Cogito Ergo Non Serviam
House Condemns Trump's Racism, GOP Backs It
The House of Representatives voted last night to condemn the racist tweets the President of the United States sent in which he said certain members of the House should go back to where they came from. This blatantly racist attack (from a man who has never hid his bigotry) offered the Republicans in the chamber to vote against America's original sin. They chose instead to support the racism that Mr Trump has brought into the White House and into their party. Whatever economic or small government conservatives remain in the party, they will now be painted with the same white nationalist brush. It is officially the party of bigotry.
The resolution has no real teeth. The president is not under any sanction. He isn't going to jail, nor does he face a fine. His term in office doesn't end. In that regard, it makes little difference if any at all. What the vote did allow was to put every member of the House on record as either condemning the racist statements or not. When it comes to matters of bigotry, failing to condemn and supporting are more or less identical.
The vote was only the fourth time in the history of the Republic that a chamber of Congress had voted to censure or condemn the president's actions. The last time was in 1912 when William Howard Taft stood accused of influencing a disputed Senatorial election. In the 107 years since then, there have been two moves on impeachment (Messrs. Nixon and Clinton) but no censure vote.
In the final moments of the debate Congressman John Lewis (D-GA) spoke. This is the same John Lewis who was beaten to the very edge of death on the Edmund Pettus Bridge during the march from Selma to Montgomery during the civil rights movement of the 1960s. If there is a living legend of American liberty, he is it.
Mr. Lewis said, "I know racism when I see it. I know racism when I feel it. And at the highest levels of government, there is no room for racism." Then, he voted to condemn what the president had said. Case closed.
The vote was 240-187 in favor of the resolution. There were a few members of the Republican Party who took a stand for decency: Congressman Will Hurd of Texas (the only black member of the GOP in the House), Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Susan Brooks of Indiana and Fred Upton of Michigan. The latter two are retiring and face no consequences for their opposition to the party. Justin Amash of Michigan, who has quit the GOP altogether, also voted for the resolution and maintained his reputation as a man of principle. Six Republican members did not vote, which merits recognition but no praise.
As observed yesterday, Mr. Trump will someday cease to be president, and then eventually will cease to be. Yet as William Shakespeare observed in Julius Caesar, the evil that men do lives after them. Mr. Trump has made the Republican Party the party of white nationalism. In a nation demographically growing more diverse by the minute, it is a recipe for failure and strife. It undermines the future of the Republic. The genie will not readily return to the bottle.
© Copyright 2019 by The Kensington Review, Jeff Myhre, PhD, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent. Produced using Ubuntu Linux.
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