It misses the point, he says. Thurmond and Bush, he says, were trying to nettle Gore. That's a distinct possibility. Another possibility is that in America, historical memory is the first thing to go. That our amnesia makes us complicit in what politicians would prefer that we forget.
Amnesia is central to the mannered theater that is life in Washington.
You see Thurmond walk the Capitol's marbled corridors, and you mentally launder his reputation. A Thurmond-controlled party convention quickly adopted an oath requiring that primary voters swear allegiance to racial segregation in religious, social and educational affairs. Thurmond later gave the longest filibuster in Senate history, against the 1957 civil rights bill. It is leading the evolution of our nation to a socialistic dictatorship. Now, admittedly, this is more piling on of history.