On Feb. 18, the Herald Opinion page printed a political cartoon depicting Senator McConnell blocking the nomination of a Supreme Court justice, because the president is black. This implies that Republicans are racist; a charge that Democrats and their media friends make on a regular basis.
The cartoonist thinks he is clever by using the phrase “ 3/5th’s of a term” referring to the original practice of counting slaves as 3/5th of a person for census purposes. This designation arose as a compromise with Southern plantation owners during the drafting of the Constitution.
This ultimately resulted in the Southern Democrats dominating Congress. A factor that blocked the end of slavery for many years.
The consequences of the foregoing was the formation of the Republican Party, the election of Lincoln, and the Civil War to end slavery. Subsequently it was not the Republicans who instituted segregation and “Jim Crow” laws. Nor today is it Republicans who believe that black Americans are incapable of obtaining voter identification for themselves?
It was a Republican president who first enforced desegregation of schools. It was the Republicans in Congress, along with President Johnson, who passed the Civil Rights Acts of the 1960s.
The editorial page is printed for the expression of ideas and opinions, and this is fine if most are well reasoned liberal views. It is not fine however, when they are unsupported ad hominem attacks on those with whom they disagree.
When it comes to presidential nominations, President Bush, during his first term, could hardly get the appointment of a dog catcher through Congress. Regarding Supreme Court justices, it might be well for the cartoonist to review the nomination of Judge Bork, one of the great legal scholars of his time.
As a Republican I am personally insulted by the cartoon as well as by columnist who make similar attacks.
Forrest Johnson
Darrington
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