re: #131 A hollow Gandalfian voice says, VOTE, you fools!

If you’re reforming a system that involved the entire ruling class and went on for generations, truth and reconciliation are probably the only way to go, but we don’t have that issue here. We have a group of people who betrayed their oaths, their offices, their constituents and their country to support a crime family. I don’t need “truth” — what they were doing is here for all to see, and I’m not the least inclined toward reconciliation.

On which note, it’s past my bedtime. Keep on keeping on.

But in a sense we do. Jim Crow officially lasted for a century after the Civil War; it took the 1967 Loving vs. Virginia decision to make it illegal to ban interracial marriage. And as soon as VRA and CRA passed, Nixon adopted the Southern strategy. Yes — the entire ruling class wasn’t involved but enough were during this entire period of time. Look at Eric Garner, George Floyd, Philando Castile, Sandra Bland, Breonna Taylor, etc. Bush 43 certainly wasn’t a racist personally, but his campaign used such tactics against McCain in the 2000 South Carolina primary.

The 1968 Kerner Commission addressed some of this but was ignored, probably because Nixon won the 1968 election. We need another such report — but this time early enough in a Democratic administration so that it can adopt policies that will ultimately lead to a true reconciliation in this nation.