Rep. James Clyburn suggests democracy still at risk after last election: Election of 1876 ‘led to Jim Crowe’
Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., suggested on Friday that warning Americans about democracy being at risk during the 2024 election was necessary, reacting to former President Barack Obama’s claim that it was a low priority for voters.
“I came to remember, as we were celebrating the 100th anniversary of this country’s existence, we had a presidential election in 1876 … And you see what happened to democracy in that election. It led to Jim Crow,” Clyburn told CNN’s Dana Bash.
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Clyburn explained further that the 2024 presidential election could mean that something similar to the suppression of voters during Jim Crowe is on the verge of happening again.
Former President Barack Obama moderates a conversation with Manu Meel, Co-Founder and CEO of BridgeUSA, Ainka Jackson, Founding executive director of the Selma Center for Nonviolence, Truth, and Reconciliation and Nika Kovač, Director of Slovenia-based Institute 8th of March during the Obama Foundation’s 2024 Democracy Forum on Dec. 5, 2024 in Chicago, Ill. (Scott Olson/Getty Images)
“I’m the ninth African-American to serve in Congress from South Carolina. The problem is the 95 years between number eight and number nine because democracy was driven so bogged down in people’s lives back in 1876. ,” Clyburn said.
“And there’s a danger of that happening again,” he added.
Clyburn reacted to Obama on Thursday, reflecting on the Democrats’ efforts to brand Trump as a threat to democracy, claiming the results proved it was a low priority for voters. Obama spoke at the Obama Foundation’s Democracy Forum in Chicago, Illinois, his first public remarks following the 2024 election.
Rep. James Clyburn, D-S.C., suggested on Friday that American democracy being at risk due to the election of President-elect Donald Trump was necessary despite former President Barack Obama claiming it was low priority for voters.
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“Talk of bridging our differences when the country and the world seemed so bitterly divided, felt like an academic exercise that felt far-fetched, even naive. Especially since as far as they were concerned, the election proved that democracy is pretty far down on people’s priority list,” Obama said.
Clyburn said that although Obama was “correct in his assessment,” he questioned whether the country should be headed in its current direction.
“I think they ring true, not that they should be true, but they have demonstrated that that is the case,” Clyburn said. He continued, “So though President Obama is correct in his assessment, the question is, is that a good place for the country to be?”
Former president Obama and President-elect Trump (AP Images)
After Trump’s decisive victory against Vice President Kamala Harris, Democrats and media pundits began an autopsy of the election results. Some members of the Democratic Party have pointed to the party’s neglect of working class voters and overlooking key economic issues as they flung attacks on incoming president Trump.
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