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Lott's Loose Lips It was not a typical private birthday party, it was a political event. It took place on Dec. 5th in the banquet hall of the Senate's Dirksen Office Building, and the guest list included hundreds of prominent persons from the public and private arena. It was Strom Thurmond's 100th birthday party; a media event covered by a dozen reporters and carried live on C-SPAN. When Sen. Trent Lott came to the podium to honor the former Senator from South Carolina, he stated: I want to say this about my state. When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either. The whole room fell silent for a moment. Exactly what problem have we had all these years that could have been prevented by Strom Thurmond? In 1948 Thurmond ran for President as the nominee of the States' Rights Party, also known as the Dixiecrats. Their platform was built around a pledge to uphold "the segregation of the races and the integrity of each race." Thurmond vowed that "all the laws of Washington and all the bayonets of the Army cannot force the Negro into our homes, our schools, our churches." He, of course, lost. To many it just seemed like a slip of the tongue until the Washington Post reported that Lott had used almost identical words to praise Thurmond during comments in Mississippi in 1980. As one commentator put it, Lott was the Haley's Comet of racist remarks. Every 22 years, he blurts out his real feelings. The Freudian slip began to look more like a pattern. Democrats started demanding an apology, civil rights groups began voicing their outrage, and the media did what the media does best - dig for dirt. They didn't have to dig very hard, they looked into his legislative record. Lott's segregationist past pointed to his consistent votes against civil rights. He voted against a Civil Rights Act extension, school busing, the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday and FBI investigations of hate crimes. He filed a friend-of-the-court brief to argue for maintaining the tax-exempt status of Bob Jones University despite its discriminatory policies and its ban on interracial dating, arguing that "racial discrimination does not always violate public policy." In 1981 Lott persuaded President Reagan to support tax exemptions for racially segregated private schools. And in 1992 Lott told the white supremacist Council of Conservative Citizens that "the people in this room stand for the right principles and the right philosophy." Higher than truth is truthful living, and Trent Lott was living a lie. He may believe that he is not a racist, but his actions speak for themselves. Sure he was not the kind of racist to wear a white bed sheet and a white pointy hat, but he was a racist in denial. Lott's political career was hemorrhaging out of control. His buddies in his own party were tossing knives into his back. The biggest axe came from the President himself who stated at an event with a predominantly African-American audience, "Recent comments by Senator Lott do not reflect the spirit of our country." Lott's whirlwind "I
apologize" media tour did not help either. On BET (Black Entertainment
Television), he was methodically questioned about his past. When asked
about his voting against the King holiday, he stated that "we didn't
understand who he was." Ugh! As pressure mounted
for him to step down from his upcoming position as Senate Majority Leader,
he realized he had no choice but to resign. He stated: "A lot of
people in Washington have been trying to nail me for a long time. When
you're from Mississippi and you're a conservative and you're a Christian,
there are a lot of people that don't like that. I fell into their trap
and so I have only myself to blame." So, who was trying to nail him
because he was a Christian? Politics is a blood sport. And for a Republican who had occupied influential leadership positions in the House and Senate for 23 years, it was over - at least as an incoming Senate Majority Leader. But Lott is not the only one with loose lips. Rep. Cass Ballenger (R-N.C.) told the Charlotte Observer, "If I had to listen to her, I probably would have developed a little bit of a segregationist feeling, …she was a real b….". He was talking about the outgoing Georgia Democrat Cynthia McKinney. The word "segregationist" seemed to be on the lips of too many politicians, but the sacrificial lamb of the day was Trent Lott. It all seemed very chivalrous of the Republicans to have sacrificed one of their own in the name of civil rights. But the fact is that if Trent Lott had not blundered at that party, he would still be the Senate Majority Leader. This spectacle showed that racist ideas are still alive in high places and that it was acceptable for the politicians to harbor them as long as they kept their racist tendencies in the closet. Even if the general public was not aware of Lott's legislative record, his collogues were. Lott's secret was out. He did major damage to the image of the Republican Party. And that is the only reason why Lott had to go down. This was not a sacrifice for the party, it was simply damage control. Many of those Republicans who have been so desperate to hustle Lott off the political limelight do not have a problem with his legislative record. They cannot see that Lott's political views, which are the dominant views of his party, may be racially insensitive as well. And until they recognize this and clean out their closets, minorities in this country will always suspect that conservatism is a cover-up for racism. |