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Regarding Jeff Sessions

My letter to Senator Rob Portman- R. OH

Senator,

I’m deeply concerned about the conduct in your chamber.  I don’t care for Judge Sessions, but I expect that he will be confirmed.  That being said, the tactic employed by your colleagues to silence Senator Warren is unacceptable.

This process is intended to verify the character as well as the judiciary experience and credentials of a man who will spend the term defending the law of this land.

If we are to consider giving this man the power of membership in the highest department of legal defense authority in the land, whether a letter is condemning or praising cannot be considered as grounds to dismiss it.

It’s at once immaterial and highly pertinent that this letter was written thirty years ago.

On the one hand, you are, again, considering an appointment of great power.  If this man is to wield this power for possibly this entire presidency, then how he has wielded his power in the earlier part of his life must be considered.  It doesn’t matter if he persecuted the black community 5 years or 30 years or 50 years ago, it doesn’t matter if he was saying racially charged remarks in jest or in a court of law.  He’s being considered for a mighty appointment and the conduct of his entire lifetime should be open to scrutiny.

On the other hand, it is incredibly important that Mrs. King wrote this 30 years ago.  You and your colleagues by silencing Senator Warren have at once opened a discussion about the rights of women in the Senate compared with their male colleagues, but at the same time she has thrown into stark relief what it really is we are thinking about here.

Thirty years ago Mrs. King wrote these words and they evidently fell on deaf ears.  You and your colleagues are determining in these deliberations what progress has been made in that time.  

If you choose once again to turn a blind eye to these complaints, to indeed even forbid the suggestion that he behaved improperly, then you are not only failing to properly vet this man in the interests of the American people but you are also declaring that we have made no progress in these thirty years- that white people as a whole are still as rotten as ever, that if a white man obstructs the right of black people to vote it will go uninvestigated.

In the 80s he could still be nominated to a federal circuit with no serious questions asked about these matters.  Is that still true today?

I’m not telling you that you must reject this man, but I am telling you that you have no choice but to examine these allegations with the seriousness they call for.  It is absolutely unacceptable to once again sweep these charges under the rug.  This conversation needs to be had, and it is your duty to have it.  Indeed, even if you think that these matters were sufficiently addressed in 1986, it is time to re-examine them and see if he would pass muster under modern standards, to see if we really have become a better people.

Adam Locke

Because Rob Portman is Evidently My Pen Pal

Senator,

I think that most Americans aren’t racists in the purest sense.  I need that to be true right now more than ever.

Every white person in America of conscience has to have a moment where you realize that you just used a racially charged word or grammatical flourish in some awkward way or you avoided the black dude walking down the street and not because he seemed angry or aggressive or you passed over the immigrant in favor of someone who looks more like you for dating, despite equally astonishing muscles.

All of us apart from innocent children at some point have to have this slimy moment when we realize that we’ve also been infected, that some of the pervasive racism that is the hallmark of our society has seeped its way into our own behavior despite the best intentions.

What is going on in the Presidency is not this “ambient racism” for which we might be tempted to forgive ourselves.  These people do not have good intentions.  This is a president who cannot unequivocally condemn nazis.

I mean you’re a politician, you tell me, what red-blooded american politician wouldn’t absolutely revel in the opportunity to literally be up against nazis.  It’s basically a chance to frame oneself as opposed to the devil.  Even for the most cold-blooded conservative, condemning literal, swastika waving nazis should be easy as pie because of all the benefits one could reap politically with sound bytes and media coverage.  “Sure I voted against healthcare for millions of people but I was there when we needed to stand up to nazis.”  Even the most bare-faced, opportunistic snake should be able to seize this.

It’s the easiest kind of statement a person could make in politics, “I don’t like nazis” is a no-brainer- which this president has made into an international incident that has scandalized our allies.

This isn’t a question of being politically adroit or even one of incompetence from a famously incompetent man.  He’s not condemning white supremacists and literal nazis because he is in league with them.  It is known that Bannon specifically instructed him not to criticize the nazis too heavily to avoid alienating them.  And he listened to that advice.

Equivocation and waffling and malignant moral ambivalence clothed as an anemic respect for the first amendment, that’s what we’re getting.  This White House isn’t just influenced by the ambient racism of America, it’s an active agent in the causes of xenophobia, oppression, and white supremacy.

Frankly I think that the only cure for our country is Mr. Mueller’s work to remove the infected organ.  However, you are in a position to provide our country with treatment to ease the symptoms.

You must strongly and publicly call for the removal of Mr. Bannon from this White House.  

It won’t cure the sickness that has infected our highest office because the entire tumor must be excised, but the removal of this man and his cadre of jingoistic racists would go a long way to creating a White House wherein more moderate or at least sane voices influence the presidency unopposed by the vile rhetoric of a nazi propagandist.

Make no mistake: Donald Trump has thrown in with the nazis and should be impeached at the soonest opportunity.  However, I have long held that he is basically incompetent and that any political position he appears to take is an accident of circumstance or the result of advice from others.

Bannon’s ouster is needed now.