When repealing the 14th Amendment was merely a talking point of the fringe right, like many others I dismissed it as lunacy that could never gain any traction.  I mean, who in their right mind, in 2010, would want to return to the days of Dred Scott and de jure segregation, separate but equal and outwardly discriminatory laws and institutions?  Hadn’t we as a country finally put to bed the bloody past of slavery and the Civil War only to face, albeit awkwardly at times, the more insidious forms of racism in our country?

I guess it shows just how naive I am because apparently the Republicans have their sights set on undoing at least part of the 14th Amendment, and perhaps repealing it all together.  And I’m not talking about the radical fringe of the party.  I’m talking about Senators.  As in Senators Kyl (R-AZ), McConnell (R-KY), Graham (R-SC) as on the record calling for hearings to “re-think” the idea of birthright citizenship.  Really?  You would like a hearing on the necessity of the 14th Amendment Senators?  Well then.  Here you go.

See, Dred Scott was a slave who sued for his freedom and his family’s freedom in federal court.  Scott had argued that he and his family were in fact free because they had been taken into the “free” portion of the Louisiana Territory where Congress had outlawed the expansion of slavery via the Missouri Compromise.  The Taney Court threw the case out on jurisdictional grounds, holding that Scott, as a black man, was not considered a citizen under the Constitution and therefore could not properly assert any rights in court.  Taney went further and said that the Missouri Compromise, on which Scott made his “freedom” argument, had actually violated the constitutional rights of slave owners by depriving them of their property without due process of law.  So a black man, in a portion of the country that had outlawed the expansion of slavery, was in violation of the rights of white slave owners elsewhere in the country by having the audacity to demand recognition of his humanity and his freedom.

Twelve years later and many bloody battles to permanently outlaw slavery across the nation the 14th Amendment finally set aside this atrocity by making it absolutely clear that anyone born or naturalized in the United States was a citizen and entitled to all the rights and privileges of citizenship.  Period.  End of story.

Well, not so much.  Southern whites were not about to lose free labor that easily, and, bitter from losing both an actual war and a cultural one, continued on a path to restrict, through every means possible, the intent and the effect of the 14th Amendment.  This came through selective interpretation of the scope of the Amendment, perhaps most famously in institutionalizing the concept of “separate but equal” in Plessy v. Ferguson.  It was Judge Harlan’s dissent that implored the nation to understand that the Constitution is in fact colorblind that stood out until the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision that took on, with courage and conviction, institutionalized segregation and finally said “ENOUGH”!

The reality is, the 14th Amendment is the foundation of the entire civil rights movement and our laws passed to put an end to the “perniciousness” to quote Judge Harlan of bigotry and hatred.  Without the 14th Amendment there is no prohibition against employment discrimination.  There is no Title IX, no remedy for police brutality claims.  There is no stopping the racist right from once again lynching men and women in the street and walking free.

So, let us be crystal clear here.  The leadership of the Republican party would like to have an honest and open conversation about returning to the days when lynchings went unabated, when discrimination was not only accepted but expected and when citizenship did not attach to your birth in a country founded by illegal immigrants.  They would rather do this then talk about how to help struggling small business owners keep their shops open.  They would rather do this than craft a plan to deal with immigration reform.  So, let’s ask the obvious question–why?

Who stands to gain the most if immigration status quo remains?  Who benefits the most from the exploitation of cheap and disposable labor, all the while demonizing those workers?  Which elected officials have the luxury of continued employment so long as their base is brought out to the polls in fear of an encroaching dark menace?  It’s a familiar meme–one employed time and time by the slave owning South over a hundred years ago.  Slaves were lazy, untrustworthy and a lecherous force that needed to be dehumanized and contained in order to protect this nation and the purity of white race and culture.  Amazing how easily “illegal immigrant” translates into that talking point, isn’t it.

So, I kind of hope the Senate Judiciary Committee holds those hearings.  I would love to hear the testimony (and heck, let’s be honest here, I’d love to testify!).  And while the political junkie in me understands these Senators are more likely whipping up their base for November than seriously considering these hearings, let me just say even that possibility is so morally repugnant to me it kept me up most the night.  I’d like to hear Democrats take back the moral center on this debate and call out this racism loud and clear.  And if they wont, then here I am to do it for them.  This country is far from perfect and lord knows racism runs deep in our collective psyche our collective laws and our combined culture.  But we cannot stand silent in the face of calls from those who want to turn the clock back to days when only a handful of privileged white men decided the fate of all those blessed to be a part of our patchwork of humanity.  If our democracy means anything at all it is that it is available to all.  So yes, Senators, let’s have that hearing, let’s record that testimony and lets demonstrate, once and for all, the America you so feverishly wish to return.