Bill Sykes' Newsletter from America.
(Christmas 2002)
An ex-Brit gives his views-(without fear
or favor)---of the American Scene
The United States Political scene.
-
Senator Trent Lott, Republican Senate Majority leader
apparently put his foot in his mouth the other day
whilst attending a hundredth birthday party for the
recently retired Senator Strom Thurmond in Pascagoula,
Mississippi.
 As
part of his comments to the assembled well-wishers,
he said that if Senator Thurmond had won the Presidency
in 1948, on his platform of Segregation, perhaps this
would be a better nation today. (Or words to that
effect).
Of course the minorities, and certain Democrats, were
immediately up in arms decrying the statement as being
racist, and claiming that if Senator Thurmond had
succeeded in becoming President it could have led
to the potential consequences of curtailing the civil
rights of the minority population.
 This
of course created an outcry from the black caucus
---typical political reaction---and, although Senator
Lott has apologized profusely several times, they
are after his blood and are even demanding that he
relinquish the Republican party leadership. Even though
I’m not a Republican I feel that this is just
an attempt at political assassination, and if I was
Senator Lott I would have said that the remarks, that
represented a view of a political platform of the
late 1940’s era, were not worthy of any apology,
and that I was not going to give anyone the satisfaction
of using them for their own political gains.
Things are getting out of hand---media coverage and
negative comments from members of his own Republican
party are escalating the situation to a point of childish
squabbling, not worthy of this exclusive body of public
servants.
-
Seeing that the previous Vice President, Al Gore,
has announced that he  will
not run for President in the 2004 presidential election,
various names have been bandied about as potential
Democratic nominees for the Presidency.
Al Gore’s running mate in the 2000 Presidential
race, Senator Joseph Lieberman, is currently considering
whether to run in Gores place at the 2004 presidential
election.
Question: Do you think that the United States is ready
for an Orthodox Jewish President?
We welcome feedback about any of the contents of these
newsletters. Please send all correspondence to bill_sykes@huddersfield1.co.uk
|
