Why hasn’t a chorus of national conservative leaders asked Sen. Trent Lott to step aside as majority leader?
The point is not to punish Sen. Lott, or figure out whether he is a racist. The reasons are similar to those employed by President Bush when asking Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neil and Economic Adviser Larry Lindsay to leave. It’s a matter of trust and the restoration of honor to positions of trust. How could anyone with a heart and soul not appreciate that Sen. Lott has caused an incredible amount of damage to Republicans and to blacks in this country?
Most are aware at this point of what Sen. Lott perhaps thought would be a few throw-away lines in the midst of conviviality at a Capitol Hill celebration of Strom Thurmond’s 100th birthday. But the attacks on Sen. Lott’s remarks are not another example of opportunistic, partisan politicians, piling on and trying to take advantage of an unfortunate slip of the tongue by someone on the other side of the isle.
This isn’t a case of not being able to take a joke or an inability to “lighten up.” This is about what it takes to fix people’s lives and what it takes for a great country to transcend itself and become even greater.
The racial problems of our nation today remain large, widespread and deep. Our black community is still in very bad shape – its humanity first assaulted by the violence of slavery and Jim Crow, only to have its humanity subsequently assaulted by welfare-state politicians convincing them that they are incapable of taking care of themselves. My life’s work for the last 15 years has focused on fighting the great damage that has been done. My message – the message of Harriett Tubman and Booker T. Washington – is that there is no freedom without personal responsibility.
Our nation and our African American citizens need bold reforms. Working-class blacks should have the opportunity to put the money they are paying in Social Security taxes into a real savings program that they own. They should have the opportunity to choose where to send their children to school. They should be able to buy health care in a free and open marketplace.
If the Republican Party leaders want to get this message to the black community, and they must if they truly want to help and repair, they must contend with distrust that lingers from generations that have only heard that the answer is government programs.
Leadership is impossible without trust, and, unfortunately, Sen. Lott, the Republican majority leader of the United States Senate, has gravely damaged his credibility with an already distrustful black community. The honorable thing for any man in this predicament is to demonstrate that he is indeed a leader whose sole concern is the best interests of all Americans.
Sen. Lott should relinquish his majority-leader post, and in doing so make clear that it is not because of what a handful of liberal politicians say, but because of what millions of black Americans feel.
