Minority Rule Given the Republican ferocity in trying to destroy basic rights, the road back to democracy is not civic but political. MEG KINNARD/AP PHOTO A statue of pro-slavery South Carolina Sen. John C. Calhoun is lifted out of Charleston in June 2020. As Republicans have increasingly become a permanent minority in America, they have resorted to ever cruder schemes to cling to power. This destruction of democracy has been intertwined with the effort to maintain white supremacy as nonwhites became a growing share of the population. The filibuster is both the emblem and the instrument of this minority rule, as well as the connection between slavery, Jim Crow, and todayâs strategically racist Republican Party.