Rep. Cedric Richmond, a black Democrat who represents New Orleans in the U.S. House of Representatives, says that his Republican colleague Rep. Steve Scalise doesn’t have “a racist bone in his body,” and that “Steve and I have worked on issues that benefit poor people, black people, white people, Jewish people. I know his character.”
I don’t dismiss or diminish the import of Rep. Richmond’s character testimony, but I have to say that it makes me even sadder to contemplate a situation where Steve Scalise was so blinded by ambition that he was willing to pander to a conference of Klansmen and neo-Nazis despite the fact that he doesn’t share their beliefs about racial and religious minorities.
I hear this same kind of thing quite frequently. I hear it most often about Ron and Rand Paul. “Sure,” people say, “the Pauls are notorious for encouraging the worst kind of racists, raising money from them, speaking their special language, and even employing them. But they aren’t actually racists.”
I just don’t think that would actually make things better.
How is it really better to know better and still act like a Nazi than to be a true believer?
Can someone explain to me why I should accept Cedric Richmond’s testimony as being truly meaningful? How is it any comfort?
I am inclined to be even more pissed off and unforgiving of someone who pretends to be a racist and an anti-Semite in order to gain power than I am of the nincompoops who regularly attend David Duke conferences.