Echoes from a Dark Past, and a Reminder

We Are in the Same Battle for Democracy All Generations Have Been In

In my Voting Rights Academy, I highlight some of the worst cases in American history. Many came down in the late 1800s and early 1900s, protecting actions by Southern white supremacists as they overran Reconstruction and destroyed a new, diverse democracy just as it was emerging in the South.

From the stunning decision that allowed those guilty of racist political violence to face zero accountability, to the maddening decision that found blatantly racist voter suppression to be immune even from court challenge by wronged Black voters, these and other cases systematically dismantled the new protections of the post-Civil War amendments.

As I’ve reviewed these and other infamous cases over the years, I would never have imagined that any modern Court could match the twisted logic, unprincipled inconsistency and infuriating warping of clear language, intent and will as these turn-of-the-20th century Supreme Court majorities did.

Alas, I was wrong.

They have met their match in the Roberts Court.

Yesterday’s lawless decision joined a long line of Roberts Court holdings that have done grave damage to our modern diverse democracy, undermined personal freedom, elevated corruption, rubber-stamped blatant voter suppression, eliminated checks and balances, and dismantled the rule of law.

To get there, they too are larded up with the same shifting logic, inconsistent principles (adhering to precedent and text when need be, then defying both when it suits them), and strained interpretations and reasoning that rival all the worst aspects of those bygone cases.

There’s one other undeniable parallel—those old cases came following the emergence of a newly enfranchised and politically active Black electorate following the Civil War, just as the Roberts cases came after the Obama coalition/majority emerged in 2008 and 2012. In both eras, the Court is playing a leading role in subverting these new, diverse majorities.

For detailed explanations and analyses of yesterday’s decision, I recommend Robert Hubbell and Joyce Vance.

As for me, I want to address what we do about it.

An Awakening: The Long Battle for Democracy

While traces of them still haunt our Constitutional jurisprudence, we overcame the worst of those past opinions over time.

How?

Activism. Action. Persistence!

Generations of suffragists overcame the decision holding that women did not have the right to vote, just as generations of civil rights heroes overcome the long line of decisions that protected white supremacy.

We must resolve to do the same now. And we must see that OUR role now is the same as those past pro-democracy heroes.

We are in the same battle they were in.

Indeed, our entire nation’s history has involved the endless battle to lift and perfect democracy—or, from the other side, subvert it.

It’s a battle that’s gone back and forth. Up and down. It has NOT been continual progress, as is often believed. Just look at those past cases and the generations that suffered in hellish non-democracy because of them.

And it’s not an arc that bends towards justice…on its own. We must bend that arc proactively, or it can and will bend the other way. It has bent the wrong way far more often than we like to admit.

And…the battle never ends.

There was an impression left following the incredible progress of the Voting Rights Act and the Warren Court that the battle was over. Settled.

But that was a mirage. A dangerous one.

No, we are not the first generation of Americans who don’t have to worry about the state of democracy itself.

Who don’t need to strive and fight to keep democracy and the rule of law intact.

There will never be such a generation—one that can simply rest because democracy is intact once and for all. John Lewis warned us of this again and again.

The battle will always take place. It’s always on.

If we thought that we were the exception to that, we were wrong.

And as the authors of the 14th and 15th Amendments learned within decades of passing those historic changes, progress can be undone. Hard-fought victories can be turned back. Let down your guard for one generation (because you take democracy for granted), and a diverse, rule-of-law democracy can be wiped away.

An unvarnished look at our history makes that clear as day.

Recent years make it equally clear.

Amid all the disturbing directions of late, at least we can now be awake to that reality:

That we are in the same fight that the suffragists were in.

The same fight that civil rights heroes waged. In the 1800s. And again in the 1900s.

And with that realization, there’s some hope. Because as tough as things feel on days like yesterday and today, those generations of democracy-fighters had to overcome far worse than we do now.

Yet they did it.

Often, they waged their struggle knowing that the beneficiaries would not be themselves, but their children and grandchildren. But they kept fighting for justice, and democracy. And they made progress.

We can too, as long as we clearly see our place in history now. And the depth and the breadth of the battle we are in.

And as long as we never take democracy for granted again.

I wrote two books to outline this battle as clearly as I could, and how to wage it most effectively. They explain that the all-out battle for democracy we are in requires more long-game strategies, more breadth, more depth.

More spirited participation by every American who cherishes democracy.

And the need to wage that battle everywhere!

Of course defeating Trump this year is a key part of that battle.

It is a necessary and essential step, made even more crucial by yesterday’s appalling decision, and the disturbing promises spelled out in Project 2025. We can not allow Trump to become the unaccountable King that the Supreme Court just said he is able to be if he wins.

But even then, beating Trump is not sufficient. Because those attacking democracy are waging their battle at far more levels and through far more vehicles than one unhinged conman at the top. That’s how they were able to advance their attack on democracy even after Trump lost in 2020—because they wage it at so many levels, including levels that those who care about democracy have long ignored.

Which tells us that we too must do far more.

We must fight for democracy at all levels. Everywhere. All the time.

And if we have the right frame for it all, and the will, we can succeed.

Again, democracy heroes from the past overcame far more than this.

We will as well.