What would you think if one of the political parties developed a plan to subvert home rule, seeking to have local officials appointed by the state rather than elected by the people? For clarity, “home rule” allows local governments the right to self-govern, to set their governance on taxes, education, health, etc. It also protects the local government from state intervention. Think about that.
What would you think if one of the political parties began circumventing legislation by taking over a state’s judiciary and adopting amendments to a state’s constitution, which effected widespread policy changes, including lowering the number of judges on the State’s Supreme Court and then putting the lower courts and local governments under the control of the state legislature? Think about that.
What would you think if one of the political parties began rescinding the votes of certain non-felony types of prior convicted criminals or mandating who might attend which schools, both private and public? Think about that.
What would you think if one of the political parties enacted laws affecting personal relationships, who could socially gather, or what might take place in the bedroom between consenting adults? Think about that.
What would you think if one of the political parties enabled a state legislature the power to modify or nullify any local government? Think about that.
I think, most of us, would agree these acts, if they took place, would be un-American and damaging to our democracy. These actions would directly undermine the foundations of our American democracy. These acts would violate our democratic principles of Representative Government, Rule of Law, Consent of the Governed/Popular Sovereignty, Justice, Liberty, and Equality.
There is a saying that those that forget history are apt to repeat it. For those of you thinking this could never happen in the USA, it has happened. From the 1870’s until the 1920’s, throughout the old Confederacy, these acts were manifest across the South. These are well documented having happened in North Carolina and duplicated elsewhere. Villages, towns, and cities had their elected governments abolished with the states taking over their governance, laws were passed outlawing interracial relationships, bills were passed taking away the right to vote from specific groups of people, schools were closed, schools were segregated, judiciary systems were taken under direct control of governorships or state legislatures with the courts then “packed” with political appointees. In hundreds of cases (thousands?) duly elected individuals were forced out of office by Governors or state legislatures.
You might say, “But this took place at another time, from one hundred fifty years to one hundred years ago. It could not happen today.”
Think again. It is happening today…. only today in a groundswell……but how quickly could it turn into a tsunami. We have a governor in Florida who has removed locally elected officials; locally elected prosecuting attorneys and judges, a state legislature in Florida who has removed independent board of directors at public institutions of learning, new judiciary oversight boards created and populated by political appointees. There have been numerous state level voting district maps that have been determined to undermine specific group’s ability to impact local, state, and federal elections, all of these directed at Black voting districts. In the state of Texas, the state legislature passed a bill, House Bill 2127, that kneecaps the ability of cities to self-govern. The bill was primarily focused on “blue” cities, whose local politics have been dominated by Democrat party elected officials. The law is so broad that it takes away local communities’ ability to determine how they govern commerce, welfare, taxes, etc.
Where are we headed with all of this? History is a great teacher….and from that we should all be drawing caution signs. There are danger signals in these actions and we have a political candidate who has already stated his campaign will be one of “retribution and vengeance” and releases of plans being drawn up on his reelection show a designed purpose to further centralize power through a Federal government that will be organized to attack that candidate’s “political and personal” enemies list. Who is helping to forge the strategies and the plans? It is rumored that the Heritage Foundation has created a strategy paper called” Project 2025” where Trump would expand presidential authority over even nonpolitical levers of the federal government.
Think this would never happen in the USA? It is….………
Sitting In No Man's Land 