Reply #44: Ah [View All]

This is a touchy issue. It's hard to say anything positive about the segregationist members of Congress because it gets construed as support for their stand on that issue. Allow me to say up front that they were wrong on that issue. They were wrong on other issues. The fact that they were wrong on those issues does not preclude the fact that they could be, and sometimes were, right on other issues. The disagreement over civil rights, though, did not necessarily mean that those people were worthless to the party. Richard Russell and Hubert Humphrey disagreed violently over civil rights, yet they were able to value each other both personally and professionally. If they, with that issue, saw no reason to 'excommunicate' people, I have trouble understanding the current calls for such treatment with issues that, while important, involve less clear cut moral stands.