For what it’s worth (not much, judging by the, to date, non-response from one and all-purpose “thank you for writing” response from the other), I recently sent the following letter to my two Senators:
Dear Senator [Warner / Allen] :
If you check your files you will discover (unless I’ve forgotten something) that I’ve never written you before. (If you check really closely you will discover that you wrote my daughter, Jessie, a nice letter when she won some academic award….)
In any event, I am writing to inform you that I regard Trent Lott’s comment about the country being better off if a majority had voted for Strom Thurmond in 1948 as an egregious affront to everyone and an embarrassment to the Republican Party.
I grew up in Alabama under segregation. I abandoned the Democrats only when they abandoned their committment to colorblindness. I didn’t switch parties to have the Senate Majority Leader of my new party endorse the 1948 Dixiecrats. A real apology might have attenuated my anger, somewhat, but Lott’s tepid non-apology simply added fuel to the fire he lit.
I have supported and voted for you in the past, but if you vote for keeping Trent Lott as Majority Leader I will think long and hard before doing so again.
Sincerely,
John S. Rosenberg
[B]ut if you vote for keeping Trent Lott as Majority Leader [they will] I will think long and hard before doing so again.
I would welcome you back as a Democratic voter, but I fear you’ll go Libertarian.
Andrew – I’m probably not as Republican as I sound on this blog. I did not support the Republican candidate in the last governor’s race in Virginia, in part because he was not an impressive candidate and in part because the (successful) Democratic candidate appealed to conservative voters. To my daughter (and occasional co-blogger) Jessie’s lament, I’m not likely to go Libertarian in the near future (as I understand it, it remains a bit too self-centered for me). Let the Democrats nominate candidates who renounce racial discrimination and I’ll seriously consider voting for them.
Trent control
John Rosenberg is taking a proactive approach to the Trent Lott question, by writing his two Senators: I grew up