Posted on 12/07/2002 4:32:52 AM PST by KQQL
Senate Republican leader Trent Lott of Mississippi has provoked criticism by saying the United States would have been better off if then-segregationist candidate Strom Thurmond had won the presidency in 1948.
Speaking Thursday at a 100th birthday party and retirement celebration for Sen. Thurmond (R-S.C.) in the Dirksen Senate Office Building, Lott said, "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."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
Did either party of that time disagree with those positions? Did they believe they should be decided on a State by State basis or by national legislation? Congress had not enacted any recent laws against segregation until many years after 1948 to my knowledge.
Though I agree that Lott's wording was a case of clear stupidity by giving the 'rats ammo to use against him and the GOP, in his defense it does not appear he was saying the country would be better off under Thurmond because of segregation. Listen to Lott's whole speech - he praises Thurmond extensively for a career of fighting for conservatism in Congress, an accomplishment deserving of praise. The context of this particular comment was that Thurmond had been a lifelong advocate of smaller government, and in that context, Lott suggested government would not be the monster it is today if conservative opposition had halted its growth in the second half of this century. Though the comment sounds bad out of context, was stupidly worded, and invites others to draw associations to segregationism, Lott said nothing in praise of segregation itself.
As for the 'rats and damage control, we do need to be ready on this one...and not to save Lott's rear, but to rebut a smear of our party including its senate leader even if we find him to be an idiot. The best way is to point out hypocrisy of the 'rats, who for decades have campaigned on how much better the country is supposedly better off thanks to their own political deity's victorious runs for the presidency in 1932, 36, 40, and 44. Little mention is ever made of FDR's appalling record on race which includes, among other things, appointing a Ku Klux Klansman to the United States Supreme Court. He tapped liberal klansman Democrat Senator Hugo Black for the job in part as a reward for being a New Dealer in congress. Black had a lengthy history of white supremacist activities in Alabama and had gained much of his early political fame as a Klan attorney who successfully defended hooded terrorists who murdered a Catholic priest in Birmingham circa 1921. This was but one of FDR's many affiliations with bigots and his own racist actions as president, including ordering Japanese internment. But the Democrats proudly display his name on everything they do without penalty.
Looking for an accurate account of Lott's flap with the CCC from fair.org is about like looking for an accurate account from Pacifica radio. Part of that has to do with the fact that fair.org is a mouthpiece for Pacifica radio.
If nothing else, Lott's idiocy with the CCC and this poorly worded yet out of context remark shows the double standards of the media and the left.
When the Democrat's highest ranking senator, Robert Byrd, used the n-word on national tv, nobody made a peep. Yet when Lott even remotely confers praise on Strom Thurmond's 1948 presidential bid, they're up in arms. They were also up in arms when Lott spoke at a CCC event because the CCC practices a concealed form of racism. You probably didn't hear very much about it though when a newspaper in St. Louis revealed that Dick Gephardt had spoken as a congressman at several meetings of the now defunct White Citizens Council, an openly racist group. It was later reported by persons who were there that Gephardt had even solicited the group's endorsement for his first congressional bid.
Same goes with their treatment of Thurmond himself. We always hear about him holding segregationist views in his presidential bid, but do we ever hear about the open racism espoused by FDR? Absolutely not, even though FDR appointed a Klansman to the Supreme Court, surrounded himself with segregationist democrat advisors, and personally ordered japanese internment. As with all things of the left, there's a double standard. Republicans get raked over the coals in the press for offenses far lesser than many things democrats of comparable stature and rank get a complete pass on.
No it's not. The majority of blacks have a difficult time sticking together for a common cause. There's a very small difference in voting for one white candidate over another. At least Lott and Thurman you know where they stand.
It's the wolves in sheep's clothing in the democrat party that has fed the black population a multitude of lies and still haven't paid up. Hopefully the next generation will realize their power is not just being black and held as a block of votes for the smoothest talkers.
That's a far different issue from government-mandated separation.
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