Rep. Steve King has a history of making strange, offensive and arguably bigoted statements. But he sank to a new low recently when he tried to block Harriet Tubman’s likeness from appearing on the $20 bill.
The Iowa Republican proposed an amendment to the Treasury Department spending bill to prevent it from replacing President Andrew Jackson with Tubman. King’s reasoning was that he just doesn’t like change. “It’s not about Harriet Tubman,” he said, “it’s about keeping the picture on the 20. You know? Why would you want to change that? I am a conservative, I like to keep what we have.”
Actually it was about Harriet Tubman. King said he found putting Tubman on currency “sexist” and “racist.” And he called Obama’s proposal “divisive.”
“President Obama’s on his way out the door. He’s going to do everything he can think of to upset this society and this civilization.”
And so in King’s world, placing an abolitionist hero on currency will somehow upset the course of civilization.
A common refrain among conservatives during Obama’s presidency has been that Obama constantly seeks to divide Americans against one another. While I agree that he has done so in some respects, on race Obama has been remarkably even-handed and even avoided many controversies into which he could have inserted himself.
To briefly review: Jackson owned hundreds of slaves and arguably engaged in genocide. No one — not even King — can claim that Tubman was not both a great American. She was a slave who escaped her captors and went on to save some 70 people during more than a dozen rescue trips on the Underground Railroad.
The House Rules Committee blocked King’s proposal on Tuesday. But the damage was done for King. He’s being lambasted all over the Internet.
King’s proposal reinforces the notion that Republicans are racist or at least insensitive to the feelings of minorities. To be sure, liberals are quick to call almost everything racist, but this measure seems designed to do nothing except justify the charge.
Republicans cluelessly ask themselves why they keep losing the black vote by 80 and 90-point margins, but this sort of thing illustrates how much better Democrats are at signaling to blacks (and most other historically discriminated against groups for that matter) that they are on their side. Some Republicans seem completely obtuse about the need to do this.
But as Teddy Roosevelt once said, “People don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care.” And right now, with prominent Repbulicans like King and Trump making bigoted and racially insensitive remarks, most minorities have come to the conclusion that Republicans don’t care all that much about them.
Daniel Allott is deputy commentary editor for the Washington Examiner
