Byrd's decision to support Alito more than any other has me finally seeing clearly. You see I've been a fool.
A fool for actually believing in Robert Byrd and the rest of his mostly white, mostly male friends in the United States Senate and the media.
A fool to have relied on them to reject a man not only far outside of the judicial mainstream, but a racist who is blatantly hostile to civil rights and so proudly proclaims membership in a racist organization.
A fool to have actually believed that African-Americans had an advocate in this fight, the Senate Democrats. (I must have forgotten about the 2000 Electoral College.)
The clock has already been turned back.
It must have been.
This can't be 21st century America.
I must be living in 1955.
How else could a president feel secure - how else could a president of the United States be unafraid of political backlash when nominating to the nation's highest court (to replace a woman nonetheless) a white man who really thinks there is no basis for laws protecting against discrimination?
How else could the 21st century Democratic Party cower when simply presented with tears in Teddy Kennedy's pursuit to point this out?
How else could Senators fear being called "obstructionist" by the SCLM, more than they would fear the wrath of those who actually give a damn about civil rights?
Well here's my wrath...not that anyone cares. Because hey, me and my fellow black people have been complaining about that whole civil rights thing for too long, right? A broken record we've become. Pest. We should just get over it. We've got it better than our parents could have ever imagined.
Well to those who take offense to this post, let me apologize for being so uppity and ungrateful, but I feel I just had to at least let this community know how repulsed this black man feels seeing this racist judge sail through confirmation.
You see I have to believe that membership in Concerned Alumni of Princeton is a disqualifier in almost every other industry in this country besides politics.
Could you imagine the public investigation that would ensue if CAP membership by a police officer or prosecutor were revealed after 15 years on the job? The stack of appeals by defense attorneys would overshadow the Sears Tower.
What about a human resources officer?
A 7-11 night manager with hiring and firing authority?
A teacher with black students?
A loan officer?
Geez, wouldn't a simple retail sales associate be too much of a liability for Macys?
We live in a world where a double murder with motive and DNA evidence all over the place was acquitted because one of the detectives is on tape saying the "N"-word a decade before the crime, but in the eyes of the most political body in the country, the United States Senate, membership of an organization that wanted to close...no slam the door of opportunity to non-whites and non-men, coupled with decades of work toward that effort and 15 years of opinions on the bench, isn't enough to cause an uproar?!
The questions must be asked, and should have been asked ad nauseam from the second the CAP membership was revealed:
Why is a judge so blatantly hostile to civil rights been nominated to the Supreme Court by a president, in 2005 nonetheless?
-AND-
Why is that judge getting a hearing for promotion instead of impeachment by the United State Senate?
The answer my friends is so clear to me now. All this time I've actually defended the party when talking with fellow black people who believe that "Democrats don't care about black people." All this time I've been saying they're shortsighted. What a fool I've been.