The mainstream press (alias The Fake News) is abuzz this morning over the US President’s latest promise to dismantle the last of our democratic institutions and his refusal to guarantee a peaceful transfer of power after the coming election. We are in danger of losing our democracy, they proclaim.
That, of course, is true. We are in danger of losing what little democracy we have known.
Many of us join that chorus. But others of us, responding to the latest outrage and denial of justice (in Louisville, this time), respond that we have never had democracy in this country, at least many of us have never had it. Black Lives have never mattered, and clearly still don’t. Why should we trust these institutions when they have a 400 year history of preventing our safety and resisting every effort to achieve our freedom?
Democracy, as we know it in the US, has been tried and it has failed…some argue.
We are in danger. I believe that to be true. Perhaps it will come to pass, as Isabel Wilkerson warns in her new book, Caste, that America will choose whiteness over democracy.
We are in danger, but this is not the first time. And the outcome is not yet certain.
In 1968, George Wallace, avowed segregationist and former governor of Alabama, ran as a third-party candidate for the US Presidency. He won 5 states (all in the south), 45 electoral college votes, 13.5% of the of total popular vote…very nearly enough to throw the election into the House of Representatives.
Tom Turnipseed, of Columbia S.C., was Wallace’s campaign manager. Turnipseed, during that campaign, experienced a change of heart. He became what he called a “reformed racist.”
“What turned me off was not Wallace, but the crowds.” Wallace was tapping into something ugly, not just in the South, but among white blue-collar Wallace supporters in the North, of whom there were many.
Arranging to use a Polish-American club’s building in Massachusetts for a Wallace rally, Turnipseed confronted the ugliness.
The club official told him they could use the building for free but asked him to affirm that, if elected, Wallace would line up all the Black people – that is not the language that he used – and shoot them.
It was a turning point for Turnipseed, who became a prominent civil rights activist and progressive radio talk show host in South Carolina with his wife, Judy.
Tom and Judy became members and leaders of the Columbia, SC, UU Fellowship. They both served on my President’s Council and spoke eloquently, at the UUA’s General Assembly, about how their faith held them up and sustained them in their progressive advocacy.
Tom died in March of this year.
I share this story of conversion and redemption not to try to convince any of you that everything will come round right. The danger is real. The conversion of one racist into a civil rights activist did not change the world.
The danger is real but so is the possibility of hope.
And what we do at First Unitarian to keep our eyes on the prize matters. This Sunday, you’ll be hearing testimonies from some of our members who have been taking part in the protests on Portland’s streets. First Unitarian is important for them.
What we do and how we do it matters.
It is a faith statement that by living as if love were real, we bring more love into the world. Unlike the claims for our democratic institutions, that is a statement of faith that has proven true every time.
Stay safe and well. Keep your eyes on the prize.
Bill