Commentary
The Far-Right Political Playbook Is a Threat to Our Health, Our Schools, and Our Democracy
Right-wing media outlets and social media spread false information and conspiracy theories. Conservative activists and politicians opposed public health measures as a form of “tyranny.”
![](https://www.postnewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/10/Extreme-Right-wing-ideology.jpg)
The New York Times recently reported that the public health system in the United States may be less prepared for the next pandemic than it was for the current one. Given everything we have been through, and everything we have learned, how can that be?
The answer is disturbing. Our public health system is being put at risk by the same right-wing disinformation tactics that are undermining our educational and election systems.
Right-wing media outlets and social media spread false information and conspiracy theories. Conservative activists and politicians opposed public health measures as a form of “tyranny.” Angry people have harassed and threatened public health officials, and politicians have passed more than 100 laws restricting their authority to take action to protect the public.
Those new laws, combined with chronic underfunding and staff burnout, are making us all more vulnerable to health threats in the future. So is the fact that extremism is being embraced by public officials, not just agitated activists.
The Times reported that one county sheriff in Washington state threatened to arrest any government official enforcing health restrictions that he thought were unconstitutional. New laws will make it harder for schools and hospitals to enforce vaccine requirements that have been in place for years.
We are seeing this destructive political dynamic play out in our schools and elections as well.
The opposition raging against public officials trying to protect our health care is the same opposition raging against teaching about systemic racism in our schools and feeding the “Big Lie” about a stolen 2020 election. It’s all coming from the same playbook.
All across the country, school board meetings have turned into angry mob scenes. Parents’ frustration over school closings and mask requirements has boiled over in some places, and it is being inflamed and exploited for political purposes.
To make matters worse, right-wing media and political groups have manufactured a panic about the supposed threat of “critical race theory” being taught in schools.
Critical race theory is an academic framework for understanding how systemic racism affects people’s lives. But right-wing activists, with a big boost from Fox News and Donald Trump, are getting parents riled up with claims that honestly teaching about the racism in our history and institutions is part of a Marxist plot to impose tyranny by making students hate America.
It sounds ridiculous, and it is. But the rising tide of threats against educators and school board members is no joke. Neither is a widespread campaign by right-wing activists to take over school boards and impose a whitewashed “patriotic education” on students. They are passing laws that will make it impossible to teach about racism in schools—even in some state colleges.
This is part of an ugly backlash against the Black Lives Matter movement and a reaction to the increasing diversity of our schools and communities.
Speaking of ugly backlash, the assault on voting rights continues. Trump supporters couldn’t handle the fact that he lost. They could not accept that their hero was defeated in part by increased turnout among Black voters in key states. Or that Black voters in Georgia and their allies took control of the Senate away from Republicans.
So, we see the same right-wing playbook in action. Spread lies and conspiracy theories to convince conservative and right-wing voters that their country and their freedom are being “stolen” from them. Launch attacks on the officials who oversee our elections. Undermine confidence in elections with fake “audits” and tell more lies about the outcome of those “audits.” Use the lies and anger to justify new laws that make it harder for people to vote.
Some Republican state legislators have given themselves the power to ignore voters altogether and declare their own winner if they don’t like the results.
We are seeing the fruits of social media outlets pushing people deeper into conspiracy theories and further from reality. We are witnessing the destruction of trust and community by powerful right-wing media figures who profit from inflaming fear and division.
These are all threats to our future as a peaceful, multiethnic, multiracial democratic society. And there’s no easy solution to overcoming these threats.
There’s a lot of hard work to do.
Exposing lies and telling the truth. Lifting up voices with moral authority to break through the deceptions. Organizing people of good will to get involved. And insisting that our friends and allies in positions of cultural, economic, and political power have the courage and commitment to defend our families, schools, communities, and democracy.
Activism
Oakland Post: Week of July 24 – 30, 2024
The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 24 – 30, 2024
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Activism
Oakland Post: Week of July 17 -23, 2024
The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of July 17 -23, 2024
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Commentary
COMMENTARY: President Biden, The Constitution and Race
The Democratic Party needs to pause and reflect on the real issue, which is race and not an aging President. Once again, we see the Kool-Aid of division being swallowed, not by the MAGA Right, but by Democrats who know better and openly profess a love for democracy and the Constitution of the United States. So, the question is how can one love the Constitution and at the same time only obey those sections that agree with our way of thinking?
![Dr. John E. Warren contends that it is the race of Biden’s successor, Kamal Harris, that is the real issue underneath the fearmongering about the president’s age. Courtesy photo.](https://www.postnewsgroup.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/dr-john-warren-featured-web.jpg)
By Dr. John E. Warren, Publisher
The San Diego Voice & Viewpoint Newspaper
The Democratic Party needs to pause and reflect on the real issue, which is race and not an aging President.
Once again, we see the Kool-Aid of division being swallowed, not by the MAGA Right, but by Democrats who know better and openly profess a love for democracy and the Constitution of the United States. So, the question is how can one love the Constitution and at the same time only obey those sections that agree with our way of thinking?
When President Biden wins re-election, his age or any other issue will only become a problem when there are signs he is unable to fulfill the duties of the Office. The 25th Amendment to the Constitution handles the succession process setting out how the Vice President assumes the Office of the Presidency and how the Office of the Vice Presidency is to be filled. The elephant in the room is Vice President Kamala Harris, who happens to not only be a woman, but also Black.
This is the same Black woman who was Attorney General of the largest state in the Union. She was an elected U.S. Senator from that same state which had given us the U.S. Supreme Court Justice Earl Warren and President Ronald Reagan.
She has been elected by the Democratic Party’s primary process which made Joe Biden the presidential candidate, and Harris the vice-presidential candidate.
So, is the real issue the age of a man who, in the last four years, rescued this nation from the brink of destruction?
Is it the Democrats opposing the President staying in the race who may have Alzheimer’s and memory loss, rather than the President who remembers what he has done and how he rescued a struggling nation?
Is it the Democrats complaining about the President and know that Trump has a better chance at winning against a last-minute replacement than running against a President who has already beaten him before? In knowing all these facts, especially the presence of the 25th Amendment, the only card left in the deck is race.
It appears that some White Liberal Democrats just don’t want a Black woman in the orbit of really becoming President and they would rather disgrace and destroy a good man because of a bad debate than take a chance on a Black woman running the White House.
Let’s not get it twisted. It was a Black Congressman from South Carolina, James Clyburn, who motivated Black America to vote for Joe Biden when it appeared that he was out of the race for the presidency.
It is the Black Vote that put him in office and it is the Black Vote of the Congressional Black Caucus who, in this race for the White House, is standing in unity with the Democratic leadership of the House of Representatives in a Republican-controlled Congress against whimpering calls from a few democrats for the President to “step aside.”
Once again, the clarion call is to stand with the Constitution and not be like the Supreme Court who is now stomping upon all that it stands for in an effort to protect and insulate the convicted felon that we, the people, would keep out of the White House.
A move to oust President Biden would surely guarantee an election victory for Trump.
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