gracchusdixit

It is impossible to know whether we’re witnessing a trend or merely a momentary reprieve, but last Tuesday’s elections provided at least a glimmer of hope that the country may at last be coming to is senses.  In state after state, in vote after vote,  the radical agenda of the far right went down to defeat.

The overwhelmingly repeal of the union-busting legislation pushed through by Ohio’s Republican governor earlier this year wasn’t unexpected—all the polling had predicted it—but the scale of the defeat was unequivocal.  Ohio’s governor didn’t even bother to make the usual excuses or blame the usual suspects.   Instead, his reaction to the defeat, in no small measure a rejection of the man himself, was one of stunned, slack-jawed humiliation.

The equally overwhelming defeat of Republican-backed legislation in Maine, designed to restrict voter registration, was harder to predict but no less heartening.  Of course, it’s Maine, and New Englanders have a history of common sense and stubborn fairness that may not be duplicated elsewhere.  But it’s a start.  And it’s a warning to Republicans in other states who are trying to pull the same trick in order to rig the next national election.

Then there was the unexpected success of a grass-roots campaign to recall Russell Pearce, the long-time political boss of Arizona and its de factor governor.  Pearce is a blatant white  racist, who pushed through legislation giving police a mandate to stop, search, and arrest anyone who “appears to be an illegal immigrant.”  Which, of course, means anybody who looks remotely Hispanic.  Even in a state where the electorate overwhelmingly supports get-tough measures against illegal immigration, it seems that Pearce went too far.

All three of these election outcomes, and many others like them that have received less attention, are unequivocal victories for those who oppose the extreme right-wing objectives of the tea party, its hangers-on, and its secret financial backers.

What happened in Mississippi is murkier.   By all measures, the decisive defeat of the “personhood” amendment ought be considered the most hopeful of Tuesday’s election results—because it was so utterly surprising, coming as it did from one of the most staunchly conservative and “Christian” states in the nation.  If the amendment had passed, it would have been a clear violation of Federal law, giving the right-wing Justices of the Supreme Court the chance they’ve been waiting for to reverse Roe versus Wade, which is precisely what proponents of the amendment wanted.  Now, the black-robed gang of five will have to wait for another opportunity to come their way.

The conventional wisdom is that even Mississippi voters, when faced with a stark and absolute choice, realized how complicated and personal the issue of “choice” really is—something most Americans have felt for decades.  But this interpretation doesn’t hold up under scrutiny.   Not very long ago, Mississippians voted almost unanimously to ban gay unions.  They voted overwhelmingly to keep the colors of the Confederacy on their flag.  A plurality told pollsters that they would support legislation outlawing interracial marriage.  And on the very day they rejected the “personhood” amendment, they also supported new restrictions on voter registration, a cynical move designed to make it hard for the state’s black citizens to have a voice in how they are governed.  Given such a record, it is difficult to believe that Mississippi voters suddenly “saw the light” and decided that being “pro-life” doesn’t require them to step back into the Dark Ages.

There is another, much uglier possibility.   The “personhood” amendment would have banned abortion under all circumstances, including rape.  In the Deep South, any relationship between a black man and a white woman has long been the most powerful of taboos, and the “rape” of a white woman by a black man has been counted the most heinous of crimes, as countless convictions by white juries of accused black men continue to demonstrate.  For some white Mississippians, the idea of a white woman being bound by law to give birth to an interracial child may have been too abominable to contemplate.

It is just possible that, for some “pro-life” Mississippians, not every life is equally sacred.  Behind this vote may lie, not suddenly enlightened ideas, but the dark, ancient, intractable racism of the Deep South.   If that is so, then this vote should give us no solace and no glimmer of hope, but a warning.