Report from NBC News, “Republican legislators in Tennessee voted Thursday to expel two Black Democrats from the state House over their protests on the chamber floor against gun violence last week, while a vote to expel a third, white Democratic representative fell short.” I expected nothing less from RepubliKKKlans! (It’s in their name — literally!) But I’m not here to write about the blatant injustice. I’m not here to comment on the imbalance of the punishment versus the “crime.” I’m not here to discuss the manifest racism running through the Tennessee electorate and legislature. No! I will discuss none of these facets of the day’s events because they are too obvious for all to see, but what I do want to comment on is the end of America’s democracy — naturally! What RepubliKKKlans did yesterday to the opposing party is the definition of fascism and the undoing of America’s democracy, so it’s worth further comment.
The question that first comes to mind is how or why RepubliKKKlans think they can get away with expelling two young black men from the Democratic Party because they disagree with their politics. (Not to mention they are Black.) The whole world was watching this injustice, yet they barrelled headlong. And adding to the insult, while confirming their racism, they conspicuously spared the white woman from expulsion. How could RepubliKKKlans do what they did in the face of such national (and international) criticism? That is the real question! And I have some not-so-surprising thoughts. This is what a dying democracy looks like. Many on the interwebs have rightly called yesterday’s lynching of two young Black men pure fascism come to America, and those people would be absolutely right. It has been a race to fascism since Obama, if not before then, but we have reached a critical point in history. I hear pundits and other political experts claim Democrats and the younger generation (Gen Z) are finally starting to catch on, that they are finally beginning to see the deterioration of America’s democracy and the corruption of the system engendered by RepubliKKKlan rule. I hear much of these sentiments, but I am far less sanguine. Call me skeptical. I will reiterate the same observation that I always do: If each succeeding generation is supposed to be more progressive than the last, then we’d be a utopia by now. Yet, we are not. Indeed, Gen X is more conservative than Baby Boomers. Imagine that the generation that lived through the Counter-Culture Revolution of the 1960s gave birth to Gen X, the generation mostly in power now trying to return America to pre-1960. But I digress.
Returning to the end of democracy — ushered in by Gen X — RepubliKKKlans have now fully embraced fascism to the point where they take control of state legislatures and expel their political enemies. They ignore the will of the majority, and they impose their theocracy on everyone else. What is the collective response? Not much. Americans have not taken to the streets in any significant numbers in every state and every major city. The reaction has been passiveness, and you wonder why RepubliKKKlans keep imposing their minority values on the majority of the population because citizens let them get away with it. RepubliKKKlans have become fascists because they can. Democrats barely push back or raise a stink. They may talk a lot, but their actions are weak when they have power. Oh, well. Welcome to stupid America. The end is coming. I promise!