Trent Lott's Big Tent
Today is Wednesday, 15 November 2006.
So Trent Lott, Republican senator from my birth state of Mississippi, has today been voted back into the Senate Republican leadership.
This is of course the same Trent Lott who four years ago praised the segregationist values of white supremacist politician Strom Thurmond.
“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," Lott said.
Thurmond of course ran for president in 1948, on a program of strengthening the Second Slavery, or segregation.
During the campaign, he said, "All the laws of Washington and all the bayonets of the Army cannot force the Negro into our homes, our schools, our churches."
The Thurmond platform included: "We stand for the segregation of the races and the racial integrity of each race."
Now, Lott wasn’t some loud-mouthed, ignorant 12-year-old white boy from Gulfport, parroting the racist trash he heard at home. He was a mature politician who knew what he was saying, and meant to say it.
Many Republican leaders talk of “The Big Tent” of the Republican Party, which supposedly welcomes persons of colour for reasons other than exploitation.
When it comes to Trent Lott, The Big Tent is just the same old white sheet.
So Trent Lott, Republican senator from my birth state of Mississippi, has today been voted back into the Senate Republican leadership.
This is of course the same Trent Lott who four years ago praised the segregationist values of white supremacist politician Strom Thurmond.
“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," Lott said.
Thurmond of course ran for president in 1948, on a program of strengthening the Second Slavery, or segregation.
During the campaign, he said, "All the laws of Washington and all the bayonets of the Army cannot force the Negro into our homes, our schools, our churches."
The Thurmond platform included: "We stand for the segregation of the races and the racial integrity of each race."
Now, Lott wasn’t some loud-mouthed, ignorant 12-year-old white boy from Gulfport, parroting the racist trash he heard at home. He was a mature politician who knew what he was saying, and meant to say it.
Many Republican leaders talk of “The Big Tent” of the Republican Party, which supposedly welcomes persons of colour for reasons other than exploitation.
When it comes to Trent Lott, The Big Tent is just the same old white sheet.
posted by HH at 5:27 PM
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