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In the NY Times story about Rosa Park’s statue being placed into Statuary Hall there was passing mention of what Republican Senator Mitch McConnell had to say about Rosa:
Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican leader, said that Mrs. Parks’s decision to get arrested rather than to give up her seat helped unite the country.
“For some, Rosa Parks served as an inspiration to stand up against injustice,” he said. “For others, she was a spur to reflection and self-examination, and the reconciliation of cherished ideals of freedom, democracy and constitutional rights with the reality of life as others lived it.”
Helped unite the Country?
Well, if it had I would have expected the Senator to say something other than that the GOP’s top priority at the beginning of the First Obama Administration was to see that it was a one term Presidency. Now that’s a call to unity.
I realize that GOP congressman might have a better chance to show their decency if they hadn’t let the dogs of demagoguery out in the Tea Party. But the GOP, the Party of Lincoln gambled everything on a “southern strategy in 1964 and 1968. The Dixiecrats became Republicans and purged the folks who’d invited them to the party in the first place calling them RINO’s.
For all I know Mitch was being very brave to say nice awkward things about Rosa Parks what with all the folks in his party who are convinced that Obama is a communist. That was very much the message in the 1960’s from stellar folks like J Edgar Hoover. The NAACP was a commie front and you know what that made Rosa Parks. A dupe.
Mitch represents a Party that has taken that attitude to heart. Abraham Lincoln! Who’s that?
I suppose I ought to give Alabama more credit. Their legislature authorized Park’s inclusion in the pantheon of great Americans and that meant its Jefferson Davis inspired Republican Party approved it. That required some of the self reflection McConnell talked about. I’d be less caustic if I thought she wasn’t just being used to hide behind like Herman Cain.
Here are some of today’s Republicans in more candid moments.
