GOP -- the party of civil rights

kos for Daily Kos

Daily Kos Staff

Tuesday February 01, 2005 · 9:01 AM PST

2005/02/01 · 09:01

Republicans are attempting to cast themselves as the "party of civil rights", which is laughable if it weren't so cynical. Sirota chronicles the hijinxs of day one:

Virginia Sen. George Allen (R) is introducing a bill essentially condemning the Senate for filibustering anti-lynching laws earlier in the 20th century. It's a laudable bill - but its author has anything but a laudable record on civil rights and racial issues. According to the Associated Press in 2000, Allen was discovered to have been displaying a hangman's noose and the confederate flag in his law office. As governor, Allen "signed a Confederate Heritage Month proclamation without denouncing slavery." Allen also "opposed a state holiday honoring Martin Luther King" and referred to the NAACP as an "extremist group."

According to reporters, Allen did not apologize, but instead "defended the flag and noose as mere decorations." What sensitivity.

I don't believe for a second that the GOP cares about drawing in black voters. Any sincere effort to do so would damage their Southern Strategy which has done them well.

This is all a ploy to seem less hateful and bigoted to the tolerant middle. But in picking Allen to carry the effort on the first day of Black History Month, the GOP showed just how cynical they are.

GOP -- the party of civil rights

Comments are closed on this story.