When are Democrats going to stop reacting? When do we stop defending? Yes, Florida Republicans used language in a bill that says somehow, some part of slavery might have benefitted slaves. Yes, it’s sneaky. Yes, it’s despicable.

Our response? To lament the action. To send the vice President down to show outrage. That, is defending.

Our response should be a powerful, public statement of just how evil slavery was. A once and for all, clear and unequivocal statement of just how destructive the institution was, for the slaves above all, but also for the country .. morally, in blood, in destroyed lives, in the endless racism  we are still paying for today. Slavery was evil. Period.

A proactive statement like that is the only appropriate action, because it deals with the real issue .. which isn’t Ron DeSantis and Florida Republicans. The real issue isn’t politics at all, it’s fundamental, historical truth. Yes, “they” are attempting to rewrite history, and no one should be surprised because they did it before, and they’ve been nibbling at it ever since. The descendants of the Confederacy undertook a massive rewriting of history in the aftermath of the Civil war, a rewrite that turned the true evil of what they were fighting for into something that was both noble, and somehow cute. They were so successful at it that Northern children grew up for generations learning to sing Dixie.

It has taken us a long, long time to unravel that false narrative, to lower those Confederate flags and rename those military bases. And the effort isn't finished. It won’t be over until the reality of our sordid history with slavery and the racism it produced is just established fact. For everyone. Everywhere. 

And that’s exactly why we need to do more than react with political outrage. They want this to be about politics. They want this to be about anything but the simple historical truth that slavery was evil incarnate. They’re playing a political game, and they’re going to go on playing it as long as we let them. Reacting is letting them. Defending is letting them. The only appropriate way to act is to squash this cancer at its roots. We need a public, national statement and we need the President to do it. Not a political speech, not outrage, but a simple statement of fact about this issue alone. Something short, powerful, and unequivocal. Then Democrats everywhere need to back it up with statements and resolutions of their own. We need to put political considerations aside and affix slavery with the evil it was, and we need to keep doing it until this issue disappears.

J.M. Purvis is the founder of Democrats 101, Inc, and the author of Democrats 101