Former Vice President Joe Biden just did it again.
For the second time in the past week, the frontrunner for the Democratic spot on the 2020 presidential ballot held up a segregationist as a model of congressional civility whom current politicians would do well to emulate.
Questionable exemplar
On Friday, Biden spoke at Rep. Jim Clyburn’s (D-SC) annual fish fry. His point of emphasis was the need for Democrats to unite, especially if President Donald Trump is to be defeated in 2020.
“Whomever the Democratic nominee is, we have to stay together and elect a Democratic president of the United States of America,” said Biden, reiterating what has become a common refrain of his campaign.
But, it was just as Biden was finishing up his remarks, that he wistfully recalled another segregationist with whom he served in Congress.
He turned to Clyburn and said, “I tell you, I do miss Fritz being here.”
Who?
By “Fritz,” Biden was referring to Sen. Fritz Hollings (D-SC), who passed away earlier this year. Hollings was the governor of South Carolina from 1954 to 1963, and a few years later, in 1966, he was elected to the U.S. Senate where he served until 2006.
A notable thing about Hollings is that, back in the early ’60s, he was a segregationist, at one point even campaigning on his opposition to Brown v. Board of Education, the landmark case in which the Supreme Court held that segregation in public schools was unconstitutional.
Hollings did seem to soften his position on race relations as his career progressed, even supporting Jesse Jackson in the 1988 presidential race. But, in 1993, he made an awkward statement that drew criticism, saying that diplomats from Africa only go to international conferences to “get a good square meal” instead of “eating each other.”
Once an accident, twice . . .
Hollings is the third example Biden has offered to present-day Democrats as a model of civility and unity, qualities members of the current party, according to Biden, are lacking. The other two are James Eastland (D-MS) and Herman Talmadge (D-GA), whom Biden nostalgically referenced during a speech at a fundraiser in New York City on Tuesday.
Both men were staunch segregationists. Eastland, also known as the “voice of the white South,” often referred to blacks as “an inferior race,” and even at one point campaigned on the promise to keep blacks and whites from eating together in Washington. Talmadge was another lawmaker who infamously vowed to protect the “separation of the races” following the aforementioned Brown ruling.
Despite their views on race relations, Biden worked collaboratively with both men — the three even joined forces to oppose busing that was designed to combat school segregation.
Biden’s decision to positively cite these segregationists as has provided his 2020 rivals with some easy talking points. Precisely how significantly this will affect his campaign, however, is something that remains to be seen.
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