Alternate Universe
Bob Dole waxed eloquent on yesterday’s Washington Post op-ed page, saying, “it’s a little-remembered fact that a greater percentage of Republicans voted for the Voting Rights Act of 1965 than did Democrats.” Senator Dole also noted that “Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman is engaged in an outreach campaign not only to attract greater numbers of African Americans to the Republican Party but also to ensure that the party listens to the concerns of this community.” Dole’s column is under the headline “Grand Old Legacy.”
There was an old Star Trek episode in which there were twin universes with one occupied by the good Captain Kirk and the other by the evil Captain Kirk. Somehow the evil Kirk ended up in our own universe and the good one found himself in the mean streets of the alternate universe. Well, the GOP routinely sends its spokespeople through the wormhole connecting its alternate universes of reality and rhetoric.
Senator Dole made the journey in his op-ed on the Voting Rights Act. He left behind a few things in the universe of reality. He forgot to mention the “southern strategy,” born in the Nixon era and the Republicans’ true “grand old legacy.” Dole neglected to mention that it was President Johnson, in a true act of political courage, that took on his Democratic racist former colleagues in the US Senate, knowing what the long-term political consequences for the Democrats would be. In his review of the GOP’s grand history, Dole didn’t refer to Bush One’s Willie Horton ad or Bush Two’s appearance at Bob Jones University or the Jesse Helm’s ad that said, “you lost that job to a minority.” Nor did Dole remember the GOP’s repeated use over the years of the Confederate flag to remind certain folks that the party was with them. And he didn’t cite Ronald Reagan’s high-mindedness in launching his presidential campaign in Philadelphia, Mississippi with a promise to restore “states’ rights.” As far as more recent history is concerned, Senator Dole included nary a word about the Republicans’ systematic voter suppression efforts last year and in 2000.
When Senator Dole beams back to reality, he should check out several articles that appeared in the very same edition of the Washington Post in which his op-ed appeared. The articles reported on the controversy over Republicans’ efforts to weaken two key provisions of the Voting Rights Act. I’m glad you voted for the Voting Rights Act in 1964, Senator Dole. Now tell your Republican friends to back off.