On Tuesday, I first wrote about a number of Senators who, when given the opportunity to support legislation making the seemingly obvious stand against lynching, decidedly declined.
Monday night, the U.S. Senate voted on S. Res. 39, a bill that simply apologizes “to the victims of lynching and the descendants of those victims for the failure of the Senate to enact anti-lynching legislation.” That’s pretty straightforward, no?
Nope. As of Monday night, there were 21 Senators who had refused to cosponsor S. Res 39. Thanks to loads of calls to Senators’ offices, four more signed on to the resolution after the fact on Tuesday. That left 17 Senators who still saw no reason to stand against lynching, either because they don’t have a problem with lynching themselves or are afraid of offending their supporters who think lynching was fine. Yesterday, after another day of contact from pissed-off constituents, 3 more U.S. Senators belatedly cosponsored the legislation.
Even after days of public challenge, there are still 14 Senators who continue in their failure to endorse anti-lynching legislation. They can’t pretend to be ignorant of the legislation, or of the consequences of their failure to support it. The 14 recalcitrant, soft-on-lynching Senators, each and every one of them Republicans, are:
Senator Lamar Alexander, (R-TN)
Senator Robert Bennett, (R-UT)
Senator Thad Cochran, (R-MS)
Senator John Cornyn, (R-TX)
Senator Michael Enzi, (R-WY)
Senator Judd Gregg, (R-NH)
Senator Orrin Hatch, (R-UT)
Senator Kay Hutchison, (R-TX)
Senator Jon Kyl, (R-AZ)
Senator Trent Lott, (R-MS)
Senator Richard Shelby, (R-AL)
Senator Gordon Smith, (R-OR)
Senator John Sununu, (R-NH)
Senator Craig Thomas, (R-WY)
These anachronistic, racist-coddling representatives of the worst of American fundamentalist conservatism have had their chance. It’s time to confront these backward politicians on public stages in their home states.
If you live in Alabama, Arizona, Mississippi, Oregon, New Hampshire, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Wyoming, I urge you to check the cosponsorship records on S. Res. 39 for yourself, then write a letter to the editor of your local newspaper. Mention your Senator by name, and ask why they don’t seem to think lynching is a problem. Ask exactly what sort of Republican moral value the coddling of lynching would fall under. Ask your Senator when she or he plans to join the rest of us in the 21st century. Ask your fellow citizens how they can vote to re-elect a Senator who still, after all these years, stands with the lynch mobs. Then wait to see if your Senator has the courage to answer.
