Bill
Knight column for 7-29, 30 or 31, 2019
Deadly
race riots raged in Chicago 100 years ago this
week, but it seems that some Illinois politicians haven’t learned enough from
history to resist returning to those Bad Ol’ Days.
Democracy must have choices and
multiple political parties, and I long admired and sometimes voted for U.S.
Reps. Paul Findley and Ray LaHood, U.S. Sen. Chuck Percy, President Dwight
Eisenhower, State Rep. Dave Leitch and Gov. Jim Edgar. A hero in the Watergate
era was Congressman Tom Railsback, the Moline Republican (for whom Ray LaHood
worked for five years before becoming House Minority Leader Bob Michel’s aide)
who voted against President Nixon.
However, I see today’s GOP and
wonder whether those past Republican leaders were outliers or naïve.
The option is shock and shame about
21st century GOP leaders.
This stems from recent belligerent
tantrums by President Trump, who on July 14 attacked four progressive
Congresswomen of color to “go back [to] places from which they came,” followed
within hours by an ugly “Send her back!” chant by a Trump-rally mob, and then a
July 19 “Jihad Squad” graphic post by the Illinois Republican County Chairmen’s
Association depicting the same elected House members as terrorists.
In Illinois’ 18th
District where I live, Congressman Darin LaHood (Ray’s 51-year-old son) issued mild
rebukes, commenting after the hostile tweet, “It is not the language that I
would’ve used” and following the rally chants, “That’s not what I think is the
right strategy. However, I think it’s a reflection of the real concern by many
people in my district.”
“Strategy”? Blaming constituents?
Darin apparently never reacted to
the provocative Facebook post (no one from his District and Washington offices
replied to requests for a comment). His complacency,
if not complicity, is disappointing, demonstrating timidity or more concern for
Trump’s approval than for decency.
About Trump, George W. Bush
appointee to the National Counterterrorism Center and former CIA Director John
Brennan, said, “Until so-called Republicans put nation above party and condemn
his vile rants, this crisis will only get worse and more dangerous.”
Some Republicans did denounce the
racism: Texas Congressmen Will Hurd and Pete Olson, respectively, called the
tweets “racist” that should be disavowed; Congresswoman Lisa Murkowski of
Alaska described Trump’s comments as “spiteful”; ex-Arizona Sen. Jeff Flake characterized
the language as “vile and offensive”; and even arch-conservative Iowa Sen. Joni
Ernst admitted it was racist, and current House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy
said such criticisms have “no place in our party and no place in this country.”
In Illinois, GOP Congressman Adam
Kinzinger said such chants are “wrong and would send chills down the spines of
our Founding Fathers.”
Progressive evangelical Christian
Jim Wallis agreed, saying the angry comments “are offensive to our founding
ideals, … un-American, illegal, a sin and antithetical to the teachings of
Jesus.”
Such judgments aren’t startling. After
all, Trump’s long-time attorney Michael Cohen and one-time casino partner Jack
O’Donnell both say the President is a racist.
However, as writer Mike Tomasky
said, “Republicans don’t fail to object to Trump because they’re afraid of his
base. They refuse to stand up to Trump because they like what he’s doing.”
So overlooking destructive, divisive
politics, policies and practices is OK if it means fewer regulations,
Right-wing judges, a border wall, and an economy enriching the wealthy, even if
the GOP betrays its tenets of fiscal restraint, law and order, family values,
and recognizing Russia as a dictatorship?
What a price! Even Michel “was
always the most loyal of Republicans but never a politician comfortable with
the usual dissembling or blind partisanship,” Jack Germond and Jules Witcover
wrote in 1993.
Therefore, I have five questions for
my Congressman:
* If Trump’s attacks aren’t racist,
what would be?
* If “go back” or “send her back”
are condoned by this President, would comparable comments from a Democratic
President be alright?
* By not condemning Trump’s
comments, aren’t you making them acceptable?
* Since the Census Bureau predicts
that whites will be a minority starting in 2045, how do you expect the
Republican Party to survive?
* And since you earned a degree from
John Marshall Law School and worked as an Assistant U.S. Attorney for five
years, how do you reconcile this statement from the U.S. Equal Employment
Opportunity Commission on Anti-Discrimination Laws: “Examples of potentially
unlawful conduct include insults, taunts or ethnic epithets such as making fun
of a person’s foreign accent or comments like ‘Go back where you came from’ ”?
Ex-U.S. Deputy Attorney General
Sally Yates commented, “Those who could have stood up but cowered instead bear
equal responsibility for the vile devolution of our country’s values.”
Years from now, who’ll look back and
think, “Sure, Trump was a racist, but he cut taxes for the elite…”?
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