Liberty and Justice for SOME

Well, the moment has finally come, a moment we knew would come since November 5th, 2024 a date that will assuredly live in infamy. A date that if studied by historians centuries in the future will surely be sighted as the date that irrevocably changed the course of the country once known as the United States of America. A country that to be honest never fully stood for liberty and justice for all, a more accurate description would be "Liberty and Justice for SOME." This distinction is important as even at the country's founding many of the leaders owned slaves and felt there was nothing wrong with owning slaves while also ascribing to the mantra of so-called "liberty and justice for all." Furthermore, this distinction is important to points that I shall be making in the rest of this piece about how we got here. Some who are more idealistic than me may feel that Trump becoming president a second time is some major failure and a sign of how far we as a country have fallen, but I think that if we step back and take a look at the past we shall see how in another way, perhaps we've simply gone back to the beginning. I will endeavor to explain why to the best of my poor ability.

As stated above we already began our existence as a nation that not only tolerated slavery but also did not allow women to vote. Perhaps you make an argument that this was not unique to America, as much of the Western world at the time thought little of women and that they were little more than a man's property. One curious thing about early American history you might not be aware of is that for a brief time between 1776 and 1803 in New Jersey, some women were allowed to vote, though they had to own property in order to qualify. Unfortunately, this law was changed in 1803 thus preventing them from voting until the 19th Amendment was passed. So right after our country's genesis there was, even if for a small period of time, at least one state that allowed women to vote. This reminds me of the struggle that women are going through today in regard to abortion rights, which is something they had up until the Supreme Court took them away. And both of these examples seem to once again support the mantra of "Liberty and Justice for SOME."

As we move on through the years we all know that tensions between the Northern and Southern parts of the country slowly began building over the issue of slavery. These tensions would finally reach a boiling point in the Civil War. We as a country had to fight a war over slavery, the South was so desperate to keep their slaves that they were willing to go to war for it. Looking at the present it again feels ironic that only four short years ago a violent mob of Trump supporters attacked the capital in a vain, foolish, and asinine attempt to "stop the steal." This savage display shocked many of us both here and across the globe and further proved just how divided we were as a country, much like we were back then. Another layer of irony to consider is that many of the regular rank-and-file Confederate soldiers did not own slaves (only about 25% did) yet they still believed in the "right to own slaves." So they fought and died to preserve a system that they had very little chance of actually benefiting from, much like how Trump managed to convince a large group of people to fight for him on January 6th. Strangely they didn't have to die for him. I've always found it weird how despite the fact that this mob descended on our NATION'S CAPTIAL, many of them armed with weapons, no lethal force was used against them (I think one person was killed by police). And while a large number of them were later arrested, charged, and sentenced many of them managed to escape and were never arrested. Others were arrested but then because of legal loopholes were able to get their sentences reduced or the charges were formally dropped. In this case the phrase "justice for some" still applies though it points to how when a group of mostly white people got up in arms and attacked the capital almost none of them died, some went to prison, but most got away with it.

Immediately after the Civil War when slavery finally became outlawed and for the first time it looked like there might be some stride towards making this country a true beacon of "Liberty and Justice for all," sadly it wouldn't take long before practices of sharecropping, Jim Crow Laws, Black Codes, etc. would begin to take effect putting more barriers in place on African Americans who wanted to advance in life. These practices were mostly implemented in the South and were in essence a way to try and keep African Americans "enslaved." Many of these laws were held up in court after appeal, again another example of "Liberty and Justice for SOME" Despite having lost the Civil War the South would not let go of their hatred for Black people, and thus the living conditions for those people only slightly improved from what they were before.

Many of these deplorable conditions would continue all the way until the 1960s and the Civil Rights Movement, It took until then to finally put a stop to these laws. But at least they were finally stopped, after so much time it seemed as though we as a country might finally be on a path to fulfilling that lofty aspiration of "Liberty and Justice for All." While it was true the Civil Rights Act was passed it is also true that so many efforts were made to try and stop it. Lawmakers who instead believed in "Liberty and Justice for SOME" made all sorts of ridiculous arguments about why segregation was "fine," and why it needed to continue. And once again even after the law passed these people would not give up. Much like how the Confederates refused to accept the loss of the Civil War their descendants refused to accept the passage of the Civil Rights Act. Instead, they tried a new tactic, the creation of "Conservative Media." one that would lay the groundwork that would eventually give us President Trump.

One of the big points that was repeated by a multitude of conservative media outlets was this idea that things in the country were bad in the present but so much better in the past. The past they talk about is of course one where women and black people didn't have the rights they have today. It was a subtle hint about their true objective. Their collective goal was to try and convince people that the America of old where there existed "Liberty and Justice for SOME" was a better America than the one now.

Which I suppose brings us to today, there is more (MUCH more) I could write about, but this idea came to me in a fleeting moment shortly before the inauguration and didn't give me as much time as I would have liked. Perhaps someday in the future, I will make a more expanded version, but for now, this is all I have. While some want to cry about how electing Trump twice is some kind of "fall from grace" or from ideals that used to once govern our country the truth of the matter is as much as we may have felt we've grown we never really dealt with the fallout of the Civil War and all regressive attitudes and feelings that the country felt toward not just Black people but also toward the idea of progress in general. This country (like it or not) has never truly stood for "Liberty and Justice for All" and instead stood for "Liberty and Justice for SOME." We never truly broke free of the negative and regressive attitudes that people had about slavery. We never made any sort of changes to the electoral system so that former slave states wouldn't continue to have as much political power. Instead of abandoning the racists, the Republican Party took them in and gave them a home and a place to continue to spew their hate thinking that nothing bad would ever come of that arrangement. So Trump isn't really an anomaly so much as he is a natural end result of a country that wants to pretend to support an ideal that it never really supported at all.