Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Steve Scalise Refused To Vote For 1996 Bill Apologizing For Slavery

House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) voted against a bill that would have apologized for slavery to African-Americans when he was in the Louisiana Legislature, according to a 1996 New Orleans Times-Picayune article first reported on by The Hill.

The representative, who has been a target of civil rights groups after it was revealed last month that he spoke at a 2002 white supremacist conference, was one of two House and Governmental Affairs Committee members who voted down the bill.

"Why are you asking me to apologize for something I didn't do and had no part of?" Scalise asked, according to the paper at the time. "I am not going to apologize for what somebody else did."

The bill passed out of committee on a unanimous vote once it was amended to express "regret" instead.

Scalise's office didn't immediately return a request for comment about the vote.

The 1996 measure was noted on Twitter by Lamar White Jr., the blogger who broke the news that Scalise spoke before the European-American Unity and Rights Organization, a group founded by former Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke, in 2002.

Scalise has apologized and said he didn't realize what kind of group he was speaking to at the time.

Million Hoodies Movement for Justice, a national racial justice organization, planned a protest for Tuesday outside a Scalise fundraiser on Capitol Hill. And civil rights groups have asked Scalise to meet with them to explain his EURO appearance, though as of Monday, they had not heard back from him.

Original Article
Source: huffingtonpost.com/
Author:  Sara Bondioli

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