Posted on 12/21/2002 4:00:13 PM PST by Michael2001
That said, I believe Paul Craig Roberts was 100% right on the mark with this article. Just about every post on this thread disagrees with Roberts' premise, but you are all wrong. You're letting your inherent dislike of Lott keep you from approaching this issue with logic. Lott was targeted by the left because of SOMETHING HE SAID. That should trouble all of us; who here can honestly say that they have not, at one time or another, made a foolish racial statement, in jest or not? I know I have.
Everyone is human. Everyone says stupid things which they would not like others to dwell on. Just think if this comment would have been made by Bob Barr or another of our conservative heroes. Would you all have screamed for their heads?
What's done is done. Lott is gone and we are better off for it. But as Roberts warned, be ready for the next liberal target of character assassination. The next time it may be someone we want to have hang around for awhile....
LOL...I remember you asking him the exact same thing 2 years ago!
SOMETHING HE SAID ? What the GOP Senate Majority Leader said is that he is sorry the segregationists lost. He is sorry that "those people" were not smashed when they had the chance. When someone of senior leadership in the GOP takes this as a position there most definitely should be massive consequences to his career.
Gee, yooper, I'm sorry you feel so persecuted by having to watch what you say about "those people". Not like the good old days.
I'll take the same, probably cowardly, stance that other conservative commentators have in answering this question: I have no idea what's in Trent Lott's heart. The fact (that came out) that he had made this same remark a number of times before troubled me. I can understand that this was perhaps just "joviality" and a "routine" that Trent had gotten into the habit of saying around Strom, but I can't imagine a guy in such an important leadership position allowing such a phrase come out in 2002. I would have been ashamed of any Republican uttering such a remark in 1980.
I don't believe the Republican Party is racist. I don't believe we have operated with "code words" to win our majorities in the south. I worry that Republicans will now be pushed (as Lott was being pushed in his BET interview) to abandon appropirate "color blind" principles going forward.
Maybe the Republicans do need to push forward with a more open dialog and reconsideration of principles on race. It is obvious that the GOP has been unjustly demonized on this issue -- and the NAACP, Congressional Black Caucus, and other race-baiters should be called on this lie. I would love to see the GOP figure out a way to move forward a cohesive "conservative" agenda on race forward (school choice, Enterprise Zones, etc... and filling in the "etc" is probably the biggest challenge).
You are now. With Lott stepping down, the floodgates are open. Perception is reality in politics.
Just what do you mean by "those people" and "the good old days"? Don't you realize that those are racially incendiary remarks? What kind of person are you anyway? Now don't you dare post such comments again or I'll report you to the moderator. Keep your thoughts and comments to yourself; you have no right to think or post comments like these.
Sucks to be taken out of context, doesn't it?
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