I was completely astonished to hear about Trent Lott’s remark that “when Strom Thurmond ran for president [in 1948], we voted for him. We’re proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn’t have had all these problems over all these years, either”. What in the hell did he mean—feminist issues? economic ones? (He denied that he was referring to racial issues.) What a completely asinine thing to say, for a politican—and scarier still, that a politician, either Democrat or Republican, would say that about someone who ran for president on a platform of states’ rights and anti-desegregation—someone who said that “there weren’t enough troops in the Army to force white southerners to end segregation and allow . . . ‘the Negro race’ into theaters, swimming pools, homes and churches.”
This from the person that, after the president, is the head of the majority political party in American politics? Mortifying.
Posted by elizabeth at December 11, 2002 02:56 AMReally...you almost can't trust me with anything!
I responded to this entry in my own journal. The BIG problem was, that I almost included a link to this comment in the entry! Just in time, I remembered that we haven't unveiled the site yet, and changed my intro.
Posted by: Jfer on December 12, 2002 10:13 AMFunny--I just read your journal and thought, "I don't remember having a conversation with Jenny about this yesterday," but decided it was just my memory going. Glad to realize that we hadn't! And at least you caught your near-gaffe in time. I'm having to watch my words to my parents too.
Posted by: Elizabeth on December 12, 2002 10:50 AM Elizabeth, the comments of Trent Lott were the completely benign words offered to a man who at 100-years-old was unable, probably to apologize for his positions of 55-years in the past.
How shameful that the press has descended upon this comment. Of course, I don't know how the press can descend on anything, it being so low already.