John
Ashcroft, Taliban Lite
With John Ashcroft, in 21st century America we have the mayor of the town
in Footloose as our chief law enforcement officer. Heaven (be that as
it may exist) help us!
Ashcroft's complete inappropriateness for the job is two-fold:
John Ashcroft: Outside the Mainstream
First, John Ashcroft has a set of beliefs governing his personal life so
bizarre and medieval as to call in question his ability to competently
interpret, and establish priorities for enforcing, laws for those of us
physically and mentally living in the year 2001. A man like Ashcroft
who considers dancing a sin is just too far outside the mainstream of
commonplace modern human behavior to choose if, how and when to enforce laws
for the rest of us.
John Ashcroft: Racist or Intellectually Unfit
Second, John Ashcroft is either a lying racist, or so stupid as to be
unfit for the job. Ashcroft gave an interview to a periodical called Southern
Partisan. He claimed not to know about its pro-Confederacy, crypto-pro-slavery
stance.
Is Ashcroft claiming he thought the "partisan" to which
"southern" applied related to cooking? Or that the magazine
catered to advocates of vacationing in the South?
Please. Any dimwit could tell by the name what type of publication this
is. A few seconds of glancing at any issue would reveal its nature.
So, either Ashcroft was really that stupid and naïve, thus rendering him
intellectually unqualified for the job of Attorney General.
Or, as is more likely the case, John Ashcroft knew and supported the
magazine's views, thus making him a lying racist, the wrong person to being
in charge of enforcing the nation's laws, the civil rights laws foremost
among them.
That this is the case is reinforced by the nature of Ashcroft's
interview, in which he echoed, in carefully crafted,
inoffensive-on-the-surface code words, the insensitive and bigoted
ideological yearnings of Southern Partisan for a time most of the
nation is deeply ashamed of and would like to put behind us:
"Your magazine also
helps set the record straight. You've got a heritage of doing that, of
defending Southern patriots like [Robert E.] Lee, [Stonewall] Jackson and
[Confederate President Jefferson] Davis. Traditionalists must do more.
I've got to do more. We've all got to stand up and speak in this respect,
or else we'll be taught that these people were giving their lives,
subscribing their sacred fortunes and their honor to some perverted
agenda."
Apparently Ashcroft feels
that supporting slavery is not a perverted agenda!
John Ashcroft: totally unfit to be Attorney General!
|
