What a surprise. The reactionary white party that’s terrified of teaching Black history is also reluctant to remove the Confederate statues in the U.S. Capitol. In a House vote yesterday, nearly two-thirds of the chamber’s Republicans voted to defend Jefferson Davis (pictured above) and the other racist insurrectionists who committed treason against the United States. The bill passed anyway – as Democrat Jim Clyburn said, “Why should we be celebrating a defense of slavery?” – but 120 GOPers voted to keep celebrating.
Of course they did. After all, this is the same party that abetted – and continues to excuse – the Jan. 6 racist insurrection against the United States. It’s like the Civil War is still being waged.
Trump’s captive cult is so tone deaf about the diversity of 21st century America that it apparently can’t fathom (or simply doesn’t care) how poorly its racist ‘tude plays with most Americans. There’s no rational reason to keep displaying a bust of Roger Taney, the Supreme Court justice whose notorious Dred Scott ruling denied citizenship to Blacks – because in his words, Blacks were “a subordinate and inferior class of beings who had been subjugated by the dominant race.”
There’s no rational reason to keep honoring Confederate President Davis, who declared in 1863 that “the day is not distant when the old Union will be restored with slavery nationally declared to be the proper condition of all of African descent.”
There’s no rational reason to keep exhibiting a statue of Confederate veep Alexander Stephens, who declared that the insurrectionist government’s “foundations are laid, its corner-stone rests, upon the great truth that the negro is not equal to the white man; that slavery – subordination to the superior race – is his natural and normal condition.”
And there’s no rational reason to do the same for John C. Calhoun, a U.S. veep from South Carolina who was an inspiration to the insurrectionists; in defense of slavery, he famously insisted that “Never before has the black race of Central Africa, from the dawn of history to the present day, attained a condition so civilized and so improved, not only physically, but morally and intellectually.”
Karen Bass, a Black Democratic congresswoman, spoke up for rationality: “My ancestors built this building. Imagine how they would feel knowing that, more than 100 years after slavery was abolished in this country, we still paid homage to the very people that betrayed this country in order to keep my ancestors in slavery. And imagine how I feel, and other African Americans and people of color feel walking through Statuary Hall, and knowing that there are monuments to people who supported, embraced and fought for the breakup of our country.”
But most House Republicans don’t…um…share those feelings. One congressman from Montana, Matt Rosendale, said he voted to keep the statues in order to protest what he called “the Critical Race theory of structural racism.” Gee, it sure seems like Taney, Davis, Stephens, and Calhoun were eloquent spokesman for structural racism, but perhaps that’s only obvious to those of us who can read.
Actually, the most hilarious vote was cast by GOP House leader Kevin McCarthy. He said Yes on removing the statues – because, in his words, “all of the statues being removed by this bill are statues of Democrats.” Somehow, Republicans like McCarthy are still flunking the basics of history. Yes, people like Calhoun were Democrats – the southern 19th century version that finally expired in 1964 when Democratic President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act. After LBJ affixed his name, the party’s racist southern wing fled en masse to the GOP – a haven for white flight to this very day.
So what’s next? The statues and busts won’t go unless the Senate says Yes to the House bill – and that won’t happen unless 10 Republicans break the usual filibuster. Anyone care to bet on that?