I can remember a discussion I had

[moniss]

back in the '60's with a couple of John Birch Society members that worked at the same place I did. One of their things was that the 14th Amendment, containing the citizenship clause, was not legitimate and the freed slaves and their children should never have been given citizenship. It was not just a policy or theoretical disagreement. It was an agenda.

Ever since the Civil War and The Emancipation Proclamation the racists have wanted to negate any power by people of color and there has been a still continuing branch of racist thought that if they could legally maneuver to overturn that portion of the 14th Amendment then they could try and make legal arguments against the descendants of slaves such that they would not have a vote because the claimed "non-citizen" status had passed on down from the very beginning to each successive generation. Put plainly they wanted then and still do to remove citizenship from people currently living in the US and do so based on race.

You notice that Miller and other right wing whackos have been very vocal about wanting to take away citizenship from people. They just haven't been quite as open as the two bigots I worked with. Their dream is to first be able to take people of color who have any criminal convictions and deport them. As they are already doing so to non-citizen brown people it should be quite obvious where they want to go with expanding their "purge" of people in this country.

The "hunting" of people based on race has already been blessed by the USC racists lead by Kavanaugh and his claim that stops based on race are peachy keen. The decision this past week not to overturn the citizenship clause in the 14th Amendment may well have been a calculated one rather than one of integrity and law. The USC fascists see where the mid-terms are heading and they know that if they had struck down the clause the virulent racists in control in the Southern and most Western States would have begun moving to take advantage of trying to invalidate citizenship of people of color on a massive scale. The blowback would have been enormous and may have made the riots of the '60's pale in comparison.

The media would have had a hard time indeed trying to ignore day after day and week after week of massive unrest. But we should not take the decision issued this week to be the end of the racists effort against the 14th Amendment and people of color. They will be back. The Civil Rights Act of 1866 that also addressed citizenship etc. was vetoed by the racist President Andrew Johnson and although the Congress overrode that veto we still needed the 14th Amendment in order to not have citizenship be subject to a change of political power in Congress and the White House. The hope was always that the Supreme Court would stand against political attacks on basic rights and fundamental things like citizenship.

But as we have seen with the MAGA justices, and things like overturning Roe for example, the ideas of precedent, basic rights and fundamental definitions are as malleable to them as window putty left out in the sun of July in D.C. and what is said today by them means nothing about where their decisions will be next year after the mid-terms.

At the heart of the history of this country is bigotry, hate and screwing people of color and indigenous people. That's the truth about this country and it hasn't died, as some of the racists have suggested, because a black man managed to get elected as President. The truth of what our country did and is still doing is the fact that the powers that be never want to acknowledge and truly substantively address.

So the big 250th Birthday Bash goes on with politicians and media calling us the "greatest nation" but remember what we saw happen in the US this past year and a half. Think of what is to come. Think about what the country has done over the years and now refuses to correct. Think of the officer in uniform who was handcuffed on the steps of the Capitol for daring to speak out, speak his mind and speak a warning of the danger ahead.

I find the hoopla about our 250th Birthday to be farcical and gross in the face of our history and especially the last 18 months.

[sop]

1. "At the heart of the history of this country is bigotry, hate and screwing people of color and indigenous people."

You're right, the racism is foundational. It is embedded in the origins and development of the United States, and racial inequality was structurally codified in the Constitution. Returning to our racist roots is what conservatives mean when they say "originalism."