{"id":112001,"date":"2026-04-19T13:35:42","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T16:35:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ubirataonline.com.br\/what-clarence-thomas-doesnt-understand-about-democracy\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T13:35:45","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T16:35:45","slug":"what-clarence-thomas-doesnt-understand-about-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ubirataonline.com.br\/en\/what-clarence-thomas-doesnt-understand-about-democracy\/","title":{"rendered":"What Clarence Thomas doesn\u2019t understand about democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas gave a speech<\/a> Thursday at the University of Texas at Austin attacking progressivism as the enemy of all that America stands for \u2014 or at least what he believes it ought to stand for. \u201cProgressivism seeks to replace the basic premises of the Declaration of Independence and hence our form of government,\u201d he said, because \u201cit holds that our rights and our dignities come not from God but from government.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a new idea, especially in Republican circles. In 2012, for instance, vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan thundered<\/a>, in response to Barack Obama\u2019s supposedly tyrannical rule, that \u201ceven Presidents need reminding that our rights come from nature and God, and not from government!\u201d But while Thomas may cast himself as the truest defender of the American system, what he actually revealed was his contempt for the foundations of our democracy \u2014 one that is all too common among conservatives today.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The idea that rights come from God, not government, couldn\u2019t be more wrong. And as someone who routinely wields the power of government to deprive Americans of their rights, Thomas ought to know.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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Thomas never asks why, if God is so intent on providing all of us with these political rights, he took so long to offer them to almost anyone. <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<\/figure>\n

Thomas began his speech by citing Thomas Jefferson\u2019s line in the Declaration of Independence asserting that \u201cWe hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.\u201d Deploying the essay-writing technique familiar to mediocre middle-school students everywhere, he added, \u201cThe American Heritage Dictionary of English Language defines self-evident as obviously true and requiring no proof, argument, or explanation.\u201d (Fortunately, he declined to end his speech with \u201cIn conclusion, America is a land of contrasts<\/a>.\u201d)<\/p>\n

As proof, Thomas offered his own history growing up in the Jim Crow South. \u201cWhen you lived in a segregated world with palpable discrimination and the governments nearest to you enforced laws and customs that promoted unequal treatment,\u201d he said, \u201cit was obvious that your rights or your dignity did not come from those governments, but rather from God.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

So who was it who delivered the nation from the cruelty and injustice of Jim Crow? It was not a divine light of heaven sweeping across the land. It was government \u2014 or more specifically, democratic citizens who worked tirelessly to change the laws, and eventually forced those with power in the courts, legislatures and the executive branch to join their cause.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And it\u2019s the laws passed and enforced by the government that guarantee those rights. To repeat, Thomas knows this perfectly well, since he and his conservative colleagues on the high court are in the process of destroying<\/a> one of the key pillars of that effort, the Voting Rights Act.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tPaul Waldman<\/a>\t\t<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\tPaul Waldman is a journalist and author focused on politics and culture.\t\t<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/section>\n