The New Redeemers

This Article is about the long arc of a Second Redemption. Anew life to the politics of racial grievance surfaced in the wakeof a diversifying polity, a decline of rural power, and a Blackman’s rise to the American presidency. And that reinvigoratedforce was the linchpin of Donald Trump’s ascendency to power.Trump was a part of a broader conservative governingcoalition, which held its center of gravity in rural, whiteAmerica. Leading members of that coalition feverishly erodeddemocratic norms to entrench minoritarian power.

Theyjustified their pernicious work by claiming to be the true heirsto the American project and constructed a vision of citizenshipclosely tethered to whiteness. To claim their inheritance,conservative coalition leaders availed themselves of everyopportunity to delegitimize Black engagement in participatorydemocracy—from voting rights to self-governance to publicdemonstrations. This campaign was singularly focused onstanding athwart the United States’ coming of age as a trulymultiracial democracy.This virulent strain of antidemocratic ideology fomented aviolent attempted coup on January 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol,where members of Congress objected to the bona fide stateresults from the 2020 presidential election. The objectorsproffered that their refusal to acknowledge President-ElectJoseph Biden’s victory—which was made possible by amultiracial coalition of voters—was borne out of aconstitutional duty.

Their resistance to multiracial democracyhad dire consequences, encouraging a crowd of insurrectioniststo storm the U.S. Capitol with the goal of blocking the ElectoralCollege’s certification. The patina of constitutional fidelity woreoff, and the basest politics of racial grievance—a Redemption redux—was all that remained. The New Redeemers’ ideologywas laid bare for all to see now.The “New Redeemers” is a fitting namesake considering thatthe common denominator between their worldview and theRedeemers of old is that white political power is a good untoitself. It is a mistake to view the Capitol insurrection or therepudiation of the 2020 presidential election results as isolatedaffairs.

Instead, they were outgrowths of a sustained effort thatlong predated November 2020. This Article examines the marchtoward upending democracy and argues that the insurrectionon January 6 was the encapsulation of a lengthy crusadeagainst multiracial democracy.