Robert Byrd, all is forgiven?
In possible defiance of the old adage about never speaking ill of the dead, especially the newly dead, I propose a discussion of Robert Byrd's legacy.
I've always been a little ambivalent at best about Byrd because he was in the Ku Klux Klan and he fought so hard against the Civil Rights Act, on fairly obviously racist grounds, campaigned against Thurgood Marshall, etc.. I think he's done some good things since and I think that a man should be forgiven and given a second chance, but I also think that he left himself open to charges of changing his mind just out of political expediency. Were he truly repentant for what he had done, I think the right thing to have done would have been to resign from office for what he'd done and then perhaps campaigned later without the advantage of incumbency paid for in part with racist coin and with a clear statement of how he was renouncing his old positions and allegiances.
Should his past sins of the past kept him out of office, i.e., would you have voted for a man with that kind of background?
Update: Let me add my own two cents on the question I asked. I'd never have voted for Byrd, not necessarily because I don't think he deserved forgiveness but because I think his past compromised his ability to take positions on legislation or issues dealing with race. I'd be concerned that his ability to consider these issues in an unbiased manner or the perception of an unbiased manner would be forever compromised.
I've always been a little ambivalent at best about Byrd because he was in the Ku Klux Klan and he fought so hard against the Civil Rights Act, on fairly obviously racist grounds, campaigned against Thurgood Marshall, etc.. I think he's done some good things since and I think that a man should be forgiven and given a second chance, but I also think that he left himself open to charges of changing his mind just out of political expediency. Were he truly repentant for what he had done, I think the right thing to have done would have been to resign from office for what he'd done and then perhaps campaigned later without the advantage of incumbency paid for in part with racist coin and with a clear statement of how he was renouncing his old positions and allegiances.
Should his past sins of the past kept him out of office, i.e., would you have voted for a man with that kind of background?
Update: Let me add my own two cents on the question I asked. I'd never have voted for Byrd, not necessarily because I don't think he deserved forgiveness but because I think his past compromised his ability to take positions on legislation or issues dealing with race. I'd be concerned that his ability to consider these issues in an unbiased manner or the perception of an unbiased manner would be forever compromised.