Scores of U.S. lawmakers are converging on tiny Selma, Alabama, for a large commemoration of a civil rights anniversary. But their ranks don’t include a single member of House Republican leadership — a point that isn’t lost on congressional black leaders.
None of the top leaders — House Speaker John Boehner, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy or Majority Whip Steve Scalise, who was once thought likely to attend to atone for reports that he once spoke before a white supremacist group — will be in Selma for the three-day event that commemorates the 1965 march and the violence that protesters faced at the hands of white police officers. A number of rank-and-file Republicans have been aggressively lobbying their colleagues to attend, and several black lawmakers concurred. Story Continued Below
“It is very disappointing that not a single Republican leader sees the value in participating in this 50th commemoration of the signing of the Voting Rights Act. I had hoped that some of the leadership would attend, but apparently none of them will,” said Congressional Black Caucus Chairman G.K. Butterfield of North Carolina. “The Republicans always talk about trying to change their brand and be more appealing to minority folks and be in touch with the interests of African-Americans. This is very disappointing.”
Well of course the Republicans are not interested in celebrating voting rights legislation.
They have been actively attempting, with the help of the Supreme Court, to roll it back for decades.
A new study reports that white Christians, long understood to be the primary shapers of American politics and culture, are rapidly losing their majority status across the country — even in traditionally conservative states.
ReplyDeleteEarlier this week, Jonathan Merritt of the Religion News Service dug into data from the American Values Atlas, a website unveiled late last year by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) that aggregates polling information on the political opinions, values, and religious affiliations of Americans. The wealth of data is a lot to sift through, but Merritt pointed to a striking revelation: white Christians, once the majority in virtually every major population area in America, are now a minority in 19 states.
http://thinkprogress.org/culture/2015/03/06/3630900/white-christians-no-longer-majority-19-states/
Fifty years ago, my father flew from New York State to march in Selma.
ReplyDeleteThe next year, he got the Republican-Liberal Party endorsements and beat a Democrat in Albany County for the first time in 43 years. It took the crooked Dems two terms to get him out of the House of Representatives.In office or out, he was a man of action and a man of conscience.
He was a Republican -- an old-style Republican. He wouldn't recognize the yahoos in the party today.
As an old man, he enrolled as a Democrat. It broke his heart, but the Republican Party had got rid of all the other Northeastern GOP members such as he. Nixon swept it, Strom Thurmond became a Republican, and, bit by bit, the Southern Strategy was a success.
These are shameful politicians today. Might as well wear their white hoods when they parade around the floor of the Congress.
My respect and appreciation for your father's activism.
DeleteI don't even think it had to do with voter rights. What it comes down to is Selma was an important event in black civil rights and the GOP is now so extreme they can't be seen supporting blacks.
ReplyDeleteBut what about Allen West and Ben Carson ;-)
DeleteThey don't even like those two. Remember how Cain was treated? They put them up there for show (like Palin and the other wacko female Governors) but the only female they even like is Florin, because she knows how to cheat a business out of millions, and Condi, because she's black and believes the same racist crap they do.
DeleteVote every Republican you can out of office on the national, state and local levels in 2016! .
ReplyDeleteThey do not work for the Americans that elected them and the majority are racist. Ugly souls they have and I'm sure Hell awaits every one of them!
Remember, we have a United States Congress that is terribly disliked across the nation (according to the Polls!) President Obama's ratings have increased and it is driving them nuts!
As a former registered Republican, it took me many years to understand and admit that the GOP doesn't believe in democracy. I know they did some time in the past....but that was a long time ago.
ReplyDeleteThey don't even bother to hide their racism any longer.
ReplyDeleteIt is hard to tell if the republican leadership is racist, but they are certainly doing everything they can to not piss off their racist supporters.
DeleteI find this as despicable as the GOP invitation to Bibi to attack our President in OUR House of Representatives. The GOP is done...they are too far right for anyone but the Kochs and the NRA fear-mongers. Buh buh, GOP. We will not miss you.
ReplyDelete"The GOP is done..."
DeleteI wish this were true but our greedy, political horse-race-hungry news organizations will ensure that never happens.
35% of our citizenry agree 100% with the GOP. Carte Blanche. GOP is far from done.
ReplyDeleteLet's call this what it is. It is a boycott. The republicans are boycotting Selma.
ReplyDelete