That foggy notion -- that things were better in that simpler, and whiter, America that he clings to in his imagination-- has animated the political career of Jeff Sessions ever since his youth. And it still pokes through a half-century later. Also last week, Sessions caused a stir when he asked how "a judge on an island in the Pacific" -- also known as Hawaii, one of the 50 U.S. states -- could block Trump's travel ban on mostly-Muslim nations. That's because Sessions can't comprehend how Hawaii -- which is majority non-white (mostly Asian) and also the producer of one Barack Obama -- can be part of his United States.