On our Nation’s 250th Birthday

As our nation marks its 250th anniversary, we rightfully celebrate our survival.

More importantly, however, we must confront the ongoing struggle to build a "more perfect union" for the future. Our country now is governed by a Make America Great Again (MAGA) movement whose vision for the future is in the right-wing conservative Heritage Foundation’s "Project 2025" blueprint. It is the roadmap currently used by President Donald Trump, a compliant Republican Congress, and a reactionary Supreme Court majority.

The core tenant of this movement is the systematic dismantling of most of the federal government and the erasure of racial and national diversity as an America principle.

The MAGA movement seems to seek a return to the era of the original Constitutional ratification, a time when government was small and guaranteed freedoms, the right to choose leaders and the ability to hold elected office, was only for wealthy, white, property-owning men. Though some states allowed some exceptions. It disenfranchised enslaved Black people, Native Americans, women, and poor white non-property owners.

The MAGA movement leaders conjured up a false and unproven divide and conquer “Replacement Theory.” They popularize it to make all white males believe that if people of color and women gain that they lose. This led one white working-class person to tell when I asked why he voted for Donald Trump in the Presidential election: “You mean Trump instead of a Black female?”

This echoes the chant heard at the violent 2017 Charlottesville rally by the KKK and Neo-Nazi’s: “You will not replace us!”

Dismantling government and rolling back rights

The landmark Civil Rights and Voting Rights Acts victories of the late 1960’s guaranteed rights for all people. But they believe it diluted the traditional white male power structure.

Slavery ended 90 years after our country’s founding. Black men were allowed the right to vote in 1870, and women won the right to vote in 1920. But Jim Crow laws like establishing a “poll tax” among other things curtailed that right for all Blacks, especially in the south.

The present Supreme Court majority has gutted voting rights, overturned federal reproductive freedoms and ended affirmative action. Concurrently, MAGA Republicans seek to erase Black history and slavery from classrooms, ensuring young people grow up without empathy for or knowledge of America’s true past.

Even the book “Roots” was pulled from the bookshelves in Tennessee. References to slavery and Black history are being dismantled from federal and some state government websites.

The administration is working to stall all employment discrimination claims by shifting cases to a backlogged Department of Justice. Meanwhile, at the Department of Defense, Secretary Pete Hegseth's policy directions have disrupted traditional advancement pathways for women service members by removing all of them from the promotion list.

The Labor Department reclassifications threaten to curb women's wage growth in vital fields like nursing. They are encouraging women to stay at home and have babies to increase the population. This makes women more dependent on men for economic security.

The racist attacks on immigrants of color, mainly Latinos, and their scapegoating for our country’s problems ignores the contributions they have made to our country’s economy and culture. The use of ICE acting like a modern-day gestapo has treated people and their families in an inhumane way.

Most of the detained immigrants are here legally. It is hurting our economy and diverting needed government funding for social services. Meanwhile the administration has curtailed immigration from Africa and Latin America while allowing white immigrants from Europe and South Africa to enter the country.

The Supreme Court has now allowed Trump to end Temporary Protection Status for Haitian immigrants meaning 350,00 can be deported. 6,000 Syrians can also. This emphasizes the racism of the Trump administration strategy. It sadly ignores our country’s history of welcoming immigrants and refugees from all countries and benefiting from them being here.

The erosion of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), Medicaid and Medicare along with deep cuts to SNAP and local food aid will increase healthcare and food insecurity for millions of working-class and poor families. Recipients paid for these programs with their tax dollars. Social Security is likely to be next if Project 2025 is followed by the administration.

Trump stripped civil service protections from over one million federal workers, reduced the federal work force by roughly 238,000 workers, adversely affecting services and weakened the National Labor Relations Board. The administration has made it harder for unions to organize to ensure that corporate profits and billionaire tax breaks remain protected.

The lessons of the New Deal

To understand how government can serve the public good, we can look at Franklin D. Roosevelt’s New Deal in the 1930s. It reined in the corporate gluttony of the “Roaring 20’s” using taxes on the wealthy to fund programs that helped families survive the Great Depression. FDR viewed government as an active source of aid that was in stark contrast to the hands-off, "you're on your own" approach of Republican Herbert Hoover.

While the New Deal fundamentally rebuilt the American middle class, it was not perfect. To pass his agenda, FDR compromised with racist Southern Democrats to secure its passage, effectively excluding many Black and Native American workers from early labor protections and union benefits.

However, the growth of wartime industry during World War II forced a shift. Women workers in factories became important in the war effort and so free childcare centers were financed by the federal government.

The New Deal laws gave labor rights on the job and to organize. The labor movement grew stronger and more diverse with the birth of the CIO (Congress of Industrial Organizations), which united Black, immigrant and white workers. This multi-ethnic solidarity laid the economic groundwork for the Civil Rights Movement decades later, especially the Black middle class largely through stable public-sector employment.

Which way forward?

History does not stand still. We either move forward together or go back. The only effective way to move forward together is in solidarity, organizing and mass participation.

We must join in a broad-based coalition that links various struggles: wage increases, union protections, accountability in policing, resisting unjust immigration raids, securing reproductive freedom, low cost and free childcare, achieving environmental justice, universal healthcare, fair taxation, among others. This requires a genuine sharing of power across racial, gender and generational lines, alongside active listening to targeted groups like the LGBTQ+ community. Organizing, educating, learning at the grass roots-street level is key. It also means further democratizing many of our unions that are run top down.

History proves that when the working-class majority unites across racial and cultural divides, profound change is possible.

In the post-Civil War South, Reconstruction led to meaningful change in states throughout the south. Newly freed Black people and poor white citizens governed states like South Carolina, establishing public school systems, employment and healthcare, and expanding voting rights among other things.

The multi-national labor organizing drives of the 1930s led to the growth of the post-World War 2 growth of the middle class. This is like today’s growth in unions who are militantly striking, rallying and organizing sit-ins in the service industry.

This movement is multi-national and involves the immigrant community and is led mainly by young people. Their militancy has led to growth of these unions and workers’ income.

The Civil Rights movements of the 1950’s-60’s succeeded because it was diverse coalition led by Black activists supported by white people of all ages and the religious communities. They forced the federal government to act.

I along with other Italian Americans was able to attend a CUNY college thanks to the successful struggle of people of color in the 1960’s winning free Open Admissions.

Government is not the problem with America. It is who runs the government that makes the changes for good and bad. This means continuing to organize demonstrations, but also the need to vote is a high priority in fighting for change.