Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) is calling for the “dismantling” of the American political and economic system, in addition to upending the criminal justice system.
“As long as our economy and political systems prioritize profit without considering who is profiting, who is being shut out, we will perpetuate this inequality,” she explained during a press event Tuesday in Minnesota. “We cannot stop at [the] criminal justice system. We must begin the work of dismantling the whole system of oppression.”
The 37-year-old lawmaker didn’t specify what, exactly, she means by “dismantling.” The dictionary definition of the word, though, is, “to disconnect the pieces of,” or, “to destroy the integrity or functioning of.”
Omar used the same language last month, when she advocated for getting rid of the police in Minneapolis, the epicenter of the recent Black Lives Matter uproar following the killing of George Floyd, an unarmed black man, by a white former police officer.
“You can’t really reform a department that is rotten to the root,” she said at the time. “What you can do is rebuild, and so this is our opportunity.”
On Tuesday, Omar said dismantling police departments, though, just doesn’t go far enough.
The country, the far-left politician continued, needs to “tear down” its “systems of oppression.”
“We are fighting to tear down system of oppression that exist in housing, in education, in health care, in employment, and in the air we breathe,” she said, adding it’s time to “guarantee homes for all” due to ethnic disparities in homeownership.
Omar also voiced her support for the radical Green New Deal, “because we know that environmental racism is real.”
Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, the party’s presumptive nominee, tweeted Sunday he plans to “transform” the U.S. if elected president in November.
Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) unveiled a wide-ranging proposal Tuesday, calling for the federal defunding of police departments across the country and for the establishment of a reparations program for black Americans and those harmed by the police and criminal justice system.
In addition to slashing funding for local police departments and federal agencies, the proposal would choke out Immigration and Customs Enforcement and end the Department of Defense 1033 program, which transfers extra military equipment to civilian law enforcement agencies.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) slammed Omar and her “Marxist comrades” for attempting to “shred” the U.S. Constitution.