Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:33 pm
Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) laid down the law Friday in reaction to President-elect Donald Trump’s potential nomination of Senator Jeff Sessions for Attorney General, saying 30 years ago he was rejected for a federal judgeship because “there can be no compromise with racism; no negotiation with hate.”
“Instead of embracing the bigotry that fueled his campaign rallies, I urge President-elect Trump to reverse his apparent decision to nominate Senator Sessions to be Attorney General of the United States. If he refuses, then it will fall to the Senate to exercise fundamental moral leadership for our nation and all of its people,” Sen Warren said in a statement.
“Thirty years ago, a different Republican Senate rejected Senator Sessions’ nomination to a federal judgeship. In doing so, that Senate affirmed that there can be no compromise with racism; no negotiation with hate,” the Democratic Senator continued, bringing up the very reason that liberals are aghast to hear that some Democrats think they can work with President-elect Trump on some issues.
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Warren called Republicans out on their cowardice and self-interest, “Today, a new Republican Senate must decide whether self-interest and political cowardice will prevent them from once again doing what is right.”
It says everything about the modern day Republican Party’s aversion to social progress and failing platform that they are now so much lower than they were 30 years ago. Thirty years ago, Sessions was too racist to be a federal judge, but in 2016, he’s just fine as United States AG.
Republicans ran a man for the the highest office in the land whose white supremacist entourage is heading for the White House and horrifying a nation.
Democrats must follow Senator Warren’s lead on this issue. There can be no compromise with racism or negotiation with hate. Democrats don’t have much power but they must use what they have to take a stand for the people.
The people on the ground, their base, are terrified right now. Completely and utterly terrified. There has been a huge surge in hate crimes and intimidation since the election according to the Southern Poverty Law Center. People of color have a target on their back, immigrants are facing a wave of harassment and intimidation. Jewish people are being terrorized, the LGBTQ community is facing increasing hate crimes and women are waiting for the next shoe to drop from the sexually-assaulting incoming president.
No decent person who caucuses with Democrats and allegedly represents all of these targeted people can work with Donald Trump on any issue. This is not like Democrats trying to work with Republicans under Bush or Obama in order to help the people. I have always advocated pragmatic compromise if it means fighting for the people in some other way, but Senator Warren said it best: There can be no compromise with racism.
We cannot normalize this, and to work with this incoming entourage of white supremacists is to condone it.
That is a message Democrats must not send to their base, or they risk losing the coalition they worked for years to build. Democrats are in defense mode right now after a brutal, unexpected and inexplicable loss that defied the legitimate polls, but they must hold it together and not question their values.
There is no working with hate. Hate is an act of war. You can’t negotiate with terrorists and only fools think they can.
Anyone who touches the Trump administration will be stained by his rancid bigotry and legacy of hate. Democrats must unify together against hate, and gather with them any Republicans who can find the courage to take the risk to do the right thing.
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