Even South Carolina puts U. S. Congress to shame

In response to the church massacre in Charleston, the South Carolina governor and legislators have been genuinely awakened to the evils of slavery and the degradation that trickles down from white supremacy.

This week, the S. C. Senate voted 97 to 3 to remove the Confederate flag from its pole on the statehouse grounds and place it in the Confederate Museum of Relics.  The House followed suit with a vote of 94 to 20, and Gov. Nikki Haley has already signed the bill.

In contrast was an ugly controversy that arose among Republicans in the U. S. House of Representatives Commerce Committee.    Under President Obama's direction, the National Parks Service policy regarding the Confederate flag is that its sale is prohibited on Park Service properties, and any display is limited to historical or educational exhibits.

Republican leadership in House originally attached an amendment to the Interior Department funding bill to put that Park Service policy into law.   But Thursday, Republicans on the appropriations subcommittee introduced an amendment that would have allowed display of the Confederate flag in national cemetaries.

After outraged Democrats objected, Speaker John Boehner put the debate "in abeyance" for an unspecified time period, and it is still in effect.   What happens now is uncertain.

But that's not all.  In their first gun-related vote taken since the June 17th church massacre in Charleston, 32 members of the House Appropriations Committee voted to bock research into gun violence by the Centers for Disease Control.    They've done this before and for decades have prevented the CDC from investigating gun violence as a public health and safety measure.

This is despite the fact that it is now predicted that this year gun violence will outpace car accidents as the leading cause of death among young people in America.    Not a public safety concern?

The U. S. House of Representatives no longer represents the people of America.   Until we can change the gerrymandering process that protects incumbents, overturn voter ID laws,  and get some limits on the way money from the NRA and the financial elite distort our democratic process, we will continue to get this kind of "representatives."

The one glimmer of hope is that SCOTUS just upheld the constitutionality of Arizona's voter-initiated independent commission on redistricting.

Ralph