On his eponymous Tuesday night show, CNN host Don Lemon hyped an article by Ron Brownstein in which the liberal CNN political analyst likened red states to the Southern states that imposed racial segregation after the Civil War. Lemon declared that Republicans have a backlash against anyone “not white”, who is gaining their rights.
Shortly before 11:30 p.m. Eastern, Lemon previewed the segment by intoning: “Red states in a full-on offensive to roll back LGBTQ rights, abortion rights and more — how they’re doing it and why it could — it could get worse. And it could get worse than it is now. This will be discussed next.
A few minutes later, Lemon set up the discussion: “So red states and Republican-appointed judges are engaged in a multi-state offensive to control national policy and to roll back rights even though Democrats are in power. That is according to CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein…”
Lemon asked Brownstein: After you introduced Brownstein, Lemon said, “So listen, expert, you know that you spoke with this division hasn’t been so bad since the Civil War.” What?”
Citing University of Maryland professor Don Kettle, Brownstein asserted that he “says the only thing comparable to what we’re watching now among the red states is what we saw in the backlash that developed in the South against Reconstruction decades after the Civil War that ultimately led to Separate But Equal and Plessy versus Ferguson in 1896.”
The two then engaged in projection by accusing Republicans of being the ones who use the courts to impose their agenda even though liberals have long used court rulings instead of actually passing parts of their agenda legislatively:
LEMON: Could you speak about the years-long, strategic process of using the judiciary system as a political instrument? I mean, we all see it at the Supreme Court, but it goes well beyond that.
BROWNSTEIN: Right, I mean, look, certainly in the career of someone as emblematic as Mitch McConnell there has been no higher goal throughout his entire career than placing as many Republican judges and justices on the courts as he could…
Lemon concluded his remarks by accusing Republicans, in a statement that was not accurate, of opposing the rights of racial minorities.
LEMON: And it always happens when you try to expand rights for people who are, you know, not white. That’s when it happens.
BROWNSTEIN: Yeah, yeah.
LEMON: Attention, people.
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The transcript follows. For more information, please click on “expand”
CNN’s Don Lemon Tonight
June 26, 2022
Eastern at 11:29
DON LEMON (before commercial break): Red states in a full-on offensive to roll back LGBTQ rights, abortion rights and more — how they’re doing it and why it could — it could get worse. And it could get worse than it is now. That will be the next topic.
(…)
Eastern Time: 11:33
LEMON: So red states and Republican-appointed judges are engaged in a multi-state offensive to control national policy and to roll back rights even though Democrats are in power. That is according to CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein who joins me now. CNN.com: Fascinating article … … What?
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah, look, Don Kettl — who is former dean of the University of Maryland Public Policy School and author of many books on state-federal relations — says the only thing comparable to what we’re watching now among the red states is what we saw in the backlash that developed in the South against Reconstruction decades after the Civil War that ultimately led to Separate But Equal and Plessy versus Ferguson in 1896.
I mean, I think what we are watching, as you noted, is a multi-front effort by the red states with the support of Republican-appointed judges and justices, and the important blocking action of Republicans in the Senate to roll back the rights revolution of the past six decades to move social policies sharply to the right on everything from abortion to LGBTQ rights to classroom censors to book bans to voting.
How will they be able to do this? it really adds up to, I think, an effort to create a nation within a nation that is fundamentally rejecting many of the cultural, demographic and economic changes reshaping America in the 21st century.
LEMON: Please talk about this long-term, strategically planned use of the judiciary as a political tool. I mean, we all see it at the Supreme Court, but it goes well beyond that.
BROWNSTEIN: Right, I mean, look, certainly in the career of someone as emblematic as Mitch McConnell there has been no higher goal throughout his entire career than placing as many Republican judges and justices on the courts as he could…
(…)
This is a battle that I think is only going to intensify in the years ahead that’s only going to become more fraught because of the Supreme Court’s, I think, clear willingness to put a thumb on the scale at least, you know, maybe a whole hand on the scale in favor of what the red states want to do, blocking what blue states want to do, and blocking what a Democratic-led federal government wants to do. We saw this pressure build up in the 1850s with the Dred Scott decision.
We saw it again in the 1930s when we saw the Supreme Court blocked the New Deal — original New Deal legislation. in each case, there were escape valves, you know, took the fight in a different direction — or to call the Civil War an “escape valve” may be, you know, kind of a strange statement, but i think that we are just heading for rising social and political tension as the red states try to, in effect, run the country from low.
LEMON: And it always happens when you try to expand rights for people who are, you know, not white. That’s when it happens.
BROWNSTEIN: Yeah, yeah.
LEMON: Attention, people.
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