In a surprising move, the Senate passed Covid-19 Hate Crimes Act with a 94 – 1 margin. Surprising because there is never so much cooperation in either house, you can almost predict the tally before the vote, 50 to 50 with the President of the Senate, Kamala Harris, casting the deciding vote. The only dissent came from Senator Josh Hawley, Republican Missouri.
Senator Hawley claims he was worried about the potential for abuse created by the bill’s intelligence gathering and data storage provisions. Unfortunately for American privacy, Mr. Hawley was the only one to notice this. Of course, Rand Paul wasn’t present for the vote. Nobody hates government surveillance as much as Senator Paul. In real terms, there are few people who hate the government as much as Senator Paul seems to.
Either way, I think, at least for Senator Hawley it has more to do with supremacy than data. He is one of the “new” politicians who look to the past with hope for the future, when men were men, and women were cooking. And immigrants knew their place. He is willing to overlook a little hate and nationalism in the name of liberty.
And, why not, he is a white guy, and white guys are pretty safe. I know, I’m a white guy. Plus, I would be flattering myself to say I’m a middle-aged white guy. Don’t let the amazing hair fool you, I’m a senior citizen white guy. I’ve seen, for years, how easy it is to be a white guy. It’s like the home-court advantage no matter where you are.
White guys may not like to admit it but we’ve had a pretty good run, made a complete disaster of things, of course, but we’ve had a good time at the top.
The Trump presidency kind of exposed the weaknesses in the good old boy network. It was when we saw just how mean and unsavory all of our assumptions had always been.
When we heard the tape of Trump bragging to Billy Bush about just how far he was willing to go, as a man, without permission, and how they (women) were powerless against his fame and wealth it made us all look a little dirty. When he talked about immigrants and how they were coming to collect government benefits or worse live a life of depravity and crime we all looked bigoted and hateful.
When Josh Hawley claimed to believe Trump had won the election against all evidence, against common sense, in spite of the outlandishness of the claims he proved he doesn’t really give a damn about democracy. He wants to be the white guy in charge, or at least work with the white guy in charge.
They might as well put a sign on the door to the capital building “no girls, or minorities, or immigrants allowed.”
America was founded on the notion of inclusion. We haven’t always lived up to the noble goal, but that doesn’t excuse us from trying. Our world has been shaken to its foundation by this virus and we are all growing tired of the restrictions and fear.
We need to heal, and we need to help each other heal. And if it takes explicit instructions from Washington I can live with that, even if it seems absurd we need to be told not to persecute each other. We white guys have a lot of history to overcome. Let’s hear it for congress.
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This post is republished on Medium.
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