"Right now we're debating whether the Republican
Senate
majority leader is a racist who yearns for the
days of segregation
or just a good ole boy who says a lot of things
that make it seem
like he's a racist who yearns for the days of
segregation."
So writes Joshua Marshall, whose talkingpointsmemo.com
is must
reading for the politically curious, and who,
more than anyone else,
is responsible for making Trent Lott's offensive
remarks the issue
they deserve to be.
But this discussion shouldn't really be about
Mr. Lott. It should be
about how a man who sounds like Mr. Lott came
to be leader of the Senate.
Let's be clear that last week's remarks were in
no way out of character.
On the contrary, they were entirely consistent
with Mr. Lott's statements
on many other occasions.
The great majority of Americans don't share Mr.
Lott's views. For example,
he opposed declaring Martin Luther King day a
holiday, telling Southern
Partisan magazine that "we have not done it for
a lot of other people that
were more deserving." Most Americans, I think,
believe that King was
pretty deserving.
So why is Mr. Lott in a position of such power?
The Republican Party's longstanding "Southern
strategy" - which rests on
appealing to the minority of voters who do share
Mr. Lott's views - is no secret.
But because the majority doesn't share those
views, the party must present
two faces to the nation. And therein lies the
clue to Mr. Lott's role.
To win nationally, the leader of the party must
pay tribute to the tolerance
and open-mindedness of the nation at large. He
must celebrate civil rights
and sternly condemn the abuses of the past. And
that's just what George
W. Bush did yesterday, in rebuking Mr. Lott.
Yet at the same time the party must convey to
a select group of target voters
the message - nudge nudge, wink wink - that it
actually doesn't mean any of
that nonsense, that it's really on their side.
How can it do that? By having
men who manifestly don't share the open-mindedness
of the nation at large
in key, powerful positions. And that's why Mr.
Bush's rebuke was not
followed by a call for Mr. Lott to step down.
Of course, Mr. Lott isn't alone in that role.
The Bush administration's judicial
nominations have clearly been chosen to give
a signal of support to those
target Southern voters. A striking example has
just emerged: We've learned
that Mr. Lott supported the right of Bob Jones
University to keep its tax-exempt
status even while banning interracial dating;
supporting his position was none
other than Michael McConnell, a controversial
figure recently confirmed
as an appeals judge.
Notice, by the way, who really gets served in
this charade. The open-minded
majority gets ringing affirmations of its principles;
but once the dust has settled,
the people who agree with Mr. Lott get to keep
him as majority leader, and
get the judgeships too.
Still, pulling off a two-faced political strategy
is tricky. What prevents reporters
from explaining to the majority the coded messages
that are being sent to the
minority?
Good question; I wish I knew the answer. But what's
remarkable in the Lott
affair is how much he has gotten away with over
the years. How many readers
ever heard about the flap, several years ago,
over Mr. Lott's association with
the racist Council of Conservative Citizens?
The scandal was actually worse
than his remarks last week - but it just got
buried. And without the indefatigable
efforts of Mr. Marshall and a few other Internet
writers, Mr. Lott's recent
celebration of segregation would probably have
been buried as well.
My guess is that the White House believes it has
now done enough. Mr. Lott
has received his slap on the wrist; now we can
go back to business as usual.
Bear in mind that while Mr. Bush has finally denounced
Mr. Lott's remarks,
he and his party benefit from the strategy that
allows the likes of Mr. Lott to
hold so much power. Let's not forget, in particular,
the blatant attempts to
discourage minority voting in South Dakota, Louisiana,
Maryland and elsewhere.
It's about time for those of us in the press
to pay attention, and let this great,
tolerant nation know what's really going
on.