The Solidarity of Enlightened, Egalitarian and Ethical Menfolk (and its Portents)
Georgia Senate candidate Rev. Raphael Warnock told CNN’s Fredricka Whitfield what the experience of campaigning alongside Jon Ossoff has been like, saying “Jon Ossoff is my brother.” The results of this kind of solidarity among collectively-minded men are stunning and portentous: A Democratic Senate in the U.S., the first in many years. An African American natural statesman and a socially enlightened Jewish intellectual confirmed to be sent to the Senate from Georgia, a poor, under-represented, largely rural antebellum holdover (with the stellar exception of Atlanta, its suburbs, and its exacting voters).
America, currently classified by Human Rights watchdogs as a “flawed democracy” and hardly the ‘exceptional’ beacon of modern democracy it has long styled itself as, has half a chance at healing its cavernous rifts — at rejoining the civil society of the world’s democratic nations — at catching up to other developed nations socially and ideologically — at starting to deal with the myriad of lingering horrors of its past, the toxic vestiges of slavery, indigenous genocide, colonialism and settler consciousness.
America, at this moment, has a chance to realize the potential in the #IdleNoMore, #MeToo, #BlackLivesMatter, Green New Deal Climate Action, and Women’s March on Washington movements. It has an actual shot at making amends and restitution for the horrors inflicted on women and children by an ongoing Right Wing Rape Culture that lionizes sexual assailants in highest office. It has a real opportunity to begin to redress the crimes perpetrated against children and families at the American border with Mexico…
