Re: I would guess none. If there were any, the liberal media would have crucified them.
You forgot Trent Lott...
The GOP’s recent problem wasn’t Trent Lott, just as it wasn’t just Newt Gingrich back in the mid-90's. Lott tried to explain away his troublesome endorsement of Thurmond by portraying it as an isolated incident. Since then we’ve learned that it was actually a chronic pattern of racial divisiveness, a calculating and shameful thread that runs through Mr. Lott’s career.
But the same is true of the GOP record. The “Party of Lincoln,” the man who preserved the Union, became in the 1960s what it remains today: the Party of Division. Republican spin-doctors will try to cast Trent Lott as a throw-back, a “wild card” in the GOP. But the real problem lies in the Republicans’ nearly pathological tendency to reach for the “race card” when the going gets tough. George Bush, Sr. used this tactic successfully with his infamous Willie Horton advertisement, during the 1988 presidential campaign against Michael Dukakis. The current President Bush kicked-off his crucial South Carolina primary campaign with an appearance at Bob Jones University, an institution so entrenched in its racism that it still banned inter-racial dating. There are countless examples of the GOP playing the race card when they don’t think they hold a winning hand on the issues.
After replacing their senate majority leader, Republicans face a far larger decision. Will they continue the politics of exclusion and division, or will they choose a diverse, inclusive future, what proponents have dubbed “Big Tent” Republicanism?
I’m betting on the former, Senator Lott’s fall-from-grace notwithstanding. More strident voices still dominate the GOP. And their call is not to the Big Tent, but to the sideshow, where the freaks of our nation’s deformed and deforming racist past continue to draw crowds – and votes.
When I asked CP what was the most important lesson he’d learned from his difficult and inspirational journey, this is what he said: “I realized that we all need each other.” It is a vital American truth, a plain-spoken version of our national motto: E Pluribus Unum, Out of Many, One. Unfortunately for both the Republican party and for our nation, the GOP leadership has yet to embrace that creed.
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