General Discussion

Dennis Donovan

(30,639 posts) Fri May 2, 2025, 07:52 AM 14 hrs ago

CNN: Trump turns civil rights upside down in 'biggest rollback' since Reconstruction

CNN - Trump turns civil rights upside down in ‘biggest rollback’ since Reconstruction

Analysis by Zachary B. Wolf, CNN
Published 6:00 AM EDT, Fri May 2, 2025

The government under President Donald Trump is bending the arc of US history in a new direction, away from the civil rights focus of the past 60 plus years.

Addressing or even acknowledging racial injustice toward people of color is out.

Separating church and state is out, according to Trump.

Exposing anti-Christian bias and being ‘anti-woke’ is in.

The Department of Justice division created by the landmark 1957 Civil Rights Act to defend American’s rights has a new mission: rooting out anti-Christian bias, antisemitism and “woke ideology,” the head of the division, Harmeet Dhillon, recently told conservative commentator Glenn Beck.

/snip

13 replies

= new reply since forum marked as read

Highlight:

CNN: Trump turns civil rights upside down in 'biggest rollback' since Reconstruction (Original Post) Dennis Donovan 14 hrs ago OP

Unreconstructed racist Trump literally wants to take America back to antebellum era. sop 14 hrs ago #1

As the DOJ's civil rights chief, Harmeet Dhillon sees a mass exodus of staffers SARose 14 hrs ago #2

These are the DOJ attorneys who would have to defend Trump's racist EOs in the courts. sop 14 hrs ago #4

Ding ding SARose 14 hrs ago #5

DoJ was ** created ** to defend Civil Rights in 1870 Bernardo de La Paz 14 hrs ago #3

I did not know this SARose 14 hrs ago #6

'Anti-woke' is pro-bigotry, period William Seger 13 hrs ago #7

And anti-DEI is pro-white nationalism. sop 13 hrs ago #9

My only response malaise 13 hrs ago #8

"Anti-Christian bias" is rampant among Trump voters Martin Eden 12 hrs ago #10

And those who protest the actual ACTIONS that are being carried out to do this BumRushDaShow 12 hrs ago #11

Until this kind of behavior once again becomes socially unacceptable, they won't change PortTack 12 hrs ago #12

K&R Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin 6 hrs ago #13

sop

(13,932 posts)

1. Unreconstructed racist Trump literally wants to take America back to antebellum era.

Reply to Dennis Donovan (Original post)

Fri May 2, 2025, 07:57 AM

14 hrs ago

SARose

(1,398 posts)

2. As the DOJ's civil rights chief, Harmeet Dhillon sees a mass exodus of staffers

Reply to Dennis Donovan (Original post)

Fri May 2, 2025, 08:00 AM

14 hrs ago

Snip

Now, the Times is reporting that “hundreds” of DOJ employees aren’t sticking around to be pawns in Trump’s political game:

Hundreds of lawyers and other staff members are leaving the Justice Department’s civil rights division, as veterans of the office say they have been driven out by Trump administration officials who want to drop its traditional work in order to aggressively pursue cases against the Ivy League, other schools and liberal cities.

The Times added:

The wave of departures has only accelerated in recent days, as the administration reopened its “deferred resignation program,” which would allow employees to resign but continue to be paid for a period of time. The offer, for those who work in the division, expires on Monday. More than 100 lawyers are expected to take it, on top of a raft of earlier departures, in what would amount to a decimation of the ranks of a crucial part of the Justice Department.

For her part, Dhillon has tried to downplay the worrisome message being sent by the staff exodus. In a recent interview with right-wing commentator Glenn Beck, she said: “En masse, dozens and now over 100 attorneys decided that they’d rather not do what their job requires them to do.” And in a recent interview with the conservative outlet The Daily Caller, Dhillon said “there’ll be quite a bit of turnover here” — and added her demonstrably false claim that the division will continue its “traditional, core functions,” while also pursuing “new functions that our president wants us to be looking at and new functions that I want to do.” Emphasis mine.

Snip

More

Some people have integrity. 👏

sop

(13,932 posts)

4. These are the DOJ attorneys who would have to defend Trump's racist EOs in the courts.

Reply to SARose (Reply #2)

Fri May 2, 2025, 08:06 AM

14 hrs ago

I guess none of them wanted to be remembered in legal history as the lawyers who argued against civil rights.

SARose

(1,398 posts)

5. Ding ding

Reply to sop (Reply #4)

Fri May 2, 2025, 08:24 AM

14 hrs ago

👍

Bernardo de La Paz

(55,106 posts)

3. DoJ was ** created ** to defend Civil Rights in 1870

Reply to Dennis Donovan (Original post)

Fri May 2, 2025, 08:01 AM

14 hrs ago

On February 19, 1868, Lawrence introduced a bill in Congress to create the Department of Justice. President Ulysses S. Grant signed the bill into law on June 22, 1870.[8]

Grant appointed Amos T. Akerman as attorney general and Benjamin H. Bristow as America's first solicitor general the same week that Congress created the Department of Justice. The Department's immediate function was to preserve civil rights. It set about fighting against domestic terrorist groups who had been using both violence and litigation to oppose the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments to the Constitution.[9]

SARose

(1,398 posts)

6. I did not know this

Reply to Bernardo de La Paz (Reply #3)

Fri May 2, 2025, 08:30 AM

14 hrs ago

Thanks!

Comparing Trump’s effort to purge the country of diversity efforts and deconstruct the Great Society legislation, Updegrove drew a parallel between now and the period beginning during Reconstruction when post-Civil War advances like the 13th Amendment were hurt by the rise of White Supremacy and Jim Crow.

“We’re seeing something very similar now, rolling back the advances of the 1960s,” he said. While those Great Society laws were meant to be temporary measures to create a more equal society, Updegrove said the US is not yet there. “So called anti-wokeism,” he argued, is “essentially permission to accept racism.”

From the article above.

William Seger

(11,569 posts)

7. 'Anti-woke' is pro-bigotry, period

Reply to Dennis Donovan (Original post)

Fri May 2, 2025, 08:45 AM

13 hrs ago

sop

(13,932 posts)

9. And anti-DEI is pro-white nationalism.

Reply to William Seger (Reply #7)

Fri May 2, 2025, 09:19 AM

13 hrs ago

malaise

(283,545 posts)

8. My only response

Reply to Dennis Donovan (Original post)

Fri May 2, 2025, 09:06 AM

13 hrs ago

Martin Eden

(14,203 posts)

10. "Anti-Christian bias" is rampant among Trump voters

Reply to Dennis Donovan (Original post)

Fri May 2, 2025, 09:38 AM

12 hrs ago

They call themselves Christians, but they embrace all the cruelty of Cheato Jesus. Neglect the poor and the sick, demonize the stranger. Give more to the money changers in the temple.

More and more people are being turned off by the "Christianity" of the deplorable hypocrites who thump the bible and drape themselves in the American flag, while actively betraying both.

They and their Dear Leader are poison. The new mission of the Deapartment of "Justice" cited in the OP is to spread that poison by punishing anyone who resists.

BumRushDaShow

(151,641 posts)

11. And those who protest the actual ACTIONS that are being carried out to do this

Reply to Dennis Donovan (Original post)

Fri May 2, 2025, 09:57 AM

12 hrs ago

that are FAR beyond any "talking points" or "hyperbolic rhetoric", should NEVER be excoriated as "focusing on 'identity politics'", a term that should be considered a RW canard. It's like calling those who protest holocaust denial, as people doing nothing more than "engaging in 'identity politics'".

PortTack

(35,613 posts)

12. Until this kind of behavior once again becomes socially unacceptable, they won't change

Reply to Dennis Donovan (Original post)

Fri May 2, 2025, 10:16 AM

12 hrs ago

Don’t be nice to maga! Call them out….not saying pick a fight, I’m saying call them out

Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin

(122,335 posts)

13. K&R

Reply to Dennis Donovan (Original post)

Fri May 2, 2025, 04:24 PM

6 hrs ago

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