Racist Conservatives Attack On The Second Founding of America | Adam Serwer | TMR

The 15th Amendment was explicitly designed to enfranchise Black people and was both racial and partisan in its intent, aiming to prevent racially and politically motivated disenfranchisement. Post-Reconstruction Supreme Courts, however, allowed 'race-neutral' devices like poll taxes and literacy tests to circumvent the amendment, effectively re-establishing white supremacy.

Guest Adam Serwer details how the 15th Amendment was created to ensure Black suffrage, countering efforts by 'racist Democrats' to deny votes. He explains that early Supreme Court rulings allowed 'superficially race-neutral' laws like grandfather clauses and literacy tests, which explicitly aimed to disenfranchise Black people, to pass constitutional muster.

A core tenet of the modern conservative legal movement, particularly among Supreme Court justices like Roberts and Alito, is the belief that the Civil War amendments (13th, 14th, 15th) are illegitimate. This perspective holds that these amendments 'ruined' the original antebellum constitution by granting the federal government too much power and interfering with 'states' rights.' This leads to a 'reactionary colorblindness' that equates efforts to address racism with racism itself.

Serwer states, 'some of the justices on the court have this idea that the Civil War amendments to the Constitution are sort of illegitimate and that they ruin the real antibellum constitution that was written by the founders.' He cites Justice Roberts's view that the Voting Rights Act interfered with 'equal sovereignty of the states' and Professor Ian Haney Lopez's term 'reactionary colorblindness' to describe this ideology, which sees affirmative action as equivalent to Jim Crow.

The Civil War amendments and Reconstruction are considered the 'Second Founding' of America, an effort to fulfill the Declaration of Independence's promise of equality by correcting the original Constitution's flaw of implicitly protecting slavery. Current conservative legal actions, by narrowing these amendments, are seen as an attempt to revert to a 'white man's country' where status is explicitly class-based on race.

Serwer references historian Eric Foner's concept of the Civil War amendments and Reconstruction as 'the second founding,' which aimed to ensure America was 'not a white man's government.' He argues that a 'big chunk of the country' immediately rejected this, desiring an 'explicitly class-based' society based on race, a sentiment echoed in current legal and political battles.

The perceived increase in diversity in elite public-facing jobs (media, entertainment, Congress) during the Obama era, while not fully reflective of broader societal integration, triggered a significant reactionary backlash. This backlash manifests as an agenda of 'elite resegregation,' aiming to reduce the presence of Black people in positions of power and influence, often disguised as 'culture war' issues.

Serwer notes that the Obama era saw a 'massive cultural impact' leading to more diverse representation in media, entertainment, and Congress. He argues this created a 'perception of a more integrated America that didn't really exist' and spurred a 'reactionary backlash.' He connects complaints about Black actors in roles like the Little Mermaid to an underlying sentiment that 'black people shouldn't have those jobs,' and describes recent voting decisions as part of a 'broader agenda of elite resegregation.'