The article makes no claim that the mechanism is from the Jim Crow era.
The point of the article is that it’s use in the Jim Crow era was generally limited to maintenance of white political supremacy while allowing legislative actions to function in other areas, but that now it’s use has expanded in subject area scope to the point of crippling constructive government response to pressing issues of our time.
Many systems benefit from a little bit of friction but too much gets to be a problem. From where I sit it looks like necessary, intellectually honest deliberation and action relevant to changes in our society and the world are being sabotaged by those who want to inoculate against progress (or merely retain power/wealth) and go back to the days of Leave it to Beaver with it’s unquestioned white rule. I offer Georgia's most recent voter suppression actions as Exhibit 1 though we're swimming in additional evidence. Long term that will be about as constructive and effective as trying to stop ocean tides.
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