Parabolic Lessons On Race Emerge From Apparent Victories in Georgia
Perhaps what we are witnessing in the aftermath of yesterday’s double Georgia U.S. Senate election run-offs is a political parable. Parables are stories that lead to revelation — or narratives that disclose elusive truths, but which make understanding more lucid. Political parables can tell us who we are as citizens and anticipate what possibilities are ahead.
The senate races in Georgia have, since the November 2020 elections, captured the attention of the nation in the soon to be post-Trump presidency. Democratic challengers Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock have functioned in their state — and across the nation — as representative of progressive politics. The Georgia contests have also been the focus of the party of Biden in the U.S. Senate, where vice-president elect Kamala Harris, who will preside as the president of the Congressional body, will likely serve as a critical vote casting functionary in a deeply divided senate. The Georgia vote yesterday may well have placed on pause the reign of Sen. President Mitch McConnell, whose agenda for more than a decade has been nothing less than an anti-liberal obstructionist.
Two generations ago, Georgia was captive of political Dixiecrats. The state remained locked in the jaws of regional civic proclivities that fostered a brand of anti-black racism that had…
