I suddenly found myself perched on the edge of my seat with eyes and ears open wide on Thursday night. In the middle of the 2nd round of democratic debates, many people in America sat up when Senator Kamala Harris suddenly, emotively, took on the “race” issue. She began by personally appealing to Vice President Biden to explain both his current and past semi-passive position of gradualism. She did it so cleanly, so clearly, and so passionately that it cut like a knife. We all saw it, but in real time, I know it affected different people, well, differently.
As I watched, I was also loosely following the live feed here at DK, and I was shocked to see this comment rolling out right after Kamala spoke :
Harris may have flipped the suburbs back to the Republicans with her support for school busing. This is a fight from 50 years ago. This may have re elected Trump and flipped the House back as well. :(
This is in no way a criticism of the member who made this comment. (Actually, I like this guy a lot.) There has been a load of focus and negative response to Harris bringing up the sticky issue of “forced busing” — despite the fact that it is a vital part of her own personal narrative. But, as is common with our media, and many of us, we often miss the forest for the trees. If one guy thought it was only about busing, it was likely others did as well. We need to clear that up.
My response to this comment at the time was something like this:
rflctammt
Jun 27, 2019 at 08:24:00 PM
I think It was a much bigger point she was trying to make. And she made it. When states can opt out of following Federal Laws without repercussion, democracy is threatened. The Civil Rights Act , ERA, is not voluntary. The Voting Rights Act is not voluntary. The 19th Amendment is not voluntary. Brown vs The Board of Education was not voluntary. It took 20 years before it occurred in California where she lived.
3Recommended
It’s easy to see how people could miss Kamala’s “bigger point,” given the format of the debates, but that point is absolutely essential to what is happening across America today. It’s critical that we not get caught up in the side issue.
Kamals’s personal narrative was about race, but this is about more than race and she knows it. This is about the equal enforcement of the law of the land.
If you missed the words that came after the famous exchange, please go to Democracy Now’s website, www.democracynow.org/… and watch the rest on video. Or read the provided transcript below. I have bolded the parts I’m referring to:
Transcript
This is a rush transcript. Copy may not be in its final form.
AMY GOODMAN: This is Democracy Now! I’m Amy Goodman, as we turn to the second night of the first Democratic presidential primary debate, which was billed as a face-off between the front-runners former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders. But that’s not quite how it turned out. It was California Senator Kamala Harris who took command of the stage as she sparred Thursday night over Biden’s recent comments about working with segregationists in the Senate and for his opposition to Delaware’s attempts to bus students in an effort to integrate its schools in the ’70s.
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS: I’m going to now direct this at Vice President Biden. I do not believe you are a racist, and I agree with you when you commit yourself to the importance of finding common ground. But I also believe—and it’s personal. I was actually very—it was hurtful to hear you talk about the reputations of two United States senators who built their reputations and career on the segregation of race in this country. And it was not only that, but you also worked with them to oppose busing. And, you know, there was a little girl in California who was part of the second class to integrate her public schools, and she was bussed to school every day. And that little girl was me.
JOE BIDEN: It’s a mischaracterization of my position across the board. I did not praise racists. That is not true, number one. Number two, if we want to have this campaign litigated on who supports civil rights and whether I did or not, I’m happy to do that. I was a public defender; I didn’t become a prosecutor. I came out, and I left a good law firm to become a public defender. …
In terms of busing, the busing—I never—you would have been able to go to school the same exact way, because it was a local decision made by your city council. That’s fine. That’s one of the things I argued for, that we should not be—we should be breaking down these lines. But so, the bottom line here is, look, everything I’ve done in my career—I ran because of civil rights. I continue to think we have to make fundamental changes in civil rights. And those civil rights, by the way, include not just only African Americans, but the LGBTcommunity.
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS: But, Vice President Biden, do you agree today—do you agree today that you were wrong to oppose busing in America then?
JOE BIDEN: No.
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS: Do you agree?
JOE BIDEN: I did not oppose busing in America. What I opposed is busing ordered by the Department of Education. That’s what I opposed. I did not oppose—
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS: Well, there was a failure of states to integrate—
JOE BIDEN: No, but—
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS: —public schools in America. I was part of the second class to integrate Berkeley, California, public schools, almost two decades after Brown v. Board of Education.
JOE BIDEN: Because your city council made that decision. It was a local decision.
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS: So, that’s where the federal government must step in.
JOE BIDEN: The federal government must step—
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS: That’s why we have the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act. That’s why we need to pass the Equality Act. That’s why we need to pass the ERA, because—
JOE BIDEN: That’s—
SEN. KAMALA HARRIS: —there are moments in history where states fail to preserve the civil rights of all people.
JOE BIDEN: I have supported the ERA from the very beginning—
CHUCK TODD: OK, hang on. Thirty seconds—
JOE BIDEN: —when I ran for—
CHUCK TODD: Vice President Biden, 30 seconds, because I want to bring other people into this. I want to bring other people in.
JOE BIDEN: I have supported the ERA from the very beginning. I’m the guy that extended the Voting Rights Act for 25 years. We got to the place where we got 98 out of 98 votes in the United States Senate doing it. I have also argued very strongly that we in fact deal with the notion of denying people access to the ballot box. I agree that everybody, once they in fact—anyway, my time’s up. I’m sorry.
So, what was that that Kamala said again? Let me put it together for you:
Well, there was a failure of states to integrate — almost two decades after Brown v. Board of Education.
So, that’s where the federal government must step in. That’s why we have the Voting Rights Act and the Civil Rights Act. That’s why we need to pass the Equality Act. That’s why we need to pass the ERA, because—there are moments in history where states fail to preserve the civil rights of all people.
- Kamala Harris Jun 27, 2019
I heard her trying to make that exact point again when Chris Matthews (9:46 pm MST 6/27/19) was interviewing her right after the debate. I hurried and tried to write down exactly what she said. “What’s the state’s responsibility vs the federal government?” she asked. “...To step in when states fail,” I heard a moment or two later. We know this already. We know states fail. Some will fail on purpose. We know the government has to step in. History has shown us again and again.
I’ve put together a super abbreviated little photo journal with minor historical notes to help remind you of the “gradualism” that has languished between having a legal right and being able to use it if you happen to be a person of color, a woman, GLTB, or just poor.
There has never been a time where we need leaders who can and will act with the “fierce urgency of now!”
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Let’s begin with Amendments 14 and 15. (You know, those nice little addendums to the Constitution, like that 2nd one, that some people are so fond of.) Yep, Amendments are laws that are really supposed to mean something.
June 13, 1866: 14th Amendment ratified
14th Amendment, granting former slaves citizenship and promising “equal protection of the laws”
National Archives and Records Administration
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Passed by Congress June 13, 1866. Ratified July 9, 1868.
Note: Article I, section 2, of the Constitution was modified by section 2 of the Fourteenth Amendment.
Section 1.
All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.
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and 2 years later in 1870
15th Amendment ratified by Congress
RIGHT TO VOTE NOT DENIED BY RACE
Passed by Congress February 26, 1869. Ratified February 3, 1870
Section 1.
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of race, color, or previous condition of servitude.
Section 2.
The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
And yet almost an entire century later…
in 1964
black people very often risked their lives to vote in many parts of the country. So just imagine how many took a beating anyway. How many walked 30 miles both ways only to be turned away, but did it every year. Because this went on for one hundred years.
State Troopers severely beat peaceful protesters (including John Lewis) for trying to exercise their lawful rights as citizens in Selma, AL.
Finally, after 100 years of this crap, some white kids dying, the FBI gettin’ snubbed, well…later that year
in 1965
President Lydon Johnson signed
{Guess which party is working to dismantle it, piece by piece? Whether they have to lie, cheat, or steal? And why would true “patriots” want to deny citizens the opportunity to vote? As a child I learned, as a teacher we taught, that voting is a civic responsibility. (This is a story in itself.)
Present day voting rights are under attack.
Today, under this administration, voting rights are under greater threat than they have been in decades. Voter discrimination and indimidation continue to take many forms, often as misinformation. Almost always, the interference targets society’s most vulnerable and darker-skinned citizens... the homeless, former prisoners, poor, elderly, homebound, transient, etc. Let alone the “gerrymandering” and fancy pie work that tend to keep district boundaries carved up to the continual benefit of one party in particular. (Guess which one?) Ironically, it is the other side that constantly makes false accusations about voter fraud, when, in fact, it is found much more prevalently on their side of the aisle. Ugh. (This is a story in itself.)
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Oh, and by the way, 100 years ago,
in 1920 this happened…
Women get to vote, too!
Female citizens (of all colors and creeds) won the right to vote. (Supposedly.)
Amendment XIX
The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any state on account of sex.
Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.
In the years before but especially between 1878, when the amendment was first introduced to Congress, and 1920, when it was finally ratified, many women risked and / or received beatings, incarceration, loss of their children and marriages, public shaming, banning and even death in the efforts to earn all women the right to vote. Some of them, (and some men) worked for half a century preceding the passage of this law.
“We’ve come a long way, baby...”
Or have we?
In 2018
new obstacles to voting appear...requiring excessive ID, cutting polling place hours, long voting lines
Notice what color the people in these lines are? Think that’s an accident?
Ugh. (This is an entire whole other story.)
By the way, I haven’t waited in a line to vote in 15 years, well a few times I stood behind a line for three minutes. But, you know, I have the right zip code.
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And what was that thing in the
14th Amendment about
equal protection under the law?
1958
(and too much horrific stuff in between to put in a single other story)
2012
17-year-old Trayvon Martin was followed, shot and killed by neighborhood watchman who was later found innocent in a blatant instance of racial profiling.
2014
Militarization of the Police
Damn, I cannot wait until all these cops are being called out to protect the 15th Ammendment rights of black people to walk and bbq and study and live without being screamed at, shot at, or arrested.
I cannot wait until our RIGHTS and our LAWS mean something.
Again? Or for the first time?
The federal government is responsible to back up the constitution. It’s article 2 of all those amendments. That’s part of the reason the government exists. What good are laws if they are not going to be enforced? How is justice possible If it is not equally applied?
Discouraging. Especially now. (Ugh.) But I know someone who knows about these things.
At last, I am convinced there is just the right person to take on this fight — and she is available and willing to do the job.
Kamala Harris knows about these things. And she knows what to do about it.
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Brown vs The Board of Education was passed by the Supreme Court of the United States in 1954. I learned about it in 1974 in my Civics class in high school. I read about Thurgood Marshall. But there was exactly one black student at that high school in the Denver suburb where I grew up — the one and only black student in all my years of public schooling. 20 YEARS AFTER “INTEGRATION.”
3 years later, as a teacher’s aide in a ghetto elementary school in Denver, “busing” had finally come to roost. Not for me, but for the poverty stricken children I taught. The bus, full of brown and Vietnamese secondary kids, left very early in the morning, packed, heading south west toward the beautiful modern suburban school it was paired with. I waited at the drop-off across from the projects for the 10 or so white children (1st through 3rd graders) whose “brave” parents didn’t opt to pay for three years of private school.
I understood exactly what Kamala was talking about the other night. Gradualism is not justice. It’s not just about busing. It’s about recognizing the threat to our democracy when laws are not enforced equally, when rights are not protected for all citizens. It shouldn’t take a century to be able to exercise your right to vote. Or a quarter of a century to have a pretense at something more than “separate but equal.”
Again. We absolutely need leaders who can and will act with the “fierce urgency of now” to protect our democracy. Of course, these are but a few of the very serious issues our new president will need to deal with emergently. But reestablishing the rule of law across the land must be first and foremost.
Kamala Harris is sounding better and better. We really need to listen to what she is saying.
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There are about 70 million reasons to support Kamala Harris for President!
Newpioneer has rounded up some highlights of her sponsored legislation here.
snowman3 has rounded up some more legislative highlights here.
Want to know more about her positions and plans? Her policy page is Our America.
Or go straight to an issue: quality, affordable health care for all, economic justice,raising teacher pay, combating the climate crisis, criminal justice reform, action on gun violence, a fair and just immigration system, LGBTQ+ equality, government for the people, debt-free college and student debt, gender equality, American leadership at home and abroad, and fighting for racial justice.
Please remember to visit our community group page Kamala2020 and give us a follow! That way all our group efforts will appear in your stream; this makes it easy for everyone to keep up with our latest posts. As always, any who would like to join our group please leave us a comment and we’ll get your invitation right out to you!
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This week’s schedule
Please volunteer! Come share your story about why you support Kamala!
Sunday, June 30 — rflctammt
Monday, July 1 — Dfh1
Thursday, July 4 — progressive2016
Saturday, July 6 —
Monday, July 8 — rflctammt
Thursday, July 11 —
Saturday, July 13 —
Let your voices be heard!
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Group Guidelines
The Kamala2020 community group has been created to positively support Senator Kamala Harris, and not to engage in negativity towards other Democrats running in the 2020 primaries.
All should be made to feel welcomed here. What’s not welcomed here is petty bickering over any of our preferred candidates, or personal attacks on fellow Democrats. We’re not responsible for the actions of others who may offend, insult or attempt to sow discord and disunity — that’s on them.
What we are responsible for are our own words and actions — that’s 100% on us.
I’d like to ask all group members, as well as those dropping by who support or are interested in Kamala’s bid for the nomination, that we not respond to negativity from other campaign’s supporters with even more negativity. Let’s do better than our best and respond with respect, humor or try to hold our peace. Recipes and cat pics work, too 😃
Doing no harm costs us nothing... pie-fights will cost us everything.