A U.S. Senate More Like America

What a difference a new perspective can make, especially in the close-knit, tradition-bound Senate.

Sen. Carol Moseley-Braun of Illinois, the Senate’s only African-American member, touched off a riveting debate Thursday that provided an unusual display of heart among her colleagues. Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) tried to slip into the national service bill an amendment to preserve the design patent of the United Daughters of the Confederacy--a laurel wreath encircling the flag of the Confederacy. Congressional renewal of the patent had always been an expected courtesy.

But one person’s courtesy can be another’s insult, Moseley-Braun was quick to point out. To romantics of the Old South, the Confederate flag may be a symbol of regional pride; to most African-Americans, whose ancestors were traded as human chattel in the South, the Confederate flag is a symbol of racism and oppression. As such, she said, it is undeserving of a congressional imprimatur.

Her colleagues got the message. Sen. Howell Heflin of Alabama reversed his earlier support for the amendment, which then went down to defeat. Heflin said in a wavering voice that his family was “rooted in the Confederacy” but “we must get racism behind us. We must move forward. We must realize we live in America today.”

It was quite a busy day for Moseley-Braun. As one of only two women (Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California is the other) on the Senate Judiciary Committee, Moseley-Braun criticized Sen. Orrin G. Hatch during confirmation hearings on the nomination of Ruth Bader Ginsburg to the Supreme Court. The Utah Republican made a theoretical comparison between the Roe vs. Wade abortion rights ruling of 1973 and the infamous Dred Scott decision of 1857, which sanctioned slavery. When Moseley-Braun objected, Hatch quickly apologized.

A day like Moseley-Braun had Thursday serves to remind voters of the value of diversity in the U.S. Senate. The Senate is often run on private understandings and longstanding tradition. But sometimes “tradition” is not all-embracing. It must become more so. It was a little more so this week.