A Democratic friend of mine once said that “it was no accident” (a phrase much beloved by us conspiracy theorists) that racial preferences had begun under a Republican president, Nixon, with his “Philadelphia Plan,” because Republicans never had been committed to the principle of racial equality. And unlike the Democrats, there was nothing hypocritical about their undermining the spirit and often the letter of civil rights laws they had, for the most part, never really supported in the first place.
I was reminded of my friend’s comment when Trent Lott exposed himself on BET the other day as a supporter of affirmative action. This revelation was widely regarded as startling, a complete turnabout, etc. It was nothing of the kind. Lott obviously never adhered to the “without regard” principle of colorblind racial neutrality, always believed in racial preferences. Since there’s no principle involved, it was a relatively small matter for him to change the preferred races.
This is a moment of truth for the Republicans and a serious test of President Bush’s leadership, as serious perhaps as the war on terrorism. The problem now is not Lott’s defense of segregation; it is that a number of Republicans are defending Lott. If repeated kind words about Thurmond’s 1948 Dixiecrat campaign do not disqualify someone from a position of leadership in the Republican Party today, then that party does not deserve to lead.
Lott, like Clinton, has become a test of his party’s integrity. I detested what Clinton did, but I never thought it made any more sense to be angry at him than to be angry at a skunk for smelling. Those who richly deserved scorn were his enablers in his party who kept insisting that, if you only inclined your head toward his policies, he really smelled sweet, or, if you couldn’t do that, at least he smelled better than the Republicans. Same with Lott. It’s a little late to blame him for his past and present views — that’s who he is. The real question is who the rest of the Republicans in the Senate, and the White House, are.
