This DEI rhetoric, while obviously racist and sexist, I think has deeper resonance than just the immediate backlash to Harris’ campaign. The escalation of racial and identity battles in the US today snacks of the rhetoric used in early 30s Germany to limit political access to both Jews and anyone else the Nazis were suspect of (basically any non-‘Aryan’ - whatever definition they chose to take that to mean). The law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service granted them the power to remove anyone from political or civil roles if deemed “unfit”. Basically an anti-DEI bill. We already know Trump has sworn vengeance, and we know the Republicans are not above cruel and discriminatory laws. I worry this renewed focus on DEI is priming their voter base to accept not just authoritarianism, but a power structure that openly persecutes groups they have defined as ‘the other’ (I recognize this is already happening at both federal and state levels, I’m just worried it becomes official, unbridled policy).
Yes! The Cooper’s Ferry village site in Nez Pearce territory contains the oldest verified evidence of habitation in North America, with dates to 16.5k years ago. There is very likely earlier habitation sites, but they will be difficult to find, and many would have been on the coastline that is now miles out to sea due to sea level rise after the glacial melt.
This buffoon couldn’t have chosen a worse group to tell to go back to where they came from… They’ve been there since the glaciers. What a dense, ignorant and racist waste of space… too bad the constituents think enough like him that they vote this hate into office.