Преследование справедливости

После того, как в 1994 Энн Ричардс, популярный демократический губернатор Техаса, проиграла на выборах Джорджу Бушу-младшему, ни одному демократу не удавалось победить на выборах в Техасе на любую должность, которая требовала голосование всего штата. Техас стал неизлечимо "красным" штатом.

Избирательная кампания Буша, под руководством Карла Роува, велась грязно, по всем правилам республиканской политтехнологии. В частности исподтишка использовалась апелляция к гомофобии.

Richards: It was huge. I had no idea it was going on. They started a below-the-radar whisper campaign that there were people who worked for me in the governor’s office who weren’t married, and because they weren’t married, they were probably gay, and then the next step was, well, maybe if they were gay, maybe I was too. I saw the piece of material they were putting on windshields of automobiles in parking lots of right-wing churches that showed a black man and a white man kissing each other, with the message “This is what Ann Richards wants to teach your children in the public schools.” It was a key part of their campaign, and I was just flabbergasted by it. My God, I’d been married thirty years! I had four children!
https://www.texasmonthly.com/politics/little-did-we-know/

"" (Watch on YouTube)

Ричардс прославилась на национальной арене зажигательным выступлением на съезде демократов в июле 1988.

"I'm a grandmother now. And I have one nearly perfect granddaughter named Lily. And when I hold that grandbaby, I feel the continuity of life that unites us, that binds generation to generation, that ties us with each other. <...>
And as I sit there, I wonder if she'll every grasp the changes I've seen in my life — if she'll ever believe that there was a time when blacks could not drink from public water fountains, when Hispanic children were punished for speaking Spanish in the public schools and women couldn't vote.
I think of all the political fights I've fought and all the compromises I've had to accept as part payment. And I think of all the small victories that have added up to national triumphs. And all the things that never would have happened and all the people who would have been left behind if we had not reasoned and fought and won those battles together."
https://www.nytimes.com/1988/07/19/us/transcript-of-the-keynote-address-by-ann-richards-the-texas-treasurer.html

В том же месяце Роберта Каплан, молодая студентка из Гарварда, изучающая русский язык и культуру, приезжает на стажировку в Москву и по наводке еврейских организаций знакомится с «отказниками» и диссидентами.
https://digifindingaids.cjh.org/?pID=254789

По СССР в эро время шли трещины. В июле 1988 Политбюро ЦК КПСС приняло постановление “О сооружении памятника жертвам беззаконий и репрессий”, а в Москве прошёл первый советский конкурс красоты «Московская красавица».

( Read more... )