Black Republican Senator Thinks Republicans Should Stop Nominating Racists

Bill Clark/Congressional Quarterly/Newscom via ZUMA

Fight disinformation: Sign up for the free Mother Jones Daily newsletter and follow the news that matters.

Tim Scott, the only African-American Republican member of the Senate, took to the pages of the Wall Street Journal today to defend his decision to oppose the nomination of Judge Thomas Farr to a federal district court:

The solution isn’t simply to decry “racial attacks.” Instead, we should stop bringing candidates with questionable track records on race before the full Senate for a vote.

That’s simple enough. But he’s the only Republican senator who feels that way. Just like Condi Rice and Colin Powell were the only members of George Bush’s administration to oppose his view on affirmative action. And just like Susan Collins, Kay Bailey Hutchison, Lisa Murkowski, and Olympia Snowe were the only Republican senators to vote for the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.

It’s remarkable, isn’t it? Republican women know how to do the right thing for women. Republican blacks know how to do the right thing for blacks. The rest of the party knows too. They just ignore all the women and blacks even in the Republican Party itself.

I wonder what all the white men in the Senate Republican conference think of this. Do they not even realize it’s happening? Do they think women and blacks—even if they’re good conservatives otherwise—suddenly go nuts over identity politics when it affects them? Do they chalk it up to a mere political desire to keep their black/female base happy? Do they know perfectly well what the right thing is, and simply choose to ignore it because their own base of old white men won’t stand for it?

I suppose we all know the answer.

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

DONALD TRUMP & DEMOCRACY

Mother Jones was founded to do journalism differently. We stand for justice and democracy. We reject false equivalence. We go after stories others don’t. We’re a nonprofit newsroom, because the kind of truth-telling investigations we do doesn’t happen under corporate ownership.

And we need your support like never before, to fight back against the existential threats American democracy faces. Fundraising for nonprofit media is always a challenge, and we need all hands on deck right now. We have no cushion; we leave it all on the field.

It’s reader support that enables Mother Jones to report the facts that are too difficult, expensive, or inconvenient for other news outlets to uncover. Please help with a donation today if you can—even a few bucks will make a real difference. A monthly gift would be incredible.

payment methods

We Recommend

Latest

Sign up for our free newsletter

Subscribe to the Mother Jones Daily to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

Get our award-winning magazine

Save big on a full year of investigations, ideas, and insights.

Subscribe

Support our journalism

Help Mother Jones' reporters dig deep with a tax-deductible donation.

Donate