I don't think even most Republican Congresspeople at this point would deny that Donald Trump wants to be a dictator. Some, like Tom Cotton, are cool with that. Others shake their heads and stroke their chins and whisper off the record that they are "deeply troubled." That all of this comes on the aniversary if Tiananmen...well, the 2020 writers aren't known for their subtlety.
Jamelle Bouie makes the case that what we are seeing is police rioting as much as protesters. Police have always been able to control minority populations through force that is rarely checked. Now, those powers are being threatened, and what is more the multiracial crowds have to frighten the hell out of them. Police have relied on white passivity or complicity to exercise this control. Increasing numbers of Americans are awake to the reality of racism in America and in policing. If 76% of Americans and 71% of white Americans really do feel that racism is a huge problem, then that is a paradigm shift on this issue. While 57% of Americans saying that police treat African Americans worse is too low, it is also historically high.
The wave of police brutality in response to protests about police brutality once again proves that those writers for 2020 are truly beating us over the head. The failures of leaders like we are seeing in NYC stands in stark contrast to the will of voters and the desire for a more peaceful and just society. Ubiquitous cameras make the usual official responses almost obscene. (It also helps remind those swooning over Cuomo during the height of the pandemic, that he really ain't all that. And De Blasio better have a strong primary challenger.)
What started as a protest over a recent series of lynchings in Georgia, Kentucky and Minnesota has become about the overall brutality of an overpoliced society. As police increasingly treat everyone the way they've treated People of Color over the centuries, the complaints from Communities of Color are harder to brush off. And everytime Cuomo or Cotton or Trump try to brush them off, a new video emerges of police brutalizing protesters.
There is an argument that America has only been a true democracy for the past 50 years, once African Americans were allowed to vote in the South. Before that, police and vigilante violence perpetuated an apartheid state for a quarter of the country. Now, in our hardened partisan age, that violence is being directed against a much broader swath of Americans. In the constant struggle between Red and Blue, the Boys in Blue are tightly bound to the Red States.
My hope - and it's a fragile one - is that Trump's unique toxicity will expose the Tom Cottons of the world, and we will be spared the smoother, smarter Trumps like Cotton by remembering the horror show of Trumpistan. My hope is that from this naked grab for authoritarian power, we will reinvigorate our democracy and create a more just society. But that is a generational project.
Stripping off the blinders about police is just one of the first steps.
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