Senator Tim Scott Knows Embracing White Supremacy Is His Only Chance To Win Re-election by Robert Covington Jr.
Senator Tim Scott is a psychologically damaged, spiritually wounded black man. He is not a role model for black Americans, his mediocrity and lack of depth is on display every time he speaks, and his political survival is predicated on maintaining the support of white racists in South Carolina that elevated his career.
Senator Scott would never admit this in public because a big part of his rise in politics has been to use his color and blackness as a point of convenience, advancement, inoculation, negation, and neutrality that does not exist. Scott has been masterful in utilizing different elements of his blackness in these ways.
His story of growing up poor, being raised by a black single mother, attending a Christian, Baptist based University, running a business, and experiencing racial profiling, all have been used in calculating ways by Scott over the years. Senator Scott is aware that he is the first black Senator from the south since Reconstruction. However, black Senators like Hiram Revels from reconstruction that committed their lives to using their power to uplift and empower black Americans in an unjust society would cringe in shame and embarrassment if they knew they were followed by a man like Tim Scott.
The Senator from South Carolina has made it clear in interviews that he isn’t fixated on his color, which plays out in his politics of minimizing group affiliation in political and policy terms. This benefits HIM, not the black community that should have made him a powerful voice to protecting our progress and improving our lives within a society that constantly attacks our humanity and existence, and he knows it. No one is asking him to become fixated with his color, but to understand it in the larger context of what it has meant and what it continues to mean in a multiracial society grappling with the venom of white supremacy.
Tim Scott has chosen a different path than his reconstruction predecessors. Scott identifies himself as a conservative but what that looks like in actual terms is filled with wretchedness, cruelty, violence and destruction. Any disingenuous rhetoric of black love and care foaming from the mouth of Tim Scott should be condemned and judged as harshly as it deserves because the record says otherwise.
Tim Scott came gained more power and national prominence during the wave of the Tea Party and all of its white anger, resentment and racism. Scott identified with that movement, not the suffering of black South Carolinians at the hands of white racist politicians in the state. Scott reinforced his alliance with the Tea Party by speaking in support of their cause in front of the NAACP, an organization that has been committed to securing and protecting the rights of black Americans for over 100 years and said this: “The Tea Party is a color-blind movement that has principled differences with many of the leaders in Washington, both Democrats and Republicans,” Scott said at the time. “Their aim is to support the strongest candidates — regardless of color or background — who will fight to return our country to its Constitutional roots of limited government, fiscal responsibility, and free markets.” Man, please.
Tim Scott has likely convinced himself that his initial appointment to the U.S. Senate by then Governor Nikki Haley had nothing to do with (affirmative action)rewarding a black man with a right-wing view of the world during the Obama era. Nor that he benefited from being on the same state and national ticket of fellow sycophant Lindsay Graham in 2014 and Trump in 2016.
Tim Scott has supported the elimination of the Affordable Care Act, which would have removed health insurance for 23 million Americans. Scott voted to end Medicare in its current form. Tim Scott has aligned with Mitch McConnell every step of the way with tax cuts, appointments of racist and unqualified judges that will render decisions that will adversely affect communities of color in different ways. Tim Scott supported the appointments of Supreme Court Justices Gorsuch, Cavanaugh and Barrett while going along with McConnell’s obstruction, abuse of power and methodical dismemberment of democracy.
Tim Scott’s crowning disgrace was his unwavering support of Donald Trump when he was president, one of the most racist, anti-black, anti-human presidents America has ever produced. Scott, like many others that have exploited Jesus Christ and God for political gain with their phony embrace of Christianity stood by and supported Trump through all of the sexual assault allegations.
Tim Scott idly stood by as Trump engaged in daily attacks on black politicians, black lives and black interests and intelligence. Scott and all of his professed love of Christianity did nothing to stop Trump’s crimes against humanity in the brutal and cruel separation of migrant mothers from their children. Where was Tim Scott’s call in the name of Jesus Christ to hold Trump accountable for recklessly and maliciously engaging in criminal negligence that led to hundreds of thousands of dead Americans because of the coronavirus? And unsurprisingly, Senator Tim Scott’s claim of being a defender of the constitution blew up in smoke with his unwavering defense of Trump’s abuse of power during his multiple impeachment hearings.
As we move forward, we know Tim Scott will not forcefully condemn the rampant white supremacy sponsored racist voter suppression laws happening around the country and will not work to formulate a coalition of Republican Senators to pass HR1. There is nothing courageous or principled about this man. Scott downplays and gaslights the sickness of white supremacy as if people are making this up.
I encourage everyone to listen to his speeches and podcasts. Scott talks and thinks like white racists and he formulates conceptions of victimhood and ‘otherness’ just like white racists do. Scott speaks of liberal takeovers and conservatives saving us from an unrecognizable world under socialist rule. He is a firm believer, folks.
Black South Carolinians understood Tim Scott a long time ago and it is evidenced by the consistency of receiving a small percentage of the black vote. And that trend will continue in the future because he’s a threat to our well-being. Tim Scott is not fooling anyone but himself. Now the rest of black America is learning how uninspiring, dangerous, and right-wing Tim Scott is.
Follow me on twitter: @robcovingtonjr
