however, without congress.  We must have control of both houses of congress and the presidency to accomplish what desperately needs to be accomplished. 

Tragically, we are stuck with a two-party system that has consistently failed the interests of the people.  Most of us realize that neither party represents our interests – the interests of the working people, the retired people, the people with medical needs, and all the people who simply cannot make it on our own.  We have learned to sell out.  We have learned to cast our ballots for the lesser of evils.  We know that it is a bargain with the devil.  We know better than to believe that anyone who gains elective office in this corrupt system will be beholden to us. 

Tragically, it is not the time to take on the two-party system.  That time will come.  But the critical issues of the times – literally life and death, existence and extinction – force us to work within the system for now.  We are fortunate in that there are candidates who feel very much as we do but also accept the demands of the times.  There are candidates who refuse to take corporate money.  There are candidates who will not sell out.  They have initiated a new method of fundraising that defies the old method.  They rely solely on individual contributions and absolute transparency. 

Bernie Sanders began the movement in the last election cycle.  He went up against the Democratic Party machine and had more success than anyone imagined possible.  If he had relied on corporate money he would not have been able to advocate universal healthcare as a fundamental right.  He would not have proposed repurposing funds from the military to the needs of the people.  He would not have been able to pledge Fair Trade in a new era of international relations.  He would not have demanded living wages for all workers. 

These candidates have begun to have success.  The famed four members of congress whom Trump invited to leave the country – Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota, Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan – all adopted the progressive positions of Sanders, all refused to take corporate money and all won congressional races against traditional Democrats. 

We can only hope the Squad as they are called represents a movement.  We can only hope that all candidates will be called upon to refuse corporate funds and open up the books on campaign contributions.  For now we must demand these things of our next president. 

Let each of us decide on our own which candidates to support in the battle to replace Donald Trump.  But let us agree that the candidate to go up against the most corrupt, vile and inept president in memory must meet certain prerequisite conditions: 

1.  The chosen candidate must refuse to accept corporate contributions.  Corporations are not benevolent societies.  They do not finance political campaigns because they believe in democratic principles.  They invest in politicians because they expect a return on their investment.  Any candidate who accepts corporate funding from any source will be beholden to corporate interests.  A candidate who accepts Wall Street money will fall short when it comes to imposing restrictions on the recklessness of capital.  A candidate who accepts industrial money will be bound to industrial interests and that spells doom to climate change initiatives.  Any candidate who accepts technology money will hold a debt to Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Apple and Facebook.  They will be unable to enact essential controls to protect privacy and prevent foreign propaganda campaigns from subverting the electoral process. 

2.  The next president must support a Green New Deal.  This is no longer an afterthought.  It is an imperative.  Anyone who belittles the ideas and idealism of the Green New Deal does not belong in the next government.  The Green New Deal is not a legislative proposal.  It is the product of a brainstorming session.  It is a collection of ideas to forward environmental interests and ultimately save our species and countless others from extinction.  Some of those ideas may seem abstract but overall they represent a positive vision.  The next president must make it a top priority to transform the fossil fuel economy into a green economy as quickly as humanly possible.  The next president must be dedicated to making America the global leader in green technology.  The next president must be willing to impose a penalty on any nation that chooses to ignore the environmental imperative. 

3.  The candidate must support universal healthcare as a fundamental human right.  Reforming Obamacare is simply not adequate.  This former Republican idea – an alternative to universal healthcare – is doomed to death by a million cuts.  It will be challenged in the courts over and over until it can no longer be sustained.  We need an uncompromised approach, a straightforward application of healthcare without the middleman.  Full and free healthcare will eliminate a multi-billion dollar industry that contributes nothing to the health and well-being of real people.  We can accept a phase in over five to ten years but we cannot accept another compromise that leaves the profit motivated insurance industry intact. 

4.  The next president must have a plan for rebuilding the middle class.  At a time of virtual full employment, record profits by industry, technology, finance and international conglomerates, the working middle class is diminishing at an astonishing rate.  Looking backward we can blame a trade policy that sold out American labor for cheap products made by cheap labor in China, India, Indonesia and other nations that do not value labor rights and do not pay fair wages.  All along, the defenders of Free Trade have deflected criticism by pointing to technology as the real enemy of the working force.  Finally, after decades of constant attack on the wages and benefits of industrial workers, their prediction is coming true.  It is no longer sufficient to propose Fair Trade without addressing the problem of robotics.  Technology entrepreneur Andrew Yang has gained traction in the presidential race because people instinctively recognize that he’s right.  Robots do not demand a living wage.  Robots do not care about working conditions or healthcare benefits.  Robots are what corporations consider perfect workers.  Whomever we elect president must have a plan not only for a new trade policy that reflects the interests of labor and the environment but also for the inevitable transition when robots take over the workforce.  That would include retraining, relocation and very possibly a minimum income. 

5.  The next president must enact a policy of non-military intervention in foreign affairs.  We can no longer afford these misguided, destructive and counter-productive wars on foreign lands.  Past presidents on both sides of the divide have yielded to the pressure for military intervention.  Because we have a military ten times stronger than anyone else on the planet we have sought to enforce our will with shock and awe in places like Iraq and Afghanistan.  Even if we do not consider the horrors of war, the utter destruction and the loss of life, the resources we have wasted on these colossal failures is needed to combat climate change and to rebuild infrastructure.  We need a new era of international cooperation.  When conflicts arise they must be settled through mediation and economic sanctions.  All American presidents pay lip service to the cause of peace.  All presidents claim war is a last resort.  Let the next president finally mean it. 

6.  The candidate must propose a policy of humane immigration.  At a time of full employment the dirty little secret is that corporate farmers and meat processing plants, such as those raided in Mississippi, need migrant workers more than ever.  Those are by no means jobs that citizens are lining up to fill.  It’s hard physical labor.  The ugly rumor is that plants employ the undocumented regularly and encourage periodic immigration raids so that they don’t have to pay deported workers.  Regardless of the circumstances in the Mississippi raid, the mass deportations, the family separations, the caging and abuse of children must end.  People seeking asylum in the United States must be treated with respect.  Those who have established lives here and are productive members of our society should be protected and embraced.  They are as much a part of America as the immigrants that preceded them. 

7.  The next president must usher in a new era of civil rights.  The current president has done more to damage race relations in this country than any president since Andrew Johnson.  He has appointed judges dedicated to the proposition that the most pressing civil rights issue is discrimination against white males.  These same self-perceived victims too often join Neo-Nazi organizations and purchase caches of automatic weapons.  The president has encouraged their collective sense of victimhood and given them someone to blame: everyone whose skin is darker than theirs.  The Trump administration has refused to enforce voting rights laws, attempted to use the census to discriminate against Hispanics, defended partisan gerrymandering and refused to investigate cases of police bias and abuse.  It will take decades to reverse the damage this administration had done.  It must begin on Inauguration Day. 

8.  The next president must be dedicated to rebuilding our infrastructure.  This president promised to rebuild America’s infrastructure but his proposal came down to selling our bridges, parks, highways and energy systems to private interests.  No, Mr. President, we don’t want to sell America.  We want to rebuild it.  Our bridges are still crumbling.  Our roads and highways are in disrepair.  Our airports and energy grid are substandard.  Our mass transit is woefully inadequate.  Many of our workers spend hours daily commuting to jobs in cities where they cannot afford to live.  We can employ tens of thousands in good union jobs but we must have a president who is willing and able to lead the effort.  We must be willing to tax Wall Street investors and the corporate elite to finance a massive undertaking. 

9.  The next president must enact gun control.  Let it be known once and for all that the National Rifle Association’s reign over Washington is over.  The once all-powerful organization allowed itself to be used by Russian agents to launder money and channel it to the Republican Party.  Just ask Moscow Mitch.  The NRA must lose its tax-exempt status and congress must pass universal background checks, end the gun show and other loopholes and re-enact the assault weapons ban.  The next administration should initiate a buy-back program so that eventually we can reduce the incredible number of weapons of war available to whomever wants them. 

10.  The next president must bring honor, dignity and strength of character to the office of the presidency.  The current inhabitant of the White House is to honor and dignity what Mozart is to Rock and Roll.  The president of the United States cannot be someone who invites members of congress to go back to where they came from.  The president cannot be someone who finds moral equivalence between Neo-Nazis and those who protest against white nationalism.  The president should not be someone who labels a free press the enemy of the people.  The president should be someone who can be trusted at least generally to speak the truth.  The president should not be someone who refers to African nations as “shit-hole” countries.  It should not be difficult for a president to act presidential. 

It has often been said that the citizens of this nation do not have much of a choice, that all the candidates are beholden to big money interests and that both parties answer to the same corporate masters.  I have said as much myself.  But this time we do have candidates that fulfill all ten criteria.  This time there is a choice.  Donald Trump is a unique individual and a uniquely dangerous president.  Whether you believe he is beholden to Russian and Saudi interests or not, whether you believe he is in the pocket of the wealthy, he is a president who does not value science or knowledge.  He is a president who is wildly unpredictable.  He is a president who praises dictators and autocrats.  He is a president who is deliberately sabotaging any chance of containing the damage from global climate change.  He is a president who is deliberately dividing the people. 

Nothing can be accomplished in a positive direction until this presidency is ended.  Little can be accomplished if the next president’s boldest promise is a return to normalcy.  A great deal can be accomplished if the next president represents a bold vision of change. 

Jazz. 

1.  “Joe Biden to rich donors: ‘Nothing would fundamentally change’ if he’s elected.”  By Igor Derysh.  Salon.  June 19, 2019. 

Jack Random is a novelist, sometime playwright and poet, and political essayist.  His works include the Jazzman Chronicles, Wasichu: The Killing Spirit and Pawns to Players: The Chess Trilogy.  He is currently writing a political guidebook, The Long Way Home: Reclaiming America (Crow Dog Press). 

TRUE HISTORY: THE QUESTION OF REPARATIONS

JAZZMAN CHRONICLES:  TRUE HISTORY

TRUE HISTORY:  ORIGINAL SINS

My Heroes Have Always Killed Cowboys

By Jack Random

There has been some discussion of reparations for slavery as candidates vie to succeed Donald Trump as President of the United States.  All Americans should be taught the dark side of our history alongside the good for only then can we wipe the slate clean, turn the page and address the challenges of the future.  Only then can we have a candid discussion on the question of reparations not only for slavery but for the many sins of our past. 

There was a time when Manifest Destiny governed the history of America.  Those days are gone.  We know now that our nation was born in genocide and built on the backs of African American slaves.  We have chosen to ignore the fundamental truth for far too long.  Columbus was a killer.  Cortez was a killer.  We can no longer assume that those who stood in the beginning of our founding are heroes.  They are not.  They were in some cases heroic but they are not heroes today. 

The legacy of racism in America runs long and deep.  The father of our country was a slaveholder.  George Washington owned two hundred slaves.  To his credit he freed his slaves after his death.  Thomas Jefferson, who owned over 600 slaves, did not.  He infamously impregnated his slave mistress Sally Hemings, with whom he had five children.  He publicly condemned the barbarism of slavery and proposed a gradual emancipation, retraining and re-colonization of slaves to Africa but his intellectual opposition yielded to his financial interests.  He needed slaves to maintain his standing in a racist society.  Other slaveholder presidents include James Madison, James Monroe, Andrew Jackson, Ulysses S. Grant, Zachary Taylor, William Henry Harrison and Martin Van Buren. 

GEORGE WASHINGTON

George Washington did not chop down the cherry tree.  That was a myth invented by his first biographer.  Washington was not a super hero.  He was a man with all the flaws of humanity and many of the failings of his time.  He was not only America’s first president but also America’s first slaveholder president and the first to kill Native Americans.  He did so as a young man in the British army in the French and Indian War.  As president he set the policy of westward expansion that would become known as Manifest Destiny.  He wrote that he wanted to take Indian lands peaceably and at a fair price but he favored force whenever the natives refused.  The term he used for Indian removal was “extirpation.”  That term refers to uprooting and utter destruction.  Thus Washington can justly be characterized as the Founding Father of the Great American Genocide.  [1] 

JAMES MADISON

Credited as a primary framer of the constitution, James Madison purportedly believed in emancipation of the slaves but he did not free his own slaves and he infamously drafted that part of the constitution that gave slaves 3/5ths of a person value for purposes of apportioning congressional representation.  Without that provision – a provision that would poison congress until the Civil War and the 13^th Amendment – slavery might well have been abolished decades sooner than it was.  At best Madison’s beliefs and policies on race were complicated and contradictory.  At worst he was hypocritically racist like most of his “progressive” contemporaries.  [2]

THOMAS JEFFERSON

Those of us who treasure the legacy of Jefferson’s words – we hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal – have learned to become apologists.  If you, we rationalized, lived in his times and under his circumstances, you also would have accepted the norms of those times.  It is more difficult to rationalize his sexual abuse of Sally Hemings though that also was a common practice in the days of slavery.  Moreover, despite his support of the Slave Trade Act of 1807 barring American participation in the international slave trade, Jefferson reportedly wrote that blacks were inferior to whites “in mind and body.”  [3, 4]  The more you look for Jefferson’s redemption, the stronger the case for impeachment grows. 

JAMES MONROE

James Monroe, fifth president and founder of the Monroe Doctrine, supported a movement headed by Speaker of the House Henry Clay to remove African slaves from the American continent and transport them back to Africa.  Monroe seized land on the West African coast for that purpose.  It would later become Liberia.  It should be noted that Abraham Lincoln, the Great Emancipator, also once supported repatriating slaves back to Africa. 

ANDREW JACKSON

The president most deified by the Trump White House and often pictured in the background of his presidential statements is Andrew Jackson.  The seventh president from the state of Tennessee, he made his name as a military leader in the Battle of New Orleans during the War of 1812.  He recruited and fought alongside Cherokee and Choctaw warriors, many of whom he grew up with, only to turn on them when the war was won.  Despite a decision by the Supreme Court upholding the independent Cherokee nation, Jackson enforced the Indian Removal Act by ordering the rounding up natives in Georgia and Tennessee and marching them to Indian Territory on what would become known as the Trail of Tears.  

ANDREW JOHNSON

The seventeenth president, succeeding the assassinated Lincoln, Andrew Johnson did everything in his power to undermine Reconstruction and the 13^th Amendment.  He elevated slaveholders with amnesty and restored voting rights.  He nullified the order granting all emancipated slaves 40 acres and a mule.  He paved the way for the Jim Crow laws the deprived blacks of civil rights and voting rights for over a century.  For all that he did and his clear racist beliefs, Huffington Post gave him the honor as the most racist president in history – at least until now.  By my reckoning, he is the second most racist president named Andrew. 

WOODROW WILSON

This came as a recent revelation to me but it shouldn’t have been.  Known as the founding father of the United Nations, Wilson’s racism was well known to historians and those who knew him.  He was a defender of segregation at a critical time in race relations.  At the Versailles Convention in 1919 Wilson was credited with killing a Japanese proposal recognizing the principle of racial equality.  Born in Virginia, raised in Georgia and South Carolina, a descendant of confederate soldiers, he openly defended the Ku Klux Klan and is quoted in the infamous movie The Birth of a Nation:  “The white men were roused by a mere instinct of self-preservation…until at last there had sprung into existence a great Ku Klux Klan, a veritable empire of the South, to protect the Southern country.”  President Wilson screened the racist screed at the White House. [5]

LYNDON JOHNSON

The president who did more than any other to fulfill the promise of civil rights was at heart a southerner.  He had no qualms about using the N word and reportedly used it a lot.  His term for the Civil Rights Act of 1957 was: the N bill.  Prior to his elevation to the vice presidency LBJ was a reliable member of the Dixiecrats.  When he nominated Thurgood Marshall to the Supreme Court he told his biographer:  “When I appoint a N to the bench, I want everyone to know he’s a N!”  He once told his chauffer Robert Johnson:  “No matter what you are called, N, you just let it roll off your back like water and you’ll make it.  Just pretend you’re a goddamn piece of furniture.”  Given Johnson’s attitude toward blacks, his legacy of civil rights may best be interpreted as a political strategy.  [6]

RICHARD NIXON

Like Donald Trump, Nixon reportedly did not believe he was racist but his words left no doubt.  The greatest of all mistakes Nixon committed was to leave a tape-recorded record of what he and those he communicated with really thought.  Of course, he did not believe it was a mistake at the time.  He believed it was an honest record of what civilized and educated individuals actually thought.  A conversation with president-to-be Ronald Reagan recently came to light.  It left no doubt that the conservative Republicans most venerate has secured a place on the list of racist presidents.  Nixon called numerous friends and advisors to quote his friend Reagan on the inferiority of blacks.  In fairness, Nixon was an equal opportunity bigot.  He frequently made disparaging remarks about Jews, Mexican Americans, Italian Americans and Irish Americans.  [7]

RONALD REAGAN

Reagan did not know he was being recorded so he spoke his mind.  He had just observed a United Nations vote in which he concluded – wrongly as it turned out – that delegates from the African nations had tipped the vote against American interests.  He compared the diplomats to monkeys and suggested that they looked uncomfortable in shoes.  Reagan said:  “Last night, I tell you, to watch this thing on television as I did.  To see those monkeys from African nations.  Damn them!  They’re still uncomfortable wearing shoes!”  Nixon laughed. [8]

MARK TWAIN

Samuel Clemens – aka Mark Twain – is a giant of American literature.  Much has been said and written about his liberal use of the N word in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn.  At the time of Tom Sawyer the author had no convictions toward slavery either way but by the time he wrote Huck Finn he recognized the inhumanity and immorality of the institution.  [9] While his views toward blacks are subject to controversy, his attitude toward American Indians is not.  He openly challenged James Fennimore Cooper’s depiction of the noble savage and consistently described natives as disgusting people prone to drunkenness and violence.  Twain’s racism toward Native American has few defenders outside the white supremacist community. 

NATIVE GENOCIDE:  INDIAN WARS

When Shawnee war chief Tecumseh was away recruiting Choctaw warriors to unite against the white invasion in 1811, Indiana Governor and future president William Harrison ordered the attack and burning of Prophetstown on Tippecanoe River.  In the war that followed, Tecumseh was killed at the Battle of Thames and the hope of uniting the tribes died with him. 

By the end of the Indian Wars in the late 1800’s the Native American population had declined from an estimated 5 to 15 million in the time of Columbus to less than 238,000.  By any standard or definition, that is genocide on a grand scale and it was inflicted systematically and deliberately by a series of racist presidents and congressional leaders who believed the European white man was superior and therefore destined to rule the American continent from sea to shining sea. 

Among those who are celebrated for their participation in the Great American Genocide:  Davy Crockett, George Armstrong Custer, General Philip Sheridan and Presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Benjamin Harrison, who disgraced the nation by awarding twenty medals of honor to the soldiers who massacred the disarmed Lakota Ghost Dancers at Wounded Knee. [10] Teddy Roosevelt aided the cause of hunting the buffalo to the edge of extinction in an effort to cut off the primary source of living for the plains Indians. 

The 26^th president of the United States once said:  “I don’t go so far as to think that the only good Indians are dead Indians but I believe 9 out of 10 are and I shouldn’t like to inquire too closely in the case of the tenth.”  [11]

In the end no one in the American government escapes responsibility for acts of cruelty, betrayal and inhumanity to the tribes who cared for the land before the whites came. 

In 2012, in response to a lawsuit brought by representatives of the American Indians for mismanagement of tribal lands and accounts, under the presidency of Barrack Obama, the American government agreed to pay $3.4 billion in settlement to the surviving natives –  $1.9 billion toward Indian lands and $1.4 billion to individuals.  Whether this settlement is considered the fulfillment of treaty obligations or reparations for past inequity or both, it would seem to offer precedent and a case for reparations.  [12]

MEXICAN CESSATION & REPATRIATIONS

In the wake of the Mexican-American War circa 1848, Mexico gave up claim to more than half of its territory, a vast expanse of land including present day California, Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and part of Wyoming.  People of Mexican ancestry who did not wish to relocate south were granted citizenry.  In the latter half of the nineteenth century political instability in Mexico created a wave of immigration.  The Southern Pacific Railroad and other companies anxious to exploit a cheap labor force welcomed the immigrants and even sent envoys south to recruit immigrant workers. [13]

Anglo Americans resented the new workforce, giving rise to the stereotype of lazy, stupid Mexicans.  Angry mobs killed thousands of Latinos from California to Texas.  When America faced the Great Depression, white Americans blamed Mexican Americans for taking their jobs and the era of “repatriations” began.  An estimated two million people of Mexican descent were forcibly uprooted and sent south – regardless of their citizenship status.  Colorado ordered all Mexicans to leave the state in 1936 and erected a barrier on its southern border.  In one incident in 1931 Los Angeles police rounded up some 400 Mexican Americans without regard for legal status and shipped them to Mexico.  Adios, mes amigos! 

The Great Repatriation is another less violent form of genocide for which reparations should and must be considered. 

JAPANESE INTERNMENT

After Pearl Harbor President Franklin Roosevelt ordered the internment of over 110,000 Japanese Americans in camps scattered across the country.  Over sixty percent of the interned were American citizens.  The US Census Bureau assisted the administration’s efforts by providing confidential information and the Supreme Court upheld the internment with one of its more convoluted decisions in that it asked not to be considered precedent.  In 1980 President Jimmy Carter initiated a review of the internment and in 1988 President Ronald Reagan signed into law an official apology.  The law authorized payments of $20,000 to each survivor of the camps.  The government eventually dispersed over $1.6 billion to some 82,000 survivors.  That is equivalent to approximately $3.4 billion in today’s dollars.  The Civil Liberties Act of 1988 is an important legal precedent for historic reparations. [14]

SUBJUGATION OF WOMEN

White males were granted the right to vote in the year 1789 in the US Constitution.  African Americans were granted freedom with the thirteenth amendment in the year 1865.  Five years later they were granted the right to vote.  Fifty years later in the year 1920 women were granted their right to vote by the nineteenth amendment.  How do you begin to quantify fifty or one hundred and twenty years of the right to vote?  Does it have a monetary value?  What would this nation look like had women had the right to vote from the nation’s birth?  Would women still suffer from substandard wages?  Would women have equivalent power in the halls of congress?  Would women have equal standing in the world of business and finance? 

FOREIGN GRIEVANCES

Traditionally Americans have justified their engagements in foreign wars and interventions with rationalizations of the greater good.  The Cold War and the Domino Theory were used to justify an estimated three million dead in the Vietnam War.  Islamic terrorism, the September 11^th attack and weapons of mass destruction were used to justify hundreds of thousands dead in the Iraq War.  Neither justification is valid.  Even if you believe in the Domino Theory, Ho Chi Minh should have been our ally in Vietnam.  He pleaded with the United States to abandon colonialism to no avail.  In any case, there can be no justification for the terror we reigned on that small Southeast Asian nation. 

The justification for the Iraq War is even thinner.  Iraq was a sworn enemy of Al Qaeda and possessed no weapons of mass destruction.  The Shock and Awe we brought down on those unfortunate people remains to this day but it is the shock of shame and the awe of knowing we were completely in the wrong. 

How do we gage our debt to Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan and all those Latin American nations we attacked to secure our financial and strategic interests? 

REPARATIONS

The question of reparations is long overdue.  The precedent has been set.  We have acknowledged the sins of our forefathers.  They include genocide by extermination, genocide by relocation, slavery, systematic discrimination in all facets of life, denial of civil liberties and denial of the right to vote.  Aggrieved minorities are due retribution.  Justice demands payment for rightful grievances. 

There are problems of course.  There are many who refuse to acknowledge the plain truth.  There are many who choose to believe the mythology of American history.  There are those who claim to believe that discrimination against white Anglo-Americans is the leading problem of inequality.  These individuals may or may not be ignorant of the truth.  They may be victims of warped education and maleficent propaganda. 

We must do everything in our power to replace willful mythology with true history but it is not enough.  It is clearly impossible to even consider reparations as long as our government is actively engaged in crimes against humanity and abuses of human rights.  Only after we bring our current offenses to a halt can we begin to address reparations for the past. 

When that day comes we will acknowledge our debt and the solemn fact that it can never be fully repaid.  For now, we must go about the business of changing our government and reclaiming our nation.  For now we must be content to believe that the truth will prevail and to know that the debt once acknowledged will be addressed. 

Jazz. 

1.  “George Washington’s Tortuous Relationship with Native Americans.”  By Colin Calloway.  Zocalo, August 2, 2018.

2.  “James Madison’s Lessons in Racism.” By Noah Feldman.  New York Times Opinion, October 28, 2017. 

3.  “These are the most racist presidents.”  By Jess Bolluyt, Cheat Sheet, November 21, 2018. 

4.  “The Eleven Most Racist U.S. Presidents.”  Ibram X. Kendi, Contributor.  Huffington Post, May 28, 2017. 

5.  “Woodrow Wilson was extremely racist – even by the standards of his time.”  By Dylan Matthews.  Vox, November 20, 2015. 

6.  “Lyndon Johnson was a civil rights hero.  But also a racist.”  By Adam Serwer.  MSNBC, April 11, 2014.  Update April 12, 2018. 

7.  “A history of racism is woven into the US presidency.”  By Russell Contreras.  Associated Press, July 30, 2019. 

8.  “Ronald Reagan’s Long-Hidden Racist Conversation with Richard Nixon.”  By Tim Naftali.  The Atlantic, July 30, 2019. 

9.  “Mark Twain’s Inconvenient Truths.”  By Shelley Fisher Fishkin.  Stanford Magazine, November-December 2007. 

10.  “When Native Americans Were Slaughtered in the Name of Civilization.”  By Donald L. Fixico.  History, March 2, 2018.  Updated August 31, 2018.  

11.  “Teddy Roosevelt Laid Bare.”  By Tim Stanley.  History Today, Volume 62, Issue 3, March 2012. 

12.  “US finalizes $3.4 billion settlement with American Indians.”  CNN November 27, 2012.

13.  “The Brutal History of Anti-Latino Discrimination in America.”  By Erin Blakemore.  History, September 27, 2017.  Updated August 29, 2018. 

14.  “Senate Votes to Compensate Japanese American Internees.”  By Irvin Molotsky.  New York Times, April 21, 1988.