OPINION:
Rep. Louie Gohmert, Republican from Texas, introduced a resolution that would ban the Democratic Party, among other organizations, based on historical truths about the left’s embrace of racism and blatant support of slavery.
It’s a resolution that yes, is eye-widening — but at least it strikes the right spirit. At least it raises a valid point.
Democrats, after all, were slow to the civil rights march.
That’s not politics; that’s historical truth.
And with Black Lives Matter protesters busily tossing Molotov cocktails and bricks in the streets, and antifa thugs busily exploiting the whole so-called police-are-racist-and-brutal campaign to do some smashing and beating of their own, and Democrats in Congress, along with some of their Republican colleagues, busily removing any and all statues of individuals with ties to slavery — and supporting, either overtly or tacitly, the outright destruction and defacement and dismantling of similarly slavery-tied statues around the nation — Gohmert’s resolution at least advances the same message: Racism is bad. Racism must go. Those guilty of racism must be whitewashed from history.
Don’t want to be hypocritical, do we?
Gohmert, in a statement, said of his resolution: “A great portion of the history of the Democratic Party is filled with racism and hatred. Since people are demanding we rid ourselves of the entities, symbols, and reminders of the repugnant aspects of our past, then the time has come for Democrats to acknowledge their party’s loathsome and bigoted past, and consider changing their party name to something that isn’t so blatantly and offensively tied to slavery, Jim Crow, discrimination and the Ku Klux Klan.”
His resolution comes just a day after the Democrat-led House voted to remove statues of people tied to the Confederacy and slavery from Capitol grounds.
Gohmert isn’t the resolution’s only supporter.
Rep. Andy Biggs from Arizona co-sponsored. So did Reps. Jody Hice from Georgia, Randy Weber from Texas and Andy Harris from Maryland.
Of course, we all know, the Democratic Party isn’t going to change its name.
Democrats aren’t going to give this resolution the time of day — except to scoff, mock, deride or turn up noses in disgust.
But they can’t escape the truth. They can’t run from the ugly truths of the party’s refusal to regard blacks as equal to whites. Democrats embraced slavery, Jim Crow and the KKK at a time when Republicans, as a party, were introducing platforms to counter the racial injustice and inequalities. Liberal-leaning historians like to say that the Democratic Party of then is hardly the Democratic Party of now, as a means of excusing and smoothing out the wrinkly racism. But Democrats don’t abide that same line of thought while they’re campaigning for removal of Robert E. Lee statues, or applauding ideas to rename Thomas Jefferson buildings. And neither do Black Lives Matter peeps.
What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.
What’s the deal with all the roads and buildings and structures named in honor of Robert C. Byrd, the lead-the-charge Democrat who filibustered against the Civil Rights Act of 1964?
Fact is, Gohmert has a point. A valid point that’s worthy of discussing.
And if Democrats don’t want to be seen as the party of hypocrites, the least they could do is explain the points raised in the resolution — and perhaps, along the way, offer some shame-faced apologies for the way they’ve treated minorities over the decades. And then? And then they should at least publicly discuss the idea of a party name change. At least pay it some lip service, for crying out loud.
After all, as Gohmert said, “that is the standard to which they are holding everyone else.”
Democrats, on racism, don’t deserve a free pass.
• Cheryl Chumley can be reached at cchumley@washingtontimes.com or on Twitter, @ckchumley. Listen to her podcast “Bold and Blunt” by clicking HERE. And never miss her column; subscribe to her newsletter by clicking HERE.
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