Well, it seems that the right is cracking into accusatory groups arguing over Trent Lott. It seem to me that this is really a disagreement between idealists and practical politicians. On one side there are those who think that if you don't demand that Lott be damned to hell, you're going too easy on him and must therefore be of racist tendencies yourself. There are others who see his gaffe as a quirk common to most Southern whites of his generation or earlier which just the way they are. These mostly call for his dismissal as Majority Leader because it harms Republican efforts to reach out to minorities. Others still think it is all being overblown and is being misinterpreted.

I've shifted phase throughout the spectrum, because I don't think it's right to condemn someone for a single statement. There are lots of commentators, however, who have dug up all kinds of examples to prove Lott's a closet klansman. These sound to me like liberals or former liberals to whom political correctness is second nature.

It would be nice if the world could be so simple. But I can't help thinking that these would prefer it if all southern whites above a certain age would just stay out of politics, which is juvenile in its impracticality. I'm uncomfortable with thought crimes, and I suspect that Lott's words were just nothing more than a way of showing affection for Strom Thurmond, not a political comment on his whole career. Nevertheless, I don't really care what other convervatives and libertarians think about this issue. I just wonder what will happen if Lott remains in spite of the lynch mob atmosphere.


Republicans will have to live with it, and continue to make their principled case. I just hope Lott won't give away the store in trying to make up to blacks and Democrats.