On race, campaign finance and states’ autonomy
Dr. Liddell does herself, her profession, and her “race” a huge disservice in playing the race card. I put “race” in quotes because we are all members of the human race, and there is no such animal as the Black race, White race, Asian race, nor any other. Being Black (Negroid), White (Caucasian), Asian, Oriental, or whatever is an ethnic description.
It is a shame that so many Black Americans are so eager to play the race card, … If somebody feels they must resort to playing the race card, they don’t have a leg upon which to stand.
Birney Imes and I have “known” each other probably 10 years or so. While we don’t see eye to eye on many subjects, especially politics, I do not for one instance believe he is a racist … Just tain’t so.
Susan Estrich wrote her column on the excessive amount of money, some six billion dollars, spent on elections last year. I have long felt that money bought too many elections. Joe Kennedy, patriarch of the Kennedy Clan, made his fortune bootlegging alcohol during Prohibition. He bragged that though the Presidency had been bought many times before, JFK’s election was the first time a single person had bought it.
We need true election reform in America to ensure a fair election from now on. When one man, or one group, can donate millions to one candidate, they are unduly influencing that election. What if their choice is a bought-and-paid-for puppet whose negative adds improperly influenced voters who never got a chance to hear the opponent’s points? All political donations should go to a pool to be distributed evenly among all viable candidates. The details shouldn’t be too hard to work out. Talk about leveling the playing field.
Mississippi is no longer a free and sovereign State, and hasn’t been since April, 1865. We do have a history of racial discrimination, but if Congress must, and did, pass a law overseeing everything political in Mississippi and a very few select other states, that law by rights should apply to every other state in the union. … I think our political system would be much improved if the states expressed more autonomy in politics and the feds did only what the Constitution allows.
Cameron Triplett
Brooksville
The Dispatch Editorial Board is made up of publisher Peter Imes, columnist Slim Smith, managing editor Zack Plair and senior newsroom staff.
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