Category Archives: Civil Rights

2020 US Presidential Election, Alt-Right, American democracy, American Politics, Anti-Semitism, Black and Indigenous People of Color, Civil Rights, Conservatives, Corona Virus, Covid-19, Democracy, Donald Trump, Elections, Electoral Cynicism, Fear, Health care, History, International Politics, LGBT Rights, Liberals, Media, Obamacare, Peace, Political scapegoats, Politics, Poverty, Presidential History, Republican Party, Scandals, Science, Science-Denial, Social Policy, Society, U.S. Government, U.S. History, US Domestic Policy, US Economic Policy, US Foreign Policy, Vaccines, Voter Fraud, Voting, White Nationalism

The Shallow State

1 Comment

There has been a lot of consternation amongst the conspiracy-theory-obsessed Trump world that their hero is standing against an unseen and unknown ‘Deep State,’ conspiracy. This fear turns non-partisan civil servants into the boogeymen foot soldiers of a national or even global conspiracy headed either by wealthy Jews (like George Soros and the Rothschilds), educated elites like Bill Gates, or Democratic politicians like Hillary Clinton. Trump thrives on this fear, and everything he does, from throwing human beings in concentration camps to fighting to take away millions of Americans’ health care during a pandemic is seen through that lens. Regardless of how short-sighted, cruel, racist, or idiotic Trump is, it is always declared to be justified after the fact, and even science is perverted to make him look good. Yet, while Trump’s followers dissect the footage of old Clinton speeches searching for secret handshakes and nods, and examine their Xboxes for proof that Gates wants to microchip them, Trump has shown that the power of the Shallow State is real and dangerous. And if you take the man at his word (usually a losing proposition), he may be sending that Shallow State – in the form of his un-identified, armed, and armored private Department of Homeland Security/Justice Department Army – to your hometown very soon.

The real Shallow State is far scarier than the fake ‘deep’ one. The Shallow State sizes someone up by their appearance, and the farther away from a Caucasian a person is, the less ‘American’ they are judged to be. The Shallow State is concerned with how and where you pray, and who you sleep with. The Shallow State wants to protect statues and monuments because it is terrified of change, and monuments and statues don’t change. The Shallow State doesn’t look beyond the surface, which is why Don is unable to comprehend that forts named after Confederate officers like Fort Bragg and Fort Hood would still have played the roles that they did in American history – like in winning World War II, which he often brings up, and just called a ‘beautiful World War,’ – regardless of what they were named. We didn’t defeat the Nazis and the Japanese Empire because we named our forts after traitors and murderers: it’s just a coincidence that dishonors the Black, Indigenous and People of Color who fought and died fighting in America’s wars.

A lot more damage has been done in world history by those who vowed to unmask alleged conspiracies than by the groups alleged to be conspiring. And many of the supposed unmaskers were cowards too frightened to act without a mask themselves. They are people who are too afraid to admit mistakes, because their entire claim to power is based on appearing strong and infallible. Imagine if Hitler took power in Germany in 1933, had a few days to ‘look over the books,’ and declared that actually Jews and Communists weren’t responsible for Germany’s defeat in World War I? Or if Joseph McCarthy admitted that there wasn’t a Communist conspiracy in the US government? Or if Trump admitted that there is no ‘Deep State,’ that global warming is not a hoax, or even simply acknowledged that he altered the map of Hurricane Dorian’s projected path? But even getting Trump to admit that he was wrong in not wearing a mask or asking other Americans to wear them took several months during which countless more people were exposed to Covid-19 than otherwise would have been. Don is currently not doing things – like calling on the Defense Production Act – that experts have been begging him to do for months because if he does them now it will look like he’s admitting to having made a mistake in NOT doing them sooner. People are literally dying because Trump believes his chance at re-election in November would be hurt more by admitting he made a mistake and using every tool at his disposal to fight the pandemic than by letting people get sick and die.

The notion of the ‘Deep State,’ may animate Trump’s followers and has led to a purge of civil servants from throughout the government who are viewed as insufficiently loyal to Don. But the Shallow State is scarier, and it has no time for subtlety. People thrown into unmarked vans or terrorized with tear gas and violence so that Don could have a photo-op in front of a church are the victims of the Shallow State. The Shallow State doesn’t exist in fever dreams as a way to defend Trump from being attacked as the worst president in American history. It is very real, and we need to fight against it. This Shallow State and its tainted pool of hateful, racist, conspiracy-minded fascists is the swamp we need to drain in November.  

2018 California Primary, American Politics, Bail Reform, California, California Democratic Party, California Democratic Primary, California elections, California Politics, Civil Rights, Contra Costa County Politics, Criminal Justice, Criminal Justice Reform, Democracy, Democratic Party, District Attorney, Elections, Electoral Cynicism, June 5th Election, Liberals, prisoner reform, Social Policy, Society, U.S. Government, US Domestic Policy, Voting

A Prosecutor and a Protector

Leave a comment

It is easy to be a cynical pessimist who believes that the state of our nation, our state, and our communities is awful and will never get any better. Cynicism asks so little of us; we can sit back and complain about how bad things are without even needing to stand up from our chairs, or put down our phones. It is harder to have faith in our ability to make things better, and to go out and work to improve our communities, but that does not mean that it is hard. In fact, there is one sure, easy thing that we can do to try to make things better for our neighbors, our friends, our families, ourselves, and our children: we can vote, and on June 5th people all across California will vote to decide who will represent us in Washington and in Sacramento, but we also get to choose who will defend us, define our values, and will seek justice on our behalf by voting for the District Attorney of Contra Costa County. And there is only one person who has a proven track record of siding with the powerless against the powerful, of a firm commitment to fairness, a decades-long dedication to and love of the law, and who has the vital experience that means that she will not have to learn on the job (because she already has the job), and that is Contra Costa District Attorney Diana Becton.

After 22-years of experience as a judge and with universal respect within the legal community, DA Becton was appointed to her position by the County Board of Supervisors last year and entrusted to turn around a DA’s office that had been plagued by corruption, incompetence, and low morale. DA Becton made history before she even set foot in her new office, as she took office last year as both the first woman and the first African American to serve as DA in the then-167-year history of Contra Costa County, but she did not simply rest on her historic achievement, instead she hit the ground running, creating a new culture in the office from day one, and working to restore public confidence in her office, and rebuilding the office’s reputation. She has made the position more transparent and accountable to the people, and showed that she is brave enough to admit mistakes, and humble enough to work to correct them, putting honesty above her own personal political gain.

As DA, Diana sets the priorities of her office, deciding which crimes to prosecute, and sentences to suggest. It means that DA Becton is in position to help address mass-incarceration by directing resources to deal with violent crimes over drug offenses, keeping our communities and our families safe while also addressing the fact that California currently has 160,000 people in our prison system, of which 75% are African American or Latino. This has led minority communities to view District Attorneys as, ‘the enemy,’ which is something that DA Becton is working to change by doing community outreach, prioritizing diversion programs, and countering immigrant-communities reluctance to report crimes committed against them to law enforcement because of fear of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE. Diana is for fair, equal treatment for victims as well as for those accused of crimes, for dealing with the homeless and those who are mentally ill with compassion and respect, and for keeping families together by fighting against setting exorbitant, unaffordable bail amounts that keep many who have not been convicted of any crime in prison because they do not have the money to pay.

We have a real chance to grab this moment before us of promise, and hope, and to use it to build a fairer, safer, and more just Contra Costa County. We need simply to choose vote for and support Diana Becton, optimism and action over cynicism and apathy, and we can be the best possible version of our community. We don’t have the luxury to take this moment for granted and decide that we would indeed rather do nothing. We have a very rare opportunity here with DA Becton, and we need to vote her a full term as our District Attorney, and work with her to show that we don’t need to choose to be safe OR just, but that we can be both. We need a DA who understands that the role is both a prosecutor and a protector, and who won’t tells us that we’re incapable of being more than just one thing, and that we can only focus on negative, punitive measures and not on positive or preventative ones: Diana Becton is that DA. It took us 168-years to get to this moment, so let us choose action and vote for a prosecutor and a protector, because we could wait 168-more years and never see a chance this great or a candidate as qualified and skilled as DA Diana Becton.