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Post-Reconstruction America? [1]

['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']

Date: 2025-08-20  

It may sound hyperbolic to call Washington, DC, a slave state, but not for the reasons you might imagine. As a native of Washington, DC, my family and I spent my years there being taxed without representation—and the efforts to make DC a state have been repeatedly blocked by Conservatives. One might say this is a return to the post-Reconstruction era when formerly enslaved people paid taxes and eventually lost any representation in Congress. Again, my beloved hometown is under the thumb of oppression. In the congressional “Compromise of 1850,” this second federal Fugitive Slave Act aggressively extended the provisions of the original 1793 Act. Law enforcement officials were required to arrest people suspected of escaping enslavement on as little as a claimant’s sworn testimony of ownership… Additionally, any person aiding a fugitive by providing food or shelter was subject to a six-month imprisonment and a $1,000 fine.

The city of Washington's policing policy is currently under the control and occupation of the federal government. Helping in this effort is the increased promise of further occupation by at least six MAGA state governors who are sending additional National Guard troops. According to Reuters, the Republican governors of Mississippi, Louisiana, and Tennessee agreed to deploy troops to Washington, days after the Republican governors of West Virginia, South Carolina, and Ohio also did so at the Trump administration's request. Republican governors are helping to make a mockery of self-determination by assisting President Trump’s vision of a subservient majority black population in arguably the most crucial black run city in the world. Would hundreds of armed and unarmed members of the military help deter crime? Of course—it would in any town. After a dry run in Los Angeles, DC has become the prototype for his plans. Remember, Mr. Trump told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, “So you're saying during the war you can't have elections,” he said, interrupting the Ukrainian president's remarks. “So, let me just say, three and a half years from now... if we happen to be in a war with somebody, no more elections. Oh, that's good.”

The problem with Mr. Trump’s approach is that his policies are often marred by lies, with retribution as the predicate. This is yet again another move toward normalizing tyrannical reign. The Texas legislature is joining in stripping the democratic rights of the part of government that is in opposition. Democrats who staged a boycott of the Texas lawmaking body by leaving the state denied a quorum to stop the limiting of voting power by brown and black residents of the state. Now, Democrats are being asked to sign a permission slip so that they can be monitored by Texas law enforcement to ensure their appearance. This tactic reached absurd levels when Texas black State legislator Nicole Collier refused to be treated like a child who needs parental permission to move about freely.

Consequently, at the end of the daily legislative session, she was coerced into sleeping in the chamber because she asserted her right to freedom of movement. “Because of the political theater, they're saying that we have to get permission to leave, to come back, and while we're gone, we have to be in the custody of a DPS officer, and there's no crime that has been committed yet. We are being instructed that if I want to leave, I've got to agree to be in their custody,” Collier said. So, while the Trump administration thinks of catchy names for American concentration camps like the ‘Speedway Slammer’ and ‘Alligator Alcatraz,’ the blatant racism, xenophobia, and anti-democratic-republic strategies are speeding up our descent into the hell of fascism.

Your Vote is Still Your Voice

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[1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2025/8/20/2339351/-Post-Reconstruction-America?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=more_community&pm_medium=web

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