There were a couple of items on the “Democracy Now!” telecast today that really piqued my interest. I’ll write about one today and the other tomorrow.
During Amy Goodman’s headline news at the top of the show she talked about Senator Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama) becoming the head Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee.
What really got me was her reporting that Senator Sessions once “described the NAACP and American Civil Liberties Union as Un-American and Communist-inspired because…” (now here’s the amazing part) “…they forced civil rights down the throats of people.” WTF???? I hadn’t heard that one before. Whoa!
I looked this up on Wikipedia (I know this can be an iffy endeavor re finding the truth), and not only were those two organizations besmirched but he included the NAACP as “Un-American” and “Communist-inspired” as well. According to the “Wik” (footnoted) he claims that it was in jest, but as far as I’m concerned that was his way of maintaining damage control.
I am astounded that Alabamans keep somebody like this in office. How on earth can someone with that take on our country possibly be elected? Are there really enough citizens of the United States out there that would allow a person with such a horrible outlook on those fine organizations, let alone his despicably callous attitude to our basic rights, be their representative?
Yet this guy has won three elections! I just don’t get it. Here is a man who believes “forcing civil rights down the throats of people” (I just HAD to rewrite that - it’s so off the chart) helping make decisions that will affect all of our rights in the future. And now he’s the top GOP in the Judiciary Committee. That is very scary indeed!
My question is, does a Senator rise in power just because of longevity and damned be his/her views or can his/her views pre-empt them from such a rise to power? If the former, change the promotion criteria immediately. If the latter, then the Senate is showing just how out of touch they are with the population by allowing this egregious individual any scintilla of power.
Do you really think the majority of Americans believe our civil rights shouldn’t be constantly monitored to prevent their being slyly abridged or even abrogated by those in power? These and other organizations are watchdogs on the rights of every American.
Of course, what the majority of the people in this country want is totally ignored by the Senate, which I’ll get into tomorrow.
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