For now, Trent Lott should have our support

By Paul M. Weyrich
web posted December 16, 2002
 
The feeding frenzy over Trent Lott's comments continues,
perhaps temporarily abated by Trent's most fulsome apology to
date. But the Left had sensed that they were closing in for the kill
and are unlikely to be deterred by Lott's apology last Friday.
Let's hope they do not get the satisfaction of bringing him down
because of this flap. Because if Lott goes down, this will only
encourage more expeditions by the Left to bag conservatives for
making statements deemed to be Politically Incorrect, no matter
if they are just off-the-cuff, ill-considered remarks. Such
statements will be given far more meaning than they should be
accorded by an opposition intent on engaging in the politics of
personal destruction and egged on by a news media dominated
by Politically Correct thinking.

I know Trent and whatever he meant or whatever views he held
in his youth, he did not mean segregation was acceptable when
honoring Strom Thurmond. I believe he was trying to be gracious
to an aged, retiring senator who has always been a consistent
anti-Communist. That being the case, we should defend Trent
Lott to the end of the earth when he is being unfairly attacked as
he is now.

In today's media age, whatever you say can be held against you.
It does not mean that it always will. Otherwise, why weren't the
politicians and organizations now outraged over Lott's remarks
meant to honor a Senator on his 100th birthday, denouncing
Sen. Bob Byrd (D-WV) for saying last year on national
television that there are "white niggers," a remark with an
indisputably racist connotation? When Byrd made that remark
last year, he received a pass from the PC Left given his party
affiliation and the power he wields in doling out Federal money,
something that is evidently
appreciated by Democrat powerbrokers.    

Let's hope Trent Lott finds the guts to stand his ground in the
wake of the media firestorm that he now faces and that he
discovers the mettle that is within him to be a better leader. That
is the real issue for conservatives in determining who will be the
Majority Leader in the United States Senate.
 
What should be our litmus test for determining Trent Lott's ability
to lead is how committed he is to stick to conservative principles
and not give in to Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle and the
Democrats. Remember that despite their now diminished status
in wake of the November election results, the Daschle
Democrats still have the numbers to frustrate action on key items
essential to enacting the conservative agenda.

Imagine the disappointment expressed when conservatives
learned the day after the election, after it was clear the GOP
would retake control of the U.S. Senate, that Trent Lott had
already made an agreement with Daschle that the transfer of
control over Senate committees would not be start until January.
A stronger leader would have made sure it  started earlier, at
least as soon as Jim Talent (R-MO) took office in November as
the winner of
a special election, putting the GOP back in control.   

Trent should have played hardball with Daschle over the
Democrat tactics of stonewalling and personal destruction that
were employed against President Bush's excellent nominees for
Federal judgeships, some of whom had received the highest
rating from the American Bar Association, once considered by
Senate Democrats as representing the `gold standard.'

And that's only some of the complaints movement conservatives
have about Trent for this session, and there have been plenty in
the past too.

Knowing Trent as I do, I understand that he had a tough
childhood, growing up in a home in which his father had a
drinking problem. Who would not be affected by the tenseness
of family life in such a situation? Perhaps because of that
background, like Bill Clinton, Trent is someone who needs to be
liked. But this current flap should teach Trent something about
his colleague in leadership and the party that he leads. Tom
Daschle, at first, came to Trent's defense, then backtracked
under pressure from his caucus, and attacked him. There just are
no real friends on the other side of the aisle. Trying to
accommodate Daschle and the Senate Democrats by always
playing the nice guy will bring the Republican Party and
conservatives nothing. The use of that tactic by Trent hasn't
worked in the past, and it won't in the future. I hope that lesson
has finally become clear once and for all to Trent.

There will be important issues coming up in the Congress during
the next session such as welfare reform and school choice. It will
be easy for the Left and the Senate Democrats to resort to the
race-baiting tactics that they are known for employing when
issues like that hit the Senate floor. Millions of women, black and
white, trying to raise families, have received the helpful hand they
needed from conservative-sponsored welfare reform policies,
enabling them to stop receiving government checks and to start
receiving real paychecks. On the issue of school choice,
conservatives have a chance to help Americans by opening the
long-closed doors of opportunity that left inner-city students
trapped in failing schools.

In order for those doors to open, the Senate Republicans, led by
Trent Lott, will have to hold firm to conservative principles. The
movement has to watch what Trent does very closely and to
hold him accountable. My concern is that Trent will silently give
away things to Daschle to burnish his image as having gotten bills
passed while seeking to avoid having his fingerprints on the dirty
deeds. We need to be on the lookout for any hint of undue
concessions having been made and blow the whistle loudly when
we spot them.

President Bush spoke out on the statement that Lott has made,
making clear his disappointment with the thrust of the remarks,
however unintended. Once again, he demonstrated his
willingness to use the bully pulpit that he has
for the good of his party, our movement, and the nation.     

The President said, "Every day our nation was segregated was a
day that America was unfaithful to our founding ideals. And the
founding ideals of our nation, and in fact the founding ideals of
the political party I represent, was, and remains today the equal
dignity and equal rights of every American."

What the President said was not done for reasons of Political
Correctness. He wanted to make clear once and for all that his
party and the modern conservative movement are working to
make sure we have a society in which the old racial divisions are
rendered irrelevant because the opportunities to succeed are
there for any American willing to do their best.  Trent may have
come to that vision later than some because he grew up in the
Deep South during an era where segregation was struggling to
retain its loosening grip, but he made that transition and so did
Mississippi and the South.

The President spoke for those conservatives who have spent
years reaching out to African-Americans. I did that as a
conservative activist in Wisconsin forty years ago and on Capitol
Hill as a Senate aide and at the Free Congress Foundation. At
National Empowerment Television, we were able to help build
support and awareness for conservative reform policies that have
benefited black Americans.  Our efforts should not end up going
for naught just because the purveyors of Political Correctness
have deemed one ill-considered remark to represent the
definitive statement about the relationship between blacks and
our movement.

There is a challenge to Trent, conservatives, the GOP, and the
Bush Administration. It is this: we must redouble our effort to
reach out to black Americans and demonstrate that we are ready
to roll up our sleeves, have some frank talks, and work together
voluntarily to push aside the divisions of the past and to advance
an agenda for the future. There won't be any immediate payoff.
But we need to keep at it, working harder than ever before to
move forward in building a lasting conservative majority that
ensures the doors of opportunity are open to all Americans. We
can't just rely on the PC-dominated media to carry our message
for us,  we've got to personally reach out to show Black
Americans that we have their best
interest at heart.     

Trent Lott should not resign, and he should receive conservative
support at this time. When Trent shows he is not going to do
what he should be doing -- fighting as hard as he can to advance
a GOP agenda centered upon conservative principles -- then
that is the time that conservatives should call for him to step
down. That day will come if he puts the best interest of the
conservative movement, the President, and the nation second by
courting favor with the Daschle Democrats. If that day arrives,
then the conservative movement will have been forced to take
sides against Trent because of his own lack of leadership.
 
As we fight a War on Terrorism while working to promote a
conservative reform agenda, now is not the time for the
movement to get sidetracked by the detour that the Left wants us
to take. Conservatives know the direction in which we should be
heading. Let's stay on that course. Only if we find our agenda
veering off to the left because our leader in the Senate has lost
his sense of direction, should we take action.

Paul M. Weyrich is Chairman and CEO of the Free Congress
Foundation (http://www.freecongress.org).

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