POSTED BY MARTIN KICH

Here are some excerpts from a scathing article in Roll Call on the Senate’s silencing of Elizabeth Warren. Written by Mary C. Curtis, the article is titled “GOP Seeks a Safe Space from the Words of Coretta Scott King,” highlighting the hypocrisy in the Far right’s absolute disdain for the creation of “safe spaces” on campus:

For a party and an administration that ran on being tough guys, afraid of nothing and no one, and disdainful of “PC culture,” whatever that’s supposed to mean, Republicans are, like President Donald Trump, proving to be poster boys (and, yes, the crew is testosterone-heavy) for the perpetually offended, perfect pictures of bullies who crumble when one of their targets dares talk back. . . .

Who would have thought that the words of human rights and civil rights leader Coretta Scott King could rattle the sensibilities of Senate Republicans, one of whom recently mocked New York Sen. Charles E. Schumer’s emotional reaction to the president’s travel ban without rebuke?

But that’s exactly what happened. . . .

In her 1986 letter, addressed to then-Sen. Strom Thurmond, urging Congress to block Sessions’ ascension to a federal district court, King wrote: “Mr. Sessions has used the awesome powers of his office in a shabby attempt to intimidate and frighten elderly black voters. For this reprehensible conduct, he should not be rewarded with a federal judgeship.”

She said that, as a U.S. attorney, Sessions pursued “politically motivated voting fraud prosecutions” and that he “lacks the temperament, fairness and judgment to be a federal judge.” In the nine-page letter and statement, King concluded: “I believe his confirmation would have a devastating effect on not only the judicial system in Alabama, but also on the progress we have made toward fulfilling my husband’s dream.” . . .

After she was shut down, Warren went on to read the letter on Facebook, drawing many more eyes to the offending note; the politically savvy McConnell may have doubled down on his base, but certainly made few fans as he found the words of an icon, who died in 2006, too tough to hear. When male senators were allowed to finish what Warren started, the optics grew uglier. . . .

When states are passing laws restricting voting rights, and contentious relationships between law enforcement and the communities they cover are launching nationwide protests and consent decrees, it’s certainly worth an airing of opposing opinions, a look at past and present when envisioning a Trump/Sessions Justice Department.

Instead, Republicans searched for a safe space. . . .

In some circles, speaking about any hint of racism or “racial insensitivity,” the less offensive preferred term, has become more taboo than racism itself, a notion both ridiculous and grotesque. . . .

Curtis’s complete article is available at: http://www.rollcall.com/news/opinion/gop-seeks-safe-space-words-coretta-scott-king.