Bad Bromance

I won’t shed a tear for the demise of the Sessions-Trump bromance. They were an odd couple from day one, joined together by a shared hatred for brown people with foreign accents and outdated ideas about drug enforcement. Bad policy is not enough to sustain a longterm love affair. If Sessions is removed from office—and I don’t see how he avoids it—his political career will likely be over. Good riddance. Sessions has been a blight on the American political system for decades. The current attorney general and former senator from Alabama has a history of making bizarre racist comments that aren’t softened by his impish, drawling delivery. He famously said he thought members of the KKK were okay until he found out they smoked pot. He also complained that the NAACP was trying “force civil rights down the throats of people,” as if equality were nothing but a bitter pill. Sessions has always tried to play off these comments as nothing but jokes or loose talk among friends. This tendency to say terrible things and expect no consequences is a trait he shares with Trump. I suspect it’s what first attracted the two men to one another.

Sessions wasn’t shocked when Trump was discovered to have made bawdy and grotesque comments about sexual assault. How could he be? Can you imagine the sorts of things Sessions says in private if he is bold enough to call an Alabama judge “boy” in public? And it isn’t just his record on race that is appalling. Sessions is no friend to women. Sure, he’s never bragged about “grabbing ’em by the pussy,” but as a senator he consistently opposed funding for lifesaving breast cancer screenings, contraception, and women’s health initiatives as a whole. He does not believe women ought to be able to sue for income parity in the workplace.  Sessions is anti-woman, anti-minority, anti-LGBT, and anti-American. His convictions are terrible, but they are strong and consistent. It is rich that his career is being destroyed by a president whose own moral convictions don’t seem to run deeper than a puddle. And richer still that Sessions was one of the first major public figures to treat Trump’s presidential bid as something more than a circus sideshow. Sessions has brought upon his own demise by casting his lot with the ringmaster of scandal.

Sessions will be lucky if he only loses his job. He stands to lose much more, including his freedom. The former prosecutor may well find himself on the wrong side of the law. Sessions is unlikely to receive any support from his latest bro-mantic partner. Trump is too busy casting around for ways to pardon family members and himself. I doubt he’ll waste any energy on saving the pink-cheeked, elfin racist from the Deep South. Sessions has spent his entire career making sure the justice system is harsh and unforgiving. Let’s hope it lives up to his expectations.

Tiffany Quay Tyson
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Tiffany Quay Tyson