Senator Tim Scott, of South Carolina, is a black Republican. In my humble opinion, that’s a little like being a Jewish Nazi, a sign either of overweening cynicism or overwhelming stupidity. That being said, it appears Scott, unlike a certain Supreme Court justice whose name shall go unmentioned, retains a shred, as miniscule as it may be, of integrity. He’s proposed to make lynching a federal hate crime, which has put him in the uncomfortable position of having to explain why not a single other Republicanwill co-sponsor the bill. Not even “moderates” like Susan Collins, who comes from Maine, which, so far as I’m aware, has no tradition of lynching, unlike the Southern States, where it’s fairly obvious that making lynching a federal crime would trample on the right of the state governments to look the other way when the right sort of people are lynched.
It says a lot about the modern Republican Party that, so far, not a single Republican, other than Scott, has signed on to support this bill. After all, it’s mostly symbolic, as the Southern states have pretty largely moved on from the lynching phase, and are exploring new, more creative, more modern, and more superficially justifiable ways to keep black people in their place. You would think this would be a perfect opportunity for them to make a meaningless gesture to prove they are not, in fact, the racists they are, (or that they are not totally beholden to their racist base) but they can’t even bring themselves to do that.
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