The New Redeemers

Publication Title

Georgia Law Review

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

Summer 8-30-2021

Abstract

This Article is about the long arc of a Second Redemption. A new life to the politics of racial grievance surfaced in the wake of a diversifying polity, a decline of rural power, and a Black man’s rise to the American presidency. And that reinvigorated force was the linchpin of Donald Trump’s ascendency to power. Trump was a part of a broader conservative governing coalition, which held its center of gravity in rural, white America. Leading members of that coalition feverishly eroded democratic norms to entrench minoritarian power. They justified their pernicious work by claiming to be the true heirs to the American project and constructed a vision of citizenship closely tethered to whiteness. To claim their inheritance, conservative coalition leaders availed themselves of every opportunity to delegitimize Black engagement in participatory democracy—from voting rights to self-governance to public demonstrations. This campaign was singularly focused on standing athwart the United States’ coming of age as a truly multiracial democracy.

The “New Redeemers” is a fitting namesake considering that the common denominator between their worldview and the Redeemers of old is that white political power is a good unto itself. It is a mistake to view the Capitol insurrection or the repudiation of the 2020 presidential election results as isolated affairs. Instead, they were outgrowths of a sustained effort that long predated November 2020. This Article examines the march toward upending democracy and argues that the insurrection on January 6 was the encapsulation of a lengthy crusade against multiracial democracy.

Recommended Citation

Anthony Kreis, The New Redeemers, 55 Ga. L. Rev. 1483 (2021)

Volume

55

First Page

1483

Last Page

1528

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