The Senate office building named after a segregationist

by philg

“Replace Richard Russell’s Name With McCain’s? Senate Debates a Segregationist’s Legacy” (nytimes) concerns an unfortunate situation:

The Russell Senate Building was named after him in 1972, a year after his death, at the suggestion of Senator Robert Byrd, Democrat of West Virginia, who had joined Mr. Russell’s filibuster before becoming an advocate of civil rights. Mr. Byrd proposed naming the two buildings — then known as the new and old Senate office buildings — after Mr. Russell and Mr. Dirksen, both of whom had recently died. … But Mr. Russell’s legacy is marked by his deeply rooted belief in racial segregation in the name of maintaining the social order of “the Old South.”

Now they want to name the building after John McCain, a member of the Keating Five (senators who were investigated for their role in wiping out $3.4 billion in taxpayer funds back in 1989 ($7.1 billion in today’s mini-dollars)).

Since it is harder to earn money than to spend it, what about a break in tradition? If we must rename the building to honor someone more virtuous than Russell, why not name it after whoever paid the most taxes in 2017? Go down the list of the people who paid the most and ask each one “Would you like to be recognized for your contributions to the Treasury?

[Also, why is it okay to have stuff named after Jefferson and Washington? They actually owned slaves! Abraham Lincoln said “I will say, then, that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of bringing about in any way the social and political equality of the white and black races—that I am not, nor ever have been, in favor of making voters or jurors of Negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; … And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I, as much as any other man, am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race.” Do we take his name off the Lincoln Memorial in favor of a more enlightened modern politician?]

9 thoughts on “The Senate office building named after a segregationist”

  2. Segregation is a different league than debt fraud, which has always been an ethical business as usual for every living breathing soul. It may have just been the way public school programmed us to think.

  3. Name it after the person who had to live on the smallest dollar amount after all taxes were paid.

  4. If you start going down the list of people who pay the most tax, you’ll probably find that most of them are associated with either the “tech” industry centered in Silicon Valley, or the Wall Street financial industry. The former was built on corporate welfare, going back to its earliest days. The latter receives hundreds of billions of bailouts every 8 to 10 years. It would make more sense to do things the other way around. Google and Citibank should have buildings named the “Middle Class Taxpayers Building” or something similar.

  5. Vince: That’s an excellent point. In an economy that is more than 50 percent government, government-directed, or government-regulated, some of the biggest profits are likely to be earned by cronies and paid for by suckers (i.e., the average voter/taxpayer).

    Whom does that leave? How about Sacagawea? I don’t think that there is a building named after her. She worked harder than any senator in U.S. history. She was a great diplomat and instrumental in America’s westward expansion. (Perhaps putting her forward, though, would cause others to suggest Pocahontas, simultaneously honoring Powhatan’s daughter and our current Senator from Massachusetts?)

  6. I know that support for foreign political leaders may be not so popular, but how about Adolf Hitler?
    1. He was a natural Socialist, not like a Commie or a Republican; he was an undisputed leader of the workers’ party (NSDAP)
    2. He never endorsed Donald Trump–a proven racist–for the US presidency.
    3. He never praised Putin and was always suspicious of Russia.
    4. He is one of the most influential figures in the current US politics and mass media, his name is mentioned often and in a wide variety of contexts, and public figures are often compared to him.
    5. His persona makes lives and struggles of young political activists (such as AntiFa) meaningful.
    5. He became a vegetarian later in his life.

  7. The only connection between Pocahontas and Senator Warren is in the words of the president. Naming a building after her would thus celebrate his ability to distract much of the population from actual issues.

  8. anon: A great start, but you left out that Hitler was TIME magazine’s Man of the Year in 1938. http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,760539,00.html

    Also that he advocated for underground parking lots and pedestrian zones to preserve the character of small towns and villages within Germany. The idea was to drive (a Volkswagen) directly from an Autobahn into an underground lot and then emerge into a 19th century street (minus the horse manure).

    Imagine if Trump sent over a letter to Congress with these points in Hitler’s favor! I would love to see the Facebook reaction.

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