The funeral would not be complete without the flawless O'Bambi lending his aspirational tones to the affair.
"The march is not yet over... the race is not yet won." We persist onward ever beating paths of righteousness through the wilderness toward that hope that springs eternal, and that day when we can truly say that all men and women, (regardless of where they came from or who they love or the color of their skin), are free at last, free at last, and, thank God Almighty, endowed with equal access to the pursuit of their happiness....
Doesn't this treacle nauseate anyone? It's not even good rhetoric.
Now...just the other month, the Flawless One, said that change is not possible without making people "uncomfortable". Well... I suppose riding along in a rickety cart as it bumps and wobbles toward the Place de la Revolution would make one "uncomfortable"... but I shan't quibble. I agree that the threat of change makes people in power 'uncomfortable."
Okee dokee.... Do people who are "uncomfortable" turn out in mawkish mass to do honours to their inconveniencer? I don't think so. The fact that the entire establishment has turned out to sing praises to John Lewis tells me that he didn't threaten them with change. And not threatening them with change did not do much to lead "his people" out of the wilderness in which they continue to find themselves after all these years of beating paths of righteousness....
Now to be fair. Lewis did significantly participate in the Civil Rights Movement. As a founding member of SNCC (pronounced "snick") he made J. Edgar Hoover and Strom Thurmond at least distinctly uncomfortable. In fact he made Saint Jack uncomfortable too. In fact, in fact, Lewis made the Holy Martin Luther King a tad uncomfortable as well. All fine and well. It was a great step forward on the path of righteousness that this country at last allowed Negroes to sit in the front of a bus and to sit at all at a counter.
But then Lewis got rewarded with a seat in Congrease. This is exactly what gets done in Mexico. Take someone who is making you uncomfortable and coopt him into government, where he will become instantly emasculated and compliant all the while giving lip service to... well to hope and change....
What did Lewis accomplish in his 30 years in Congress? I can't find a thing in Wiki. Roll Call magazine saith, "He has been called "the conscience of the U.S. Congress,” I suppose the way Bernie will be eulogized as the conscience of the Senate.... Yeah, but what did he DO? What, in the all important scale of Incrementalism did he get accomplished?
He (like Bernie) voted against Cumstain Clinton's "saving" welfare from destuction at the hands of lazy Black Baby Punchers.... He (like Bernie) voted against Banker Biden's Tough on Ni***rs Criminal Justice Deform. He (like Bernie) voted against Shocking and Awing Iraq. All well and good. But I can perhaps be forgiven for observing that Lewis' protests outside of Congrease were far more effective than his consciencing from within.
The point is not to dump on Lewis, although I do think that allowing one's self to be used as a feel good sop to the oppressed electorate he was elected to represent falls short of qualifying as "heroic". The point really is that it is IMPOSSIBLE TO WORK CHANGE WITHIN GOVERNMENT. The system was too diabolically crafted by Madison to prevent precisely that. As radical AOC now compliantly bleats her support of Biden, we might do well to consider whether electing progressives "to congress" is not the one sure fire way to defeat the progressive struggle for change.
Consider the past 200 years a defective first draft.
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