Trent's Words Reflect Lotts of Power-Elite Abuses

By: Bruce S. Ticker

Wow! George W. Bush put Trent Lott in his place Thursday by denouncing the "segregated past" which the Senate Republican leader seemed to endorse during Strom Thurmond's 100^th birthday celebration.

To punctuate his words, Laura Bush posed for a photograph with a 13-year-old black victim of the DC sniper the same day.

Bush did not lie when he declared that Lott's words "do not reflect the spirit of our country". The problem is with Bush's sin of omission: Lott's racist-seeming words clearly reflect "the spirit" of the right wing's policies, actions, and attitudes towards the have-nots in our society.

Lott's enthusiasm for a racist presidency once sought by Thurmond can be linked to comments which were less noticed at the same time - first, U.S. District Judge John D. Bates' reasoning for dismissing a congressional lawsuit against the Bush administration and Dick Cheney's lamentations that the presidency's power has been eroded over the last three decades.

All topped off by Clarence Thomas' outrage at cross-burnings in his home state - a black man who long ago caused more harm to his own people than some white redneck might do with a burning cross for one night.

Lott's remarks raise the question as to whether he is a racist and, by their partnership on many policies, if Cheney and the rest of the gang are a bunch of racists.

It depends on one's definition of racism and bigotry in general. The issues are too clouded to conclude if these people are bigots.

Besides, all the so-called champions of civil rights and the vulnerable citizenry are awfully disingenuous to dump on Lott for a few words which were certainly stupid and probably racist. Where have they been after nearly 23 years of tax breaks for the rich and dismantling of the few protections left for the poor in our society?

This is much is clear: Bush, Cheney, Lott, and Thomas are elitists who believe their role is to consolidate power and maintain what amounts to a caste system of the haves and have-nots.

If they are not racists, they have certainly supported institutional racism that has widened the chasm between the powerful and the vulnerable. A more accurate term for the oft-used "institutional racism" would be "institutional classism".

Ever since Ronald Reagan moved into the White House in January 1981, right-wingers who dominate the Republican Party have pressed the drive for tax breaks for the rich and sharp cuts in social programs. Moderates and liberals in Congress and the White House - in both parties - have largely followed like sheep. Even President Clinton signed the 1996 welfare act which has done nothing to effectively reduce poverty.

Meanwhile, has anyone noticed a groundswell among the citizenry to block these measures? Just because black America's most respected leader (Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.) was gone, did that not mean there was nobody else to take up the mantle to stand in opposition with an effort modeled on the Civil Rights Movement?

Actions speak far louder than words. Lott's praise for departing Thurmond's segregationist presidential campaign is nowhere near as damaging as the legislation they have both initiated or supported during the last two decades or more.

As Thurmond's political hole deepened, Judge Bates - who was appointed by Bush - ruled that the General Accounting Office lacked standing to sue over Cheney's environmental-policy meetings even though a 1980 law authorizes the GAO to sue, according to the Washington Post.

In relation to this issue, Cheney had earlier decried "a constant, steady erosion of the prerogatives and the power of the Oval Office". Obviously, Cheney and Bush aren't content to command a vast bureaucracy with a few million federal employees and the most powerful military force on earth. And more.

While he got all worked up about a Virginia legal case involving burning crosses during a Supreme Court hearing, Associate Justice Clarence Thomas never got worked up about the poor conditions which continue to afflict all vulnerable Americans. Nor was he bothered when many other African-Americans were cheated of their right to vote in Florida two years ago.

Bush and his right-wing pals can hire Condoleezza Rice, read books to Hispanic children in a school in San Antonio, and denounce racism every other day. What good is it if they daily practice racism or something close to it?