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Symbolic Legislative Action

Last week, 11 Senators (2 from Texas) chose not to sign on as co-sponsors of the bill apologizing for the Senate’s failure to pass anti-lynching legislation. Terry Neal asks a good question in the Washington Post today:

Really, what reasonable person thinks any of the senators who didn’t sign the lynching apology bill actually endorses that morbid practice?

The better question is, by declining to sign on to the resolution, did they practice symbolic politics, just as those who signed it also practiced symbolic politics? The senators who failed to sign the measure prior to its passage — with the exception of Voinovich — were either from southern states or states with relatively small African American populations. Only the senators themselves know their true motivations.