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Who would you have expected to vote "nay?"
by ralusek 5y ago
Who would you have expected to vote "nay?"
- quesera 5y agoThe people who prefer not to confront the ugly parts of history directly. There are many.
- ralusek 5y agoThere are people who would not celebrate the emancipation of slavery?
- quesera 5y agoAbsolutely, yes. A disturbing number of fairly vocal people. Probably none in the Senate who are the voters in question here, but a non-zero number of them who are influenced by a minority of their constituents. I've met and spoken to these people in real life. Perhaps you have not had the privilege. And it is worth noting that it took more than 150 years for something so obviously correct and worthy to be commemorated. We don't even celebrate the end of the Civil War. Some people still earnestly call it the War of Northern Aggression. These things all mean something.
- quesera 5y agoPS to yesterday's sibling comment: Today, the House voted on the same bill. It passed overwhelmingly 415-14. The 14 representatives who voted "nay" to the celebration of the end of slavery came from exactly the usual suspects. So, again, yes.
- koheripbal 5y agoWhen it comes to virtue signaling, everyone is onboard.
- quesera 5y agoAre you implying that making Juneteenth a Federal holiday is virtue signalling? Some things are both virtuous, and worth signalling to others.
- koheripbal 5y agoThere might be a healthy balance between actual change, and signaling change. ...but I would argue that modern society is currently obsessed with signaling, and not at all discussing real change.
- quesera 5y agoI agree with you on that. There's a wide spectrum of signalling between the extremes of "Hitting the Like button Really Really Hard", and "Creating a new Federal Holiday". I wouldn't argue that this signal is productive, per se. Very few people honor the intent of Federal holidays anyway. But the signal is powerful, and I've learned that powerful signals do make an impact on psychology. The whole concept of America, quite honestly, is one of symbols and signals. We can never live up to our mythology, but we can make sure the things we aim for are as honorable as possible. That's meaningful.