Conservatives and Racism!!!!

[Joanne98]

I am by nature an optimist. Even when I posted on Redneck Pride, I assumed the role of the cultural anthropologist trying (as I have since I first met Levon Helm in 1968) to understand the crackers. But it is dawning on me that the level of racism that is tolerated or even encouraged by the conservative movement is a “bridge too far” and that there may in fact be two Americas.

Exhibit A- Two morons from Franklin Tennessee, Mark Whitlock and Bob DeMoss, were selling Obama Waffles at the Values Voters Summit this morning in Washington. While next door to these cretin’s salesbooth Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney rattled on about the Conservative Revolution, the true colors of the right wing appeal may be depicted on this disgusting regurgitation of the Aunt Jemima stereotype. Rush Limbaugh may regularly play his “Barack, the Magic Negro” ditty to an appreciative radio audience without fear of censure. But I know the days of these Sons of the Klan are numbered. But as long as the press are silent and tolerant of Limbaugh and his dittoheads, this crap will continue.

In 54 days we will find out if Neanderthals like Whitlock and Demoss make up enough of the population to deprive our country of the real change it deserves. Many of you have asked me to stop acting like the electorate is a rational body, open to dealing with the facts of a Republican Party that has drawn our nation into the extremes of peril. I will go to church tomorrow morning and pray to God to forgive Whitlock, Demoss and Limbaugh for the poison they are pouring on our polity. And then I will get up and work hard for the next 50 days in the belief that they don’t represent a majority of hate.

http://jtaplin.wordpress.com/2008/09/13/conservatives-and-racism/

[BlooInBloo]

1. They LIKE being racist. They ENJOY being racist. It's not fear or anything else....

that racism-defenders like to cite. They simple WANT to be racist.

[Ohio Joe]

2. I don't think I agree

I think it is far worse, I think they really believe they are not racists. I think they really believe what they have been taught, that the white man is superior and the idea of someone from any other race even considering running for President is a joke.

[xen]

3. The Supremacist and haters are proud of the Republican party

You are correct.A lot of the Republicans ideas would make Hitler,the KKK,Supremest,and other hate filled groups proud,and if they had to choose a party between the Dems and the Re pub,you know which one they would pick.

[Brewman_Jax]

4. Be very worried

The fact that David Duke was elected to the state (LA) legislature and garnered a notable percentage of votes for governor and US senator is cause for concern.

http://www.adl.org/learn/ext_us/duke.asp?xpicked=2&item=4

[caraher]

5. There are many flavors of racist

Some believe they are not racist (many of them also do not see racism in others, and we can charitably say they simply extend this blindness to themselves). Others acknowledge their racism, at least among friends, but say that so is everyone else, whether they admit it or not (and feel righteously superior because "at least I admit it.")

I guess what worried me more than the fact that racists are with us, and perhaps more than the media silence on the more egregious examples like those in the OP, is the subtle ways media bring it to the fore. Just yesterday the Indianapolis Star reported their poll results showing Obama edging ahead of McCain in this very "red" state, and as part of their polling asked a bunch of subsidiary questions. One of them was, "Are you worried that Obama's race or McCain's age might interfere with his ability to govern?" (from memory; I may not have it exactly).

The very question, made to appear innocuous by the pseudo "balance" of equating concerns about McCain's age with accepting racism as a reason to vote against someone, is just another bit of "push polling." It reminds me of when I was canvassing for Jesse Jackson in 1988 and the people who would say, "I like him and would vote for him, but I'm worried that he is not, ummm, 'electable.'" (My stock answer: no politician whose supporters won't vote for their top choice is electable!) It implicitly advocates the notion that, even if Obama would be the superior on his merits, the inferior candidate might be more effective because our country is too racist to accept Obama's leadership. What scares me is that people who don't want to see themselves as racist are vulnerable to that kind of rationalization.