That time when the John McCain tribute came in second

Every day of my life it becomes harder and harder to grasp the depth and expansiveness of racism in this country and the degree to which racists have been emboldened by faux-president Donald Trump.

I have known for years that a U.S. Senate office building was named the Russell Building, but I never knew or cared to learn who Russell was until John McCain died, and an effort was put forth to rename the building after him. It seemed like a no-brainer until today, when I heard that some Republicans are pushing back on the idea.

Why in the hell would they do that, you ask?

Because Richard Russell, for whom the building is named, was a white supremacist and a southern segregationist who got his name on a federal building mainly because he stuck around long enough to become the senior member of the Senate. Russell was a Democrat, but in 2018, the Republicans who control the government can’t afford to offend the present-day racists who voted them into office or the chief executive who can destroy their careers with one or two well-timed tweets.

To many of them, taking Russell’s name off the Senate office building is akin to pulling down the rebel flag or hauling away the statues of Confederate war heroes that appear like dandelions across the South, and we all saw how well that went down in Charlottesville, Virginia. Maybe the name could be changed after the next election, when spineless Republicans find out if they get to keep their jobs, but certainly not before.

It seems to me that John McCain deserves better than that.     

For the record, Richard Russell was governor of Georgia from 1931 to 1933 before serving in the Senate from 1933 to 1971. According to Wikipedia, he was “a founder and leader of the conservative coalition that dominated Congress from 1937 to 1963,” and at his death was the most senior member of the Senate.

“Russell supported racial segregation and co-authored the Southern Manifesto with (South Carolina Senator) Strom Thurmond,” the article says. “Russell and 17 fellow Democratic and Republican Senators blocked the passage of civil rights legislation via the filibuster. After Russell's protégé, President Lyndon B. Johnson, signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 into law, Russell led a Southern boycott of the 1964 Democratic National Convention.”

So now at least part of the debate has become clear: Russell was a racist. After the 2016 election, racists from Tampa to Tacoma started coming out from under their hoods, waving Confederate flags, chanting at Donald Trump pep rallies and demanding a government that will purify the American population.

Today, of course, racism is alive and well and living comfortably inside the White House or within its reach. That it exists was never a shock to me. I’ve always known that racism was alive. I guess I’m still surprised and saddened, however, to learn that it’s doing quite this well.