Sectarian Psyche

Now that the Michigan election results have been certified, we can take a deep breath and reflect on the state of the two-party system in America. On one hand, we have the Democratic Party. On the other, we have a cartel of anti-democratic racists camouflaged as the Republican Party. 

This transformation has been steady and unrelenting, beginning with the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965. This led to Richard Nixon’s “Southern strategy” in his campaigns for president in 1968 and 1972. The states of the old Confederacy have been Republican strongholds ever since. In 1980, Ronald Reagan kicked off his presidential campaign near Philadelphia, Mississippi, infamous for being the place where three civil rights workers were brutally murdered in 1964. This was a clear and deliberate signal that liberty and justice for all would not be part of any GOP agenda for a very, very long time.

Which brings us back to Michigan, specifically Monica Palmer of the Wayne County Board of Canvassers. Following her vote not to certify the 2020 election results, she said, “I would be open to a motion to certify communities other than the city of Detroit.” Detroit, the largest city in Wayne County, is 80 percent African-American. The next two largest cities, Dearborn and Livonia, are 89-92 percent white. She and the “Party of Trump” could not be any more racist if they had KKK tattooed on their foreheads and advocated cross burning on peoples’ lawns. Donald Trump did not change the psyche of the Republican Party. He exposed it.