Maybe the issue is we just think we live in a progressive time. Bennie Thompson, the representative from Mississippi who is chairing the January 6 Committee, was one of the first black Americans in Mississippi who ran for an office and one, just about two years out of college. From local office, he moved his way to higher office until today. Before he was elected in 1968, there were no black Americans in that state in local office before 1965, despite some districts and counties being 75 percent to over 90 percent black Americans. They weren’t allowed to vote of run. JFK only got no black votes there or in the South, though we continue to foster the illusion of him as “liberal.” Taking votes from desegregationists, supremacists and bigots doesn’t in my book make you liberal or progressive. It doesn’t make a politician American. I wouldn’t call JFK progressive or even remotely liberal if I was black American from the South, especially Mississippi where the whites allowed only one percent of black Americans to vote in the 1960 election (not that any did).
So, Mississippi has barely started democracy, and Bennie Thompson doesn’t represent progressiveness, but first sustained generation voters of black Americans in his district (minus the brief period after the Civil War that saw black representatives). Given that the supremacists are looking to take the vote and potentially ‘rig’ the vote in some states by taking over the voting offices, that “sustained” aspect looks under attacked— again—in his district.

Thanks for seeing this news item and pointing out this in/justice.