One of the top ranking Republicans in the country (he is the new House majority Whip), and naturally, a man much admired by Tea Party advocates, has admitted to being an honored guest and speaker at a function hosted by white supremacists.
In 2002, he spoke for assembled guests of the European-American Unity and Rights Organization (EURO), an organization that was founded by former Klansman and one of the most famous white supremacists in the nation, David Duke. Duke himself used to be a rather prominent member of the GOP, when he ran in the Louisiana race for governor, and came fairly close to winning!
This is one of the major problems that keeps nagging at Tea Party advocates and sympathizers, this issue of closet racism. Their vehement hatred of President Obama sometimes smacks of racism, and too many members and sympathizers seem to have similar leanings. Then, when news like this gets out about such a prominent member of Congress, it really begins to make you scratch your head!
Of course, Scalise conveniently claims not to remember, although importantly he also did not deny it, which itself is very revealing.
The issue is not so much whether Scalise himself is a white supremacist, but rather, that he was willing to go to such lengths and try to cater to the votes of white supremacists. That is an act that itself is rather despicable, and very, very political in a certain, cynical sense.
What should happen, and what he deserves, is for him to be stripped of his recently won position, as a clear and unambiguous message that catering to such extremist hate groups is intolerable under any circumstances, no matter what. In this country, given the history of racism both institutionalized and de facto, this is one of the lowest actions of any prominent politician that I have ever heard of - and that is saying something!
The Democratic party jumped on the opportunity to pounce on a prominent Republican suddenly compromised like this, saying that he helped to legitimize a white supremacist group, and that he needs to apologize for it. They added that this was a huge blemish on his record.
Also, at some point, there has to be some kind of acknowledgement by people about just how big a problem racism really is in this country. With stories like this, and that segregated proms still take place in the South, not to mention so many of the other outrageous headlines revealing a fairly widespread xenophobia bubbling just beneath the superficially calm surface of the nation, it is high time that we have an honest look and open debate about this issue.
In the meantime, let us hope that Scalise falls into deserved obscurity, and is not seen or heard from in national politics again, period.
Below are some links to this story:
Representative Steve Scalise of Louisiana Acknowledges Addressing Racist Group in 2002 By ASHLEY PARKER and ALAN RAPPEPORTDEC. 29, 2014:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/30/us/politics/louisiana-congressman-steve-scalise-acknowledges-addressing-racist-group-in-2002.html
GOP Leader Steve Scalise Admits to Addressing White Supremacists
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/12/29/gop-leader-steve-scalise-admits-to-addressing-white-supremacists.html
Steve Scalise spoke to white nationalists in 2002. His days as GOP whip could be numbered. By Nia-Malika Henderson December 29, 2014:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/wp/2014/12/29/steve-scalise-spoke-to-white-nationalists-in-2002-his-days-as-gop-whip-could-be-numbered/
No comments:
Post a Comment