By David Brooks on January 18, 2021
2010 immigrant rights march on the US capitol. Photo: Bill Hackwell
What has been lost sight of in recent days since the unusual assault on the Capitol on January 6 in an attempted coup by ultra-right-wing forces instigated by the president himself and its aftermath is the fact that this president and his Republican Party were defeated in the elections by progressive forces from all over the country.
In Trump’s four years, the Democrats regained control of the lower house in 2018, took back the White House in the November 2020 elections, and 12 days ago also took control of the Senate.
It is worth repeating: the presidential election was not defined by a pro-Biden vote, but by a resistance struggle against the right-wing and its neo-fascist project led by Trump.
These victories are due to mobilizations and organizing led by African Americans, Latinos, indigenous and other minorities in several key states, a new young progressive generation (much of whom claim to favor “socialism”) and new coalitions of civil rights advocates, immigrants, grassroots environmentalists, and movements against systemic violence. Several have been part of what is the largest social protest movement in U.S. history triggered by racial injustice and “black lives,” which was expressed in hundreds of cities with the participation of over 26 million people.
Today, the so-called Progressive Caucus of the federal Congress is larger than ever with almost 100 legislators (including among its leadership Raul Grijalva and Jesus Chuy Garcia, both of Mexican origin). Among them are a growing number of those who define themselves as “socialists”, as well as in municipal and state governments.
A day before the assault on the Capitol by white supremacists, neo-Nazis, anti-immigrant and anti-“radical left” fighters (as Trump accuses progressive resistance movements), the Democrats won the two disputed seats in the federal Senate in a run-off election in the former Republican stronghold of Georgia; and that with two rookie politicians. One of the winners was none other than the progressive Reverend Raphael Warnock, head of the Baptist church where the Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. was formed (whose official day is Monday, and whose call for a “moral revolution” in this country continues to resonate) and who will now be the first black senator sent by that state to the upper house in its history.
The other winner is documentary filmmaker Jon Ossoff, the youngest man to be elected to the Senate in several decades, and to the horror of neo-Nazis and anti-Semites of Jewish origin.
Prominent Columbia University historian Eric Foner commented this week that what happened at the Capitol “reflects an ideology with deep roots in American society – white nationalism… It takes a constant struggle to confront neo-klanism, the armed white supremacist groups” that have expressed themselves throughout American history. That means, he says, “ending the criminalization of poor people and overcoming the deep inequalities in this country.”
The hidden history of the United States remains that of these democratizing, rebellious and dissident struggles throughout its existence (although Howard Zinn and others rescue it). The new rebel generations, as in other countries, are emerging from a common and present struggle against four decades of neoliberalism.
It is these democratizing movements that should be recognized by their counterparts in Mexico and other countries (perhaps even invited to dialogue and a chance to dance instead of wasting so much time looking only at the official US arena) and celebrate their triumphs – they are also those of our diasporas in the North – as they are at last the triumphs of all those who fight against the right and neoliberalism, and for justice and dignity, everywhere.
Source: La Jornada, translation Resumen Latinoamericano, North America bureau