Jeff Sessions for Dogcatcher
November 24th, 2016
When my father used to see egregiously unqualified or morally disqualified candidates running for office, he liked to say that he wouldn’t vote for that person for dogcatcher. Nowadays, though, taking care of abandoned animals has far more cachet than in my father’s time, so I’m going to disagree with him – I would in fact vote for Jeff Sessions for dogcatcher. Anything to keep him from being the Attorney General of the United States.
Sessions came to national attention more than a year ago when he was the first, and practically only, senator to jump on the Trump bandwagon; now he is one of the three recently announced Trump nominees who appeal to the Make Believe Right.[1] His background is well documented, and begins in the office he may now run – he was an assistant U.S. Attorney in Alabama beginning in 1975, and was appointed by Reagan as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama in 1981. In the mid-80’s he prosecuted three African Americans for voter fraud, a decision that prompted cries of selective prosecution. They were quickly acquitted, but even years later Sessions continues to stand by his decision to prosecute. In other words, he was far ahead of his peers in creating the illusion of voter fraud to suppress minority voting. The acquittal did not hinder Sessions’ political ascendance, however; shortly thereafter, Reagan nominated him to be a federal judge.
His nomination hearing proved illuminating. A lawyer from the Department of Justice testified that he claimed the ACLU and NAACP were “communist-inspired” and “un-American,” and “forced civil rights down the throats of people;” a black assistant U.S. Attorney claimed that Sessions referred to him as “boy,” and told him to “be careful what you say to white folks.” His attempt to become a federal judge was voted down in committee. Rejected for his racist views, Sessions turned to a community he knew wouldn’t mind – the state of Alabama. In 1994 he was elected Attorney General of the state, and in 1996 became their junior senator. As a fellow senator, he is virtually assured enough votes in that chamber to be confirmed as Attorney General.
The consequences of this nomination are great, particularly for those most likely to be reading this blog. We must anticipate a further attempt to limit voting rights, now without a watchdog Department of Justice to crack down on obvious violations. Undocumented immigrants, a particular scapegoat for the President-elect, will be treated harshly by his nominee, who was quoted saying that building a wall between us and Mexico was “biblical.” (In this regard, he is correct – such ideas have failed since Biblical times). And Sessions, one of nine senators to oppose the ban on torture in 2005, is likely to be a regressive force in almost all criminal justice issues, very much including the death penalty. Elections do in fact matter.
Would Sessions make a good dogcatcher? Maybe not. But wouldn’t it be great to give him a nice long chance to succeed at it?