Conservatives’ tributes to John Lewis open them up to scrutiny of their actions on civil and voting rights

Fellow Democratic lawmakers testified about his contribution to U.S. history. But so did those who disagreed with Lewis on fundamental issues, thus attracting accusations of hypocrisy.

President Trump, who once dismissed Lewis as a man of “all talk, talk, talk — no action or results,” called the late lawmaker, who was brutally beaten by police while advocating for voting rights in 1965, a “civil rights hero” Saturday.

And Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R), who has repeatedly been accused of attempting to suppress the black vote in his state, ordered flags to be flown at half-staff in honor of Lewis, a victim of police violence while protesting laws that made it illegal for black people to vote.

It is not uncommon for lawmakers, think tanks and others in the political world on both sides of the aisle to pay their respects to the deceased on social media. But during an election year in which accusations of voter suppression have been rampant — including in the state Lewis represented in Congress — those who say Republican lawmakers have made it difficult for many Americans to vote had little patience for symbolic celebrations of a man whose life was committed to voting rights.

Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, tweeted that lawmakers who stood against issues that were dear to Lewis, particularly related to voting rights and protesting white supremacy, were not honoring the lawmaker.

And when the Cato Institute, a D.C.-based libertarian think tank, tweeted that Lewis was a “Libertarian Hero,” others in the policy world noted just how different the organization’s politics were from the late lawmaker’s.

And Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.) said Saturday that if Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), who called Lewis an “American hero,” really wanted to honor the lawmaker, he would allow his chamber to vote for the House-passed Voting Rights Act.

“As we like to say, I’m too busy watching what you’re doing to hear what you’re saying,” she said on MSNBC on Saturday. “If he wants to make clear his honor for the life, the legacy, the sacrifice, the heroism of John Lewis, put that on the floor for a vote, and let’s name it the John Lewis Voting Rights Act of 2020.”

In a statement, McConnell appeared to acknowledge his political differences with Lewis.

“You did not need to agree with John on many policy details to be awed by his life, admire his dedication to his neighbors in Georgia’s Fifth District, or appreciate his generous, respectful, and friendly bearing.”

But separating Lewis’s commitment to his constituents from the policies he supported is to misunderstand or misrepresent what motivated his approach to lawmaking. At Lewis’s core was a desire to provide marginalized Americans with the same rights as those in positions of power. And for conservative lawmakers to not even entertain pieces of legislation that Lewis supported opens them up to charges of putting out memorials that are more about symbolism than substance.