The GOP Wants To Talk DEI. Really? Then What About Thomas?

I hesitated to talk about this but knowing how the Trump Campaign and GOP is likely to continue attacking VP Harris as a ‘DEI Hire’ their hypocrisy needs to be called out. Wait, did I say likely to continue?  Actually conservatives are going to relentlessly make the ‘DEI’ accusation even if some like Moses Mikey Johnson try to get fellow Republicans to stop going down the racism (and sexism too) road conservatives are already headed down. So I say if they want to attack presumptive Democratic Nominee Kamala Harris as a mere ‘DEI Hire’ let’s take a look at the poster child. Justice Clarence Thomas.

Clarence Thomas is both the oldest and longest serving member of the Court. His nomination was controversial, and his confirmation hearing and vote far more so. Now, despite attacks on his intellect as much as I despise his views I’ll be the first to say Thomas proved himself early on to be a hard working and excellent student both at Holy Cross (if not Ivy League still an elite school) and then at Yale Law School. (He was also accepted at Harvard and Penn) Clarence Thomas is not now nor has he ever been a dummy. On the contrary. I also have to give him credit for working so hard and overcoming modest beginnings in the south to get into and graduate from the schools who’s diplomas hang on his wall.

It’s what happened, what he chose to do with his life AFTER law school I have major issues with.  You can read the link above to his Wikipedia page but let’s summarize. He’d started seminary intending to be a priest and was shocked and angered by the racism there and dropped out. At the suggestion of a nun he wound up at Holy Cross, and then Yale and had to put up with racism there too. With a Yale law degree in hand he had to have thought he was on his way to great fortune. Between his work ethic and intellect he was the stuff of partner material at a major law firm. Yet none of the major firms would hire him! Again, I’m an old white guy so I can’t fully “get” how someone in his position feels in their gut having to put up with racism.  But I sure as hell can say I understand why he became so bitter at that point.

Sure, Thomas could have gotten a position at a decent law firm but he was shut out of the big-name ones. He wound up going to work in politics and for a Republican.  At last he was among friends, or at least “friends” and he went through some jobs (one of which he became infamous for) when he found himself being appointed to the federal bench. Then while he was relatively young and inexperienced at a judge legal Titan and revered Justice Thurgood Marshall resigned. A progressive icon, Marshall had surely wanted to be replaced by a Democratic President but his age and health precluded him holding out so the first President Bush got to pick his replacement.

I swear to god that when I watched the announcement from Kennebunkport on TV that day (yes, I really did watch it in real time) Bush 41 couldn’t always quite hold back the smirk on his face. Marshall was everything conservatives hated. Liberal, brilliant both in general and in his legal writing and opinions, and BLACK. Bush wanted to find a BLACK man who was the polar opposite of Marshall and wasted little time picking Thomas who was fervently conservative. He was in case you don’t know even one of the earliest members of The Federalist Society which few outside GOP circles knew about back then. (Too many people still don’t know nearly enough) Thomas was notably younger than had been the norm for a Justice prior to the Reagan years, and had little time on the federal bench.

However, he had the two characteristics Bush most wanted. A die-hard, fervent conservative who he could be sure wouldn’t ‘go rogue’ on the bench and be moderate or even worse, liberal in some of his decisions and rulings. And BLACK. Make no mistake about it – Bush 41 wanted to make a ‘F**K YOU! Democrats and minorities and your Thurgood Marshall horse you’ve ridden on’ statement. A ‘clear, unmistakable Get ready for thirty or maybe even forty years of a guy who will devote all he has to undoing everything Marshall accomplished and also the groundwork he made for more progress towards those words EQUAL JUSTICE UNDER LAW carved over the entrance of the SCOTUS building.’

Let me make this clear. Thomas was everything he claimed during his career before becoming a judge/Justice and has since he was against. Affirmative Action. Now I guess it’s morphed into DEI.  If there’s a single person out there who wants to claim Clarence Thomas was, as Bush 41 claimed when announcing his nomination the most qualified jurist in America I have two words for you. BULL SH*T!  He was picked because he was the only BLACK and hard-core conservative person Bush thought he could ram through the confirmation process.  Bush had plenty of more experience and fervent conservatives he could have chosen. However, he was given what to him was a gift. The chance to replace a Justice who was one of the most revered people with Democrats, who was black.

You don’t think for a second Bush and other Republicans spent the rest of that day and days afterwards (and countless times since) over getting to replace a black man, a true intellectual and legal giant who believed the Constitution’s benefits applied to ALL people with a viciously conservative black man? Thomas would NEVER have been nominated by Bush if he wasn’t black. Period. Anyone who thinks otherwise is hopelessly and willfully ignorant or LYING.

I realize this topic and what I’ve written is a live electrical wire on the ground. It’s dangerous as hell for elected Democrats and others in the Party to touch it. But somebody needs to find a way to pick it up and throw it in Republican’s laps. It’s a layup question for journalists to ask when they hear any Republican using the term DEI Hire when talking about Harris. Hell, Ted Baxter from the Mary Tyler Moore Show would blurt out the question “What about Bush appointing Clarence Thomas?” but so far no journalist has had the guts to do so. I fear none ever will.

It will fall to others to force this staggering example of GOP hypocrisy into the national discussion. I just hope others, people who get read/paid attention to more than me also do so. And that so many start raising the issue journalists have no choice but to give in and talk about this.

But don’t let anyone tell you different. Bush’s nomination of Clarence Thomas to SCOTUS was what it now being called a DEI Hire. I’ll take Kamal Harris’ credentials/qualifications for every position she’s held (as well as her impressive accomplishment each step of the way as well as the one (the Presidency) she’s now seeking against Clarence “Hurt Feelings” Thomas any day of the week.  And her ETHICS too. Even some Republicans with some weight like Speaker Johnson think it’s a bad idea to continue this line of attack.

I’d say I rest my case but having made it I know damn well I’ll have to keep making it. How bout some help folks?

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