Building A Multiracial Democracy in America

On March 4, 1861, Abraham Lincoln became the 16^th president of the United States, succeeding James Buchanan. Buchanan is generally ranked as the worst president in U.S. history for his tacit support of slavery and for allowing Southern states to secede, and Lincoln the greatest for abolishing slavery and preserving the Union.

One hundred and sixty years later, with Joe Biden succeeding Donald Trump as the 46^th president of the United States, we are witnessing history repeating itself. Biden may not dislodge Lincoln from his perch but it seems certain that the doubly-impeached Trump will displace Buchanan as the worst U.S. president ever.

More serious than ranking is the ominous parallel between the America that Lincoln inherited and the America that Biden has. The Civil War over slavery in 19^th-Century America has transformed itself into a Civil War over white supremacy in the 21^st.

America, and the world, breathed a sigh of relief when Biden won the presidency in a free and fair election. His immediate $1.9 trillion stimulus to vaccinate Americans and put sufficient money into the pockets of despairing millions unable to think beyond milk for their babies, bread for their sustenance and rent for the current month is already making a difference. Biden has picked seasoned professionals, not partisan hacks, to oversee his American “Marshall Plan.” Restoring decency and normalcy will take time after four years of indecency and autocracy but there is guarded optimism that good governance, accountability and morality will return under Biden’s administration.

But addressing such urgent issues as safely opening schools, climate crisis, immigration reform, wealth inequality and a global reset will falter if the administration and the American people do not confront the existential threat of domestic terrorism by white supremacists. The armed mob that assaulted the foundation of our democracy on January 6^th was only a preview of what might recur if we do not confront this threat with the power of justice and the force of law.

Some myths, however, must be dispelled before domestic terrorism can be banished. First, that the “white” in white supremacy refers to all white Americans. That’s bigotry. Majority of whites reject the toxic ideology of racial superiority and do not subscribe to unhinged conspiracy theories. Second, that it’s the uneducated poor of rural America who form the bulk of white supremacists. Far from it. The January 6^th insurgents included lawmakers, police and military officers, middle-class urbanites, the wealthy and the privileged. Finally, that it’s an unchanging truth that Blacks do not vote even when the stakes are high. Despite Republican voter suppression and gerrymandering, it was American Blacks who were instrumental in delivering the presidency and vice-presidency to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. It was also mostly Blacks who flipped the Senate for Democrats in Georgia, thanks to the massive voter enfranchisement effort by Stacey Abrams, continuing the legacy of Martin Luther King, Jr, who led voter-registration drives in the South in the ‘60s.

So, how can we help the Biden administration defeat white nationalism that is tragically present in every community in America?

By mobilizing, protesting and convincing our representatives to act. After Trump became president in 2016, a national organization called “Indivisible” with local chapters in thousands of cities inspired millions of us to march against Trump’s xenophobic and demagogic transgressions in favor of a more humane America. We connected, created communities and compelled changes.

Such mobilization and activism must continue if we want to legally defeat white supremacy and right-wing extremism before national healing can begin. As historian Will Durant reminded us, “A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself within.”

A Bangladeshi-American Reflects on the Insurrection

I became a naturalized American citizen in 1985, joining about 150 about-to-become-Americans from around the world to take the oath of allegiance in a spacious room in the old City Hall of San Jose.

On January 6^th, when armed insurrectionists, incited by president Trump and his enablers, stormed the US Capitol, I re-read the oath I took over three decades ago. One sentence stood out: “I will support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”

It is the last word of that sentence that riveted me, for it was clear watching the horrific events unfold in our Capital that what most threatens our country now is domestic terrorism by white supremacists.

While lawmakers weigh various options to prevent a rogue and reckless Trump from causing even more carnage in the last days of his presidency, I find myself asking, “As an ordinary citizen, what can I do to defend my country against domestic terrorists in these terrifying times?”

Here’s what I am committing myself to, and I hope my fellow-Americans, by birth or naturalized but perhaps silent until now, will make similar commitments.

First, I will join hands with as many organizations as I can across America who are determined to root out the evil of racial superiority through legal means. In that regard, irrespective of creed and color, we must always remember that it was blacks who were most instrumental in delivering the presidency to Joe Biden in the November 2020 election. His campaign was on life support until South Carolina’s congressman James Clyburn offered his impassioned support in February last year that propelled him to the front of the pack. Biden never looked back after that.

What about Democrats flipping the Senate only a day before our Capitol was desecrated? The wins by Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff were mostly due to massive voter enfranchisement effort led by Stacey Abrams, whose ‘Fair Fight’ group helped register 800,000 new voters in just two years, despite insidious voter suppression tactics used by Georgia’s Republican establishment.

Second, I will connect with our elected officials to convince them that while we revere our Constitution, we should not treat it as an immutable, timeless document. The history of amendments, beginning with the Bill of Rights (Amendments 1-10), adopted in 1791, to Amendment 26, adopted in 1971, show that we can treat our constitution as a living and breathing document that can change to meet the challenges of the times.

The anachronistic electoral college is certainly something to be looked at, but one area that needs urgent consideration is the power of the Executive branch of our government.

The constitution was written by patriots for whom it was an article of faith that the highest office in the land will always be held by an American of character, decency, reason and sanity. The last four years have shown how a president, bereft of such qualities, can exploit the constitution for his vile and demagogic purposes. Unless we close the loopholes that give unlimited power to an unfit president with his personal mercenaries, more carnages and assaults on our defining values will continue under future Trumps.

Evil triumphs when good people do nothing, as Edmund Burke wrote over two centuries ago. I know I can do more, but these are my two immediate action items to help me keep my promise as a Bangladeshi-American to “support and defend the Constitution and laws of the United States of America against all enemies, foreign and domestic.”