How America’s Race Thing affects the world

Back in January the entire world watched the dysfunction as the United States House of Representatives struggled through a historical 15 rounds of voting to elect Kevin McCarthy Speaker of the House. In early October the world watched again as he was removed with just one vote. And again the world watched over the last two weeks or so as the House tried to elect Representative Steven Scalise and then Representative Jim Jordan. Back in January when the House was without leadership for four days the world was a dangerous place.

Scalise is the guy who once described himself as Klu Klux Klan Grand Wizard “David Duke without the baggage.” Jim Jordan is someone who not only defended former President Trump’s efforts to subvert the 2020 presidential election but participated in them more extensively than any other member of Congress according to the bipartisan committee that investigated the January 6 insurrection. As former Republican Representative Liz Cheney, who was the vice chair of that committee, said earlier this month: “Jim Jordan knew more about what Donald Trump had planned for January 6 than any other member of the House of Representatives.”

Rep. Jim Jones

You remember Donald Trump. He was the most openly racist president the country has ever seen. Steve Scalise…Jim Jordan…that’s the best we can do?

Now, during this current period without House leadership for 16 days and counting, the world is in a much more dangerous place than it was just a few months ago during those 4 days in January.

Whether you like it or not; whether you think the world is better or worse off with America as a superpower, there is no doubt that in times as dangerous as these – and honestly, while I can remember attending Dwight Eisenhower’s Presidential Inauguration, I can’t recall a time when the world wasn’t a dangerous place – the world needs America’s leadership.

“Many big, bad things (would) happen in the world without America, but not a lot of big, good things. If we become weak and enfeebled by economic decline and debt, as we slowly are, America may not be able to play its historic stabilizing role in the world. If you didn’t like a world of too-strong-America, you will really not like a world of too-weak-America where China, Russia and Iran set more of the rules.”  – Thomas Friedman, NYT Opinion journalist.

And yet, here we are. Due to the nonsense in the House, America is unable to fully govern. Unable to fully participate in managing maybe the most dangerous time we’ve seen since 9/11.

Has America’s Race Thing played a subtle, almost unseeable role in this debacle? America’s Race Thing plays a subtle, almost unseeable role in everything.

The Freedom Caucus, the group that drove McCarthy from the Speakership, is a small fringe group of the extreme right-of-the-right election deniers and Trump sycophants, formed in January 2015, exists to drive the GOP all the way to the right. Made up of such performance artist as Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) and Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-CO) the Freedom Caucus advocates for reduced federal spending and smaller government. The caucus was formed in January 2015 by a group of conservatives.

Before there was a Freedom Caucus, there was the Tea Party. The current Freedom Caucus was formed by a group of far-right conservatives and former Tea Party movement members. You recall the Tea Party cry…”Take America Back.” I was bewildered by all the White head-scratching. “What can ‘Take the country back’ possibly mean?” Black people understood instantly what it meant. As White people debated whether the Tea Party could possibly be racist, Black folks knew immediately. And while the Tea Party vehemently denied any hint of racism and claimed to welcome all comers who shared their concern about big government, their visual messaging at rallies kinda gave them away.

If their visual messaging was somehow too subtle, then you could just tune into their words. A small sample from a large supply:

"Republicans are struggling to find the great white hope." Rep. Lynn Jenkins (R-KS).

“Mr. President, in honor of Martin Luther King Jr. and all who commit to ending any racial divide, no more playing the race card." Sarah Palin.

"Boy." The term Senator Jeff Sessions (R-AL) used to address one of his Black judicial assistants - who was a full-grown man.

"President Obama is going to 'come out and throw a lot of spears' at Tuesday's upcoming debate." Rep. Mark Sanford (R-SC) anticipating Obama’s debate performance. "Spear chucker" is an especially horrible racial epithet used to describe Black Americans.

And then there were the Tea Party chants at Obama events:

“Kenyan, go home” and “Bye-bye Blackbird”, and the posters that were displayed,  “Obama’s Plan: White Slavery”,  “Imam Obama Wants to Ban Pork” , “The Zoo Has An African Lion, and the White House Has a Lyin’ African.

Sandwiched between the Tea Party and the Freedom Caucus there was Marjorie Taylor Greene’s America First Caucus which calls for, “a common respect for uniquely Anglo, Saxon, political traditions” and a return to a federal infrastructure style that “befits progeny of European architecture.” Matt Gaetz and Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) announced their interest.

Greene was born and raised in Forsyth County GA. In an article in The Atlantic titled, “What made Marjorie Taylor Greene the way she is?” the area where she was born and raised is described this way: “Forsyth County is a calm, quiet, ordered place. But it had a history. In September 1912, in MTG’s great-grandfather’s time, an 18-year-old White girl was found bloodied and barely breathing in the woods lining the river. She died two weeks later. Within 24 hours of her discovery, four Black man had been arrested and charged with assault. A White mob dragged one of the suspects from the cell and hanged him from the telephone pole. Two others were tried and executed.  A White mob then decided to rid the county of Black people. On horseback, armed with rifles and dynamite, they drove out virtually all the county’s Black population of more than 1,000 people.” No Black people have ever moved back to Forsyth County.

Maybe her upbringing had something to do with the way she is.

I can’t say for sure if race is the major reason why the Republican party is so dysfunctional. But the issue that the Republican party has used for generations to drive a wedge between the American people may have come home to roost and may now be driving a wedge within the Republican party itself. All I know for sure is that neither the country nor the world can afford to have an American government that doesn’t work .

Call your congressperson and let it be known that you, like the character Howard Beal in the 1975 film classic Network are “Mad as hell and not gonna take this anymore!” You want better people taking care of America’s business.