House G.O.P., Banding Together, Kills Bid to Honor Pioneering Black Judge : politics

There’s some clear bias in this article making it sound like it was about nothing more than race. But at least it told the full story. But you lot just ignore the full story, any nuance or details, and start calling the entire republican party racists and equating them to the Klan.

A bill to name a federal courthouse in Tallahassee after Justice Joseph W. Hatchett, the first Black man to serve on the Florida Supreme Court — sponsored by the state’s two Republican senators and backed unanimously by its 27 House members — was set to pass the House last month and become law with broad bipartisan support.

Sounds kind of like two republicans sponsored the bill and all were prepared to back it.

Senator Marco Rubio, Republican of Florida and one of the bill’s sponsors, said the judge, an Army veteran who died last year at 88, had “lived an inspiring life of service.”

And later from Mr. Rubio:

Mr. Rubio has expressed optimism that the setback will be temporary and that Congress will find a way to name the courthouse after Judge Hatchett.

That doesn’t sound very racist.

Senator Rick Scott of Florida, a Republican who co-sponsored the measure, said in a statement after the Senate passed the bill in December that Judge Hatchett “broke barriers that have inspired countless others in the legal profession.”

That doesn’t sound very racist either.

Staff members for Representative Kat Cammack, Republican of Florida, were scrambling to figure out why the vote had started to go south, calling other offices to determine what was happening.

More unusual behavior for a bunch of alleged racists, some sponsoring a bill to name courthouse after black judge, praising the judge, and being alarmed when there was a problem with the bill going through. But they did change their minds last minute, I wonder what else was going on?

…an appeals court decision that Judge Hatchett wrote that year that struck down a public school policy allowing student-approved prayers at graduation ceremonies in Florida. The decision, which overruled a lower court, held that the policy violated constitutional protections of freedom of religion.

“He voted against student-led school prayer in Duval County in 1999,” Mr. Clyde, a deacon at his Baptist church in Bogart, Ga., said in an interview. “I don’t agree with that. That’s it. I just let the Republicans know that information on the House floor. I have no idea if they knew that or not.”

So the judge overruled a decision that allowed prayer in school. Something the conservative constituency values. Race aside. honoring a judge who removed prayer from graduation ceremonies wouldn’t sit well with many conservative voters and would be easy ammunition against anyone who’s done so in the next primaries.

But if we wanted to actually have a good faith discussion about what happened could we maybe still find evidence of racism? Turns out yes. We don’t even need to resort to bad faith presentation, or disingenuous spin.

Since being sworn in last year, Mr. Clyde has drawn attention for comparing the deadly Capitol attack to a “normal tourist visit” and voting against a resolution to give the Congressional Gold Medal to police officers who responded that day.

Not exactly racist but we may be getting on to some less than righteous behavior…

He also opposed the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act, which made lynching a federal hate crime and explicitly outlawed an act that was symbolic of the country’s history of racial violence. Mr. Clyde also voted against recognizing Juneteenth as a federal holiday.

And there we have it. Evidence to at least legitimately accuse someone of having racist looking tendencies. And now he’s dug up some decision of this black judge he used to sway his party at the last minute. Not much of a stretch to say it was racially motivated given his past record.

Do you see how focusing on that seems like a legitimate accusation vs calling an entire party, some of which sponsored the bill, racists? One way raises awareness about, and focuses specifically on someone who sure seems like an actual problem in matters of race and equality. The other way makes it seem like you’re having a fanatical circle jerk, diminishes your credibility, and beyond that calls no attention to the bad actor.

It’s really a wonder American politics are a global meme and gen Z are having a mental health epidemic.

You guys deserve the republicans and the republicans deserve you. You are two sides of the same propagandist neoliberal coin.