Leadership Fail: Maryland's Democratic Senate Leader Opposed Removing Statue of Notorious Judge from Dred Scott Case

Statue of Roger Taney at the Maryland State House

Maryland State Senate President Mike Miller

 It's 2017. And finally -- many years too late -- America is starting to purge itself of Confederate symbols and statues. This trend is now accelerating because of resurgent white-supremacist terrorism and a mad-man President who seems to endorse their world view. Truthfully, I can't believe any country would honor its traitors with statues and state songs. But hey, there are lots of things about America that I can't believe.

Here in Maryland, we've had our own racist statue. It's of Roger Taney; a Marylander who was the fifth Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court. Taney's statue -- until a few hours ago when it was removed -- sat regally on the grounds of the Maryland State House in Annapolis. What was Taney best known for? In 1857, he wrote the 7-2 decision in the famous Dred Scott case which upheld slavery and posited that black people could not be citizens of the United States. Legal scholars agree that this was one of the worst decisions in the entire history of the court. It was highly controversial at the time. And the enormous outrage over it was one factor that led to the Civil War a few years later. 

So Taney got his statue outside the state house in 1872. And you can imagine how offensive this was to African-Americans (and really anyone with a shred of decency). Over the years many politicians had tried to have it removed but were stymied by mysterious insider forces (translation: Maryland Senate President Mike Miller). Former State Delegate Jolene Ivey once awesomely quipped that the statue "sits like a turd in front of Maryland's State House" but she was powerless to remove it.

As part of Republican Governor Larry Hogan's attempts to distance himself from Trump's Basket Of Deplorables™ before his 2018 re-election, he cannily announced that he wants to remove Taney's statue. It required a majority vote by the four voting members of the Maryland State House Trust. The four members are Hogan, Miller, Speaker Mike Busch and Charles Edson who is the chairman of the trust's board. Apparently each of these four members also has veto power over decisions that are made regarding the State House. They voted via email last Wednesday and it was quietly removed in he pre-dawn hours his morning.

So how did the votes go? They voted remove Taney's statue 3-0 with one abstention. The abstention came from Mike Miller: 

"The fourth member of the panel, Senate President Thomas V. Mike Miller, did not immediately cast a vote Wednesday evening. Miller has said he does not support removing the statue, but will not try to block its removal."

Say WHAT?!? The longstanding Democratic leader of the Maryland State Senate abstained while the Republican Governor voted to remove the statue of the racist? Are you kidding me?

No. Unfortunately, I'm not kidding you. In fact, Miller followed up his abstention with a full-on criticism of Hogan and support for keeping the statue where it is:

"In a letter to the governor, Miller defended Taney’s legacy and said the memorial should stay put to help educate people about the past."

Miller also made some noises about the process, but truthfully, that just seems like concern trolling.

Let me be clear about Miller's pro-Taney advocacy: It is a massive failure of leadership. We are at a point in time when White Supremacists are resurgent and have elected their man to the White House. Fights over similar statues are raging all across the country. And Trump has (of course) weighed in on the side of the racist statues. Democrats are supposed to be fighting against the racists, not on their side. Yet here in Maryland, we are stuck with Miller -- like many many times before -- carrying water for right-wingers.

Hey, Maryland Senators: It's long past time to show Mike Miller the door. He has got to go. Find your collective backbones and confront this man. If you do, you might just be the next President of the Maryland State Senate.