In 2008, one phrase captivated the entire world: “Yes we can!” What exactly is it that “we” can do? When will our political leaders do just that, lead? When will these men and women stand up and stop making excuses for their colleagues while holding their opponent’s feet to the fire for the same errors?
In October 2009, word leaked that Rush Limbaugh was a minority member in a group hoping to purchase the St. Louis Rams football team. It is ironic that the term minority would ever be used to describe a position for Limbaugh, but in this case, it was his position with Dave Checketts in this potential ownership group. The news outraged a portion of our society when Limbaugh made negative remarks about a African American quarterback in 2003 while working for ESPN. The Wednesday immediately following the incident, Limbaugh resigned his position at ESPN and issued a statement stating, “My comments this past Sunday were directed at the media and were not racially motivated.” Six years after these remarks, leaders of the Democratic party were quick to continue criticizing Limbaugh and push that the NFL, a private company not allow Limbaugh to join the prestigious ranks of owners.
In the book “Game Change” Mark Halperin and John Heilemann have attributed Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid as being “wowed by Obama’s oratorical gifts and believed that the country was ready to embrace a African American presidential candidate, especially one such as Obama – a ‘light-skinned’ African American ‘with no Negro dialect, unless he wanted to have one.” Of course Reid, who like Limbaugh, has been known to put his foot in his mouth, phoned President Obama to offer a personal apology and later issued a public apology for his private comments. Republicans of course asked that Reid resign his position while Democrat leaders accepted the apology and stood behind Reid.
These are the same people who criticized Rush Limbaugh and sought (successfully) to stop his attempt to purchase a private company, yet they rallied to help Harry Reid retain his leadership position in government. Both men made racially insensitive remarks but met radically different support from the minority communities. Reid, due to his alignment with liberals and minority groups, does not appear in danger to lose his position. However, if he were a conservative or Republican leader, this would not be the case.
The point here is that at some point in life, everyone is bound to say something damning. This does not mean they are horrible people, or that this utterance should follow them a lifetime. At some point, we all have to be willing to grant another person forgiveness for saying something. We have to be willing to move on from the past. We have to stop making exceptions for those that are close to us while vilifying our rivals. If there is any hope for double standards to end, we need our leaders to begin doing this if we can hope the rest of the country will follow suit.