14 June 2005 - 2:02am
Politics of cowardice
It was mighty white of the Senate to pass a resolution apologizing for the government's turning a blind eye to lynching ... by voice vote. Why voice vote? Because the resolution could not get unanimous support:
There have been 4,742 recorded lynchings in American history, Ms. Landrieu said. Historians suspect that many more went undocumented. Although the House passed antilynching legislation three times in the first half of the 20th century, the Senate, controlled by Southern conservatives, repeatedly refused to do so. Senator George Allen of Virginia, chief Republican sponsor of the new resolution, called it "this stain on the history of the United States Senate."
Although the Senate garnered praise on Monday for acting to erase that stain, some critics said lawmakers had a long way to go. Of the 100 senators, 80 were co-sponsors of the resolution, and because it passed by voice vote, senators escaped putting themselves on record.
"It's a statement in itself that there aren't 100 co-sponsors," Senator John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, said. "It's a statement in itself that there's not an up-or-down vote."
A statement indeed, because don't we all know that there are some good ol' boys who are in the Senate to protect our traditions and moral values. The Confederacy lives ... as a stain on the honor of the United States of America.
Others described the resolution as an act of expediency for Mr. Allen, who is a likely presidential candidate and who has been criticized for displaying a Confederate flag at his home and a noose in his law office. Mr. Allen said that they were part of collections of flags and Western paraphernalia and that he was motivated not by politics, but by a plea by Dick Gregory, the civil rights advocate, who wrote him a letter urging him not to "choose to do nothing."
Yes, Senator Allen, the darling of the pseudo-religious righteous, proud defender of America's slaving legacy, is running for president, so he wanted to play nice and pretend to be decent folks. How considerate he is of his bubbas to not force them to actually go on record as voting for this resolution. Who says he's not a nice guy?
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Comments
*Sigh*
Can't say I'm a big fan of resolutions like this. First, the resolution itself accomplishes nothing. Second, what, precisely, should the Senate do about lynchings? As near as I can tell, a federal anti-lynching statute would not be constutional under Lopez.
--|PW|--
When you have an organization crossing state lines like the KKK, it becomes a federal issue.
But the real outrage is precisely that even though the resolution had no power -- it was simply an expression of remorse -- and yet 20 Senators could not or would not sign on.
States' rights? I sincerely doubt that this was a principled protest, where those dissenters were saying, "This is really a states' issue." Besides, even that kind of quibbling over an apology speaks volumes.
You're right on the KKK kount, I think, particularly if KKK can be made complicit in a given lyhcing. The Senate's lynching apology is one of those things that relaly annoys me -- a rather empty gesture undertaken chiefly to serve one person's (in this case, Sen. Allen's) political interests. Not my cup of tea, if you know what I mean.
The federalism concern, though, is something that's crept upon me in the last four years or so, particularly in the context of Morrison, Lopez, and Raich. Increasingly, I am of the opinion that Wichard v. Filburn either needs to be curtailed, or else put out to pasture in favor of a less expansive grant of federal legislative power.
--|PW|--
...and rebel flag in your office, it tends to send a message. Allen's trying to make nice. I'm sure his good ol' buddies wish he never brought it up.
I am not a lawywer, so case law citations means as much to me as quantum physics. (Actually I think I'd understand some references to quantum physics.)
Sorry ... the cases have been defined elsewhere far better than I could define them here, but suffice it to say that Wickard, a Depression-era case involving the production of wheat, opened the door to a great deal of today's federal regulation regarding any number of areas.
Lopez and Morrison, by contrast, were two cases in the 1990s that purported to rein this in with a different test for Interstate Commerce regulation. Raich, the recent medical marijuana decision, confirmed that the federal government does, indeed, have broad powers under the Commerce Clause and Necessary and Proper Clause ... a holding that confirms, again, that Lopez and Morrison weren't as revolutionary as some commentators thought.
--|PW|--
Sen. Daniel Akaka [D-HI]
Sen. Wayne Allard [R-CO]
Sen. George Allen [R-VA]
Sen. Max Baucus [D-MT]
Sen. B. Evan Bayh [D-IN]
Sen. Joseph Biden [D-DE]
Sen. Christopher Bond [R-MO]
Sen. Barbara Boxer [D-CA]
Sen. Samuel Brownback [R-KS]
Sen. Jim Bunning [R-KY]
Sen. Conrad Burns [R-MT]
Sen. Richard Burr [R-NC]
Sen. Robert Byrd [D-WV]
Sen. Maria Cantwell [D-WA]
Sen. Thomas Carper [D-DE]
Sen. Lincoln Chafee [R-RI]
Sen. C. Saxby Chambliss [R-GA]
Sen. Hillary Clinton [D-NY]
Sen. Thomas Coburn [R-OK]
Sen. Norm Coleman [R-MN]
Sen. Susan Collins [R-ME]
Sen. Jon Corzine [D-NJ]
Sen. Larry Craig [R-ID]
Sen. Mark Dayton [D-MN]
Sen. Jim DeMint [R-SC]
Sen. Michael DeWine [R-OH]
Sen. Christopher Dodd [D-CT]
Sen. Elizabeth Dole [R-NC]
Sen. Pete Domenici [R-NM]
Sen. Byron Dorgan [D-ND]
Sen. Richard Durbin [D-IL]
Sen. John Ensign [R-NV]
Sen. Russell Feingold [D-WI]
Sen. Dianne Feinstein [D-CA]
Sen. William Frist [R-TN]
Sen. Lindsey Graham [R-SC]
Sen. Charles Hagel [R-NE]
Sen. Thomas Harkin [D-IA]
Sen. James Inhofe [R-OK]
Sen. Daniel Inouye [D-HI]
Sen. Johnny Isakson [R-GA]
Sen. James Jeffords [I-VT]
Sen. Tim Johnson [D-SD]
Sen. Edward Kennedy [D-MA]
Sen. John Kerry [D-MA]
Sen. Herbert Kohl [D-WI]
Sen. Frank Lautenberg [D-NJ]
Sen. Patrick Leahy [D-VT]
Sen. Carl Levin [D-MI]
Sen. Joseph Lieberman [D-CT]
Sen. Blanche Lincoln [D-AR]
Sen. Richard Lugar [R-IN]
Sen. Mel Martinez [R-FL]
Sen. John McCain [R-AZ]
Sen. Mitch McConnell [R-KY]
Sen. Barbara Mikulski [D-MD]
Sen. Patty Murray [D-WA]
Sen. Bill Nelson [D-FL]
Sen. Ben Nelson [D-NE]
Sen. Barack Obama [D-IL]
Sen. Mark Pryor [D-AR]
Sen. Harry Reid [D-NV]
Sen. Pat Roberts [R-KS]
Sen. John Rockefeller [D-WV]
Sen. Ken Salazar [D-CO]
Sen. Richard Santorum [R-PA]
Sen. Paul Sarbanes [D-MD]
Sen. Charles Schumer [D-NY]
Sen. Jefferson Sessions [R-AL]
Sen. Olympia Snowe [R-ME]
Sen. Arlen Specter [R-PA]
Sen. Debbie Ann Stabenow [D-MI]
Sen. Ted Stevens [R-AK]
Sen. James Talent [R-MO]
Sen. John Thune [R-SD]
Sen. David Vitter [R-LA]
Sen. John Warner [R-VA]
Sen. Ron Wyden [D-OR]
Because I'm a Southern girl, through and through, but I'm not racist in the usual sense of the word. I have a rebel flag around here somewhere, and I promise, it doesn't mean I support lynching or slavery. It means I'm proud of where I'm from and that I stand with my neighbors against the oppression we face from Northerners - and yes, we do. I'm thoroughly sick of telling people where I'm from and getting cracks about whether I have teeth or not. I'm sick of having to dampen my accent to be taken seriously. I'm sick of people needing to know that I was educated in the North to listen to me. Most of all, I'm sick of crackers with nooses in their office holding office.
Any asshole that didn't sign on to that resolution needs to be removed from office. Period.
Those people that wouldn't vote for it don't belong in American government. Same for the people trying to justify torture. There's just no place for that kind of behavior in a plural democracy.
"We hold these truths to be self-evident" - it just doesn't get any more plain than that.
Are there any recall motions happening in their home states?
Morgaine-ism© #8
"A Woman's Sexual and Reproductive Autonomy is Sacred and Absolute."