Eric Holder’s complex legacy: A civil rights hero who defended the national security state

[DonViejo]

He fought police abuse and voter suppression, while prosecuting leakers. But even liberal critics will miss him

JOAN WALSH

Eric Holder’s legacy is going to be as complicated as that of the man he served, and perhaps more so, because personally, he has always seemed to stand to President Obama’s left. Or at least to stand for a more aggressive approach to the social justice issues he cared about.

He was brash when Obama was circumspect, calling us (correctly) “a nation of cowards” when it comes to race, and shooting back at his rabid right-wing critics, who treated the attorney general as a stand-in for our first black president and kicked him more viciously, since they didn’t even have to pretend to respect the office of the presidency when they faced him.

The first Cabinet member in history to be held in contempt by the House of Representatives, Holder was unbowed. He modeled backbone for frequently spineless Democrats, telling House oversight bully Darrell Issa that his behavior was “unacceptable … and shameful,” and warning Louie Gohmert, “You don’t want to go there, buddy,” when Gohmert mocked him about being found in contempt.

His courage wasn’t just rhetoric: He took the lead (with Obama’s blessing) on issues of crucial importance to African-Americans, and to everyone concerned about civil rights: the long-festering problem of police violence, lately an epidemic, and the erosion of voting rights in the wake of Obama’s 2008 election.

more
http://www.salon.com/2014/09/25/eric_holder%E2%80%99s_complex_legacy_a_civil_rights_hero_who_defended_the_national_security_state/

[MannyGoldstein]

1. What were his civil rights triumphs?

What am I forgetting?

[BeyondGeography]

2. Voting rights, Manny

You know, that thing that is constantly under assault from the very people you despise and, without which, nothing is possible.

[MannyGoldstein]

10. What are his three greatest accomplishments

In that area?

[BeyondGeography]

11. Posted below

If you care to read.

C'mon, you can do it.

[MannyGoldstein]

12. I see no accomplishments

Just losses.

P.S. At least when my teenager says something mean, it's rooted in reality. You seem to have no such limitation.

[BeyondGeography]

13. Manny gets personal

You know what, let's circle back on this when a Republican AG green lights every form of voter abuse imaginable and we lose elections as a result. Then the more humble among the perpetually unappreciative left will say, how'd we stop them in 2012 and win Florida? Was it Eric Holder? Since we're getting personal, I can safely say that won't be you though.

[MannyGoldstein]

14. In what way is it personal?

Do you mean my response to being told repeatedly that a won't or can't read?

[BeyondGeography]

15. That was demonstrably true

The answer to your question had already been posted in this thread. Not that it would have been enough for you to get off Holder's ass, of course.

I get your disappointment with Holder. Everyone wanted to see bankers frog-marched and just paying fines, even if it was $85 billion, wasn't enough. But his work on voter suppression was a lot more valuable to me than frog-marching a few reprobates. Even if you disagree, you should at least acknowledge its value. Passing over it just reinforces the, "they're all the same" thinking that permeates this board and which is fantastically and dangerously wrong.

[RussBLib]

16. +1000

[DonViejo]

3. Try reading the entire article instead of posting...

a knee-jerk response to the headline, Manny.

[Scuba]

5. I read the whole article. It describes Holders' voter rights work as "dramatically unfinished".

Can you cite any accomplishments on this front? There have certainly been a lot of opportunities.

Did DOJ pick up this case, for example, and I just missed it?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022607330

[BeyondGeography]

6. What's dramatically unfinished is the right's assault on voting rights

and Eric Holder has been in their face every step of the way. Maybe this helps:

http://www.thenation.com/blog/181761/eric-holders-voting-rights-legacy#

[Scuba]

7. Well, that's something ...

From your link ....

Enforcing the Voting Rights Act became a key priority for Holder’s Justice Department. In 2012, it successfully challenged Texas’s voter ID law, South Carolina’s voter ID law, and Florida’s cutbacks to early voting under the VRA.

[DonViejo]

8. Thanks for your response, Manny...

He took the lead (with Obama’s blessing) on issues of crucial importance to African-Americans, and to everyone concerned about civil rights: the long-festering problem of police violence, lately an epidemic, and the erosion of voting rights in the wake of Obama’s 2008 election.

Sometimes it helps to keep descriptions, e.g., "dramatically unfinished", in their intended context.

The other crucial issue that has distinguished Holder’s tenure, his campaign on behalf of voting rights – or specifically, his effort to beat back GOP voter suppression – comes to a head in November, as new voting rights restrictions could decide close contests in states like Wisconsin, Georgia and North Carolina. It’s hard to see Holder leave with that work so dramatically unfinished.

Yet that work is likely to be unfinished for a long time, as Republicans give up on widening their appeal to the electorate, and settle for narrowing the electorate itself. On Twitter, the Advancement Project co-director Judith Browne Dianis called Holder’s departure “devastating news” but predicted the Justice Department “will continue his work.”

and then, of course

On certain national security issues Holder tried to keep civil liberties in focus, but he got rolled by White House political team, most notably when he pushed to try high-profile terror suspects in federal court, not in military tribunals, back in 2010. He was also a staunch defender of moves to close Guantánamo prison, which was blocked by Congress.

[MannyGoldstein]

9. I almost always read articles before commenting

I did so this time.

Would you like to point out what I missed?

[Scuba]

4. "Even liberal critics will miss him" equals "we'll get someone even worse".

[blkmusclmachine]

17. The failures far outweigh the successes. But the 1% is happy, so we got that.