Worst Stawman Argument Ever: Is America Irredeemable?

Republican Senator Tim Scott has written a piece for the right-wing New York Post titled, "I’m proof Democrats are wrong to call America irredeemable." Here's the opening paragraph:

For years, Democrats have spread the message that America is irredeemable, that our original sin defines our present and the future is dependent on our faith in government — not in each other.

I want to focus on the word "irredeemable," but it is also important to note that a government "of, by, and for the people" is exactly how we demonstrate our faith in each other. 

But everything about Scott's argument is a lie. For example, here is the current leader of the Democratic Party at his State of the Union address a few weeks ago: 

I have never been more optimistic about the future of America. We have stared into an abyss of insurrection and autocracy — of pandemic and pain — and “We the People” did not flinch. We came together as one America. With light and hope, we summoned new strength and new resolve. pic.twitter.com/Lzk9qkxCnM

— President Biden (@POTUS) May 2, 2021

Scott's suggestion that Democrats are calling America "irredeemable" is a strawman created by right wingers. It is usually tied to their definition of Critical Race Theory.

Last year, conservative activist Christopher Rufo began using the term “critical race theory” publicly to denounce anti-racist education efforts. Since then, conservative lawmakers, commentators and parents have raised alarm that critical race theory is being used to teach children that they are racist, and that the U.S. is a racist country with irredeemable roots.

Here is Senator Ted Cruz doing just that - while comparing CRT to the Klan: 

Sen. @tedcruz: "Critical race theory is bigoted, it is a lie and it is every bit as racist as the Klansman in white sheets." pic.twitter.com/zE8FaZNcgp

— The Hill (@thehill) June 18, 2021

Of course, that whole bit is a racist lie.

In the introduction of Critical Race Theory: The Key Writings That Formed the Movement, a seminal collection of the foundational essays of the movement edited by principal founders and scholars like Kimberlé Crenshaw and Neil Gotanda, the editors write that critical race theory is about transforming social structures to create freedom for all, and it’s grounded in an “ethical commitment to human liberation.”

Why would anyone study how to transform social structures if they thought the country was irredeemable?  

The people who revile CRT say a lot of the same things about the NYT 1619 Project. But in her opening essay, Nicole Hannah-Jones writes about her father's patriotism (emphasis mine).

My dad always flew an American flag in our front yard. The blue paint on our two-story house was perennially chipping; the fence, or the rail by the stairs, or the front door, existed in a perpetual state of disrepair, but that flag always flew pristine. Our corner lot, which had been redlined by the federal government, was along the river that divided the black side from the white side of our Iowa town. At the edge of our lawn, high on an aluminum pole, soared the flag, which my dad would replace as soon as it showed the slightest tatter.

So when I was young, that flag outside our home never made sense to me. How could this black man, having seen firsthand the way his country abused black Americans, how it refused to treat us as full citizens, proudly fly its banner? I didn’t understand his patriotism...

The United States is a nation founded on both an ideal and a lie. Our Declaration of Independence, signed on July 4, 1776, proclaims that ‘‘all men are created equal’’ and ‘‘endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights.’’ But the white men who drafted those words did not believe them to be true for the hundreds of thousands of black people in their midst. ‘‘Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness’’ did not apply to fully one-fifth of the country. Yet despite being violently denied the freedom and justice promised to all, black Americans believed fervently in the American creed. Through centuries of black resistance and protest, we have helped the country live up to its founding ideals.

The people who have been engaged for hundreds of years in a struggle to - as President Obama said - "perfect our union" are definitely NOT the ones who think that our country is irredeemable.  

All of this reminds me that, back in 2014, I was surprised to learn that the real optimists in this country were African Americans. Ellis Cose wrote about it.

African-Americans, long accustomed to frustration in their pursuit of opportunity and respect, are amazingly upbeat, consistently astounding pollsters with their hopefulness. Earlier this year, when a Washington Post–Kaiser–-Harvard poll asked respondents whether they expected their children’s standard of living to be better or worse than their own, 60 percent of blacks chose “better,” compared with only 36 percent of whites.

That was during Obama's presidency and before the emergence of MAGA, so we need an update. Last October, the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research asked a similar question. Forty-one percent (41%) of whites think that young people today will have a better standard of living than their parents, compared to 55% of blacks. 

One Black man's perspective is instructive.

Poll respondent Glen McDaniel, 70, who is Black and works as a medical laboratory scientist in Atlanta, said he has “a certain amount of optimism” about the prospect of future generations having a better standard of living because he “knows for a fact it’s possible, not something you read in a book.”

“I’ve seen a lot of history through these eyes,” he said. “There were times when even someone looking like me going to college didn’t seem possible. We would have to think, going on vacation — would people who look like us be safe, or would we be harassed? It’s incredible to think that was during my lifetime.”

It all comes down to the heart-wrenching reaction from Doc Rivers following the police shooting of Jacob Blake: "We keep loving this country and this country doesn't love us back." 

“We keep loving this country and this country doesn’t love us back.”

Doc Rivers got emotional while talking about Jacob Blake being shot by police and social injustice. pic.twitter.com/qQI2Ld2DGI

— ESPN (@espn) August 26, 2020

The problem is clearly not that Black people think this country is irredeemable and can't change. It is the racists who refuse to do so.