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Monday, September 14, 2009

And Now the Race Card

Over the weekend and today, there was no less than three different articles in the media either intimating that opponents of President Obama were racist or analyzing those that say so. The only thing I could think was the chutzpah on these folks is obscene. First, here's a bit from a Politico article.

Rep. Mike Honda (D-Calif.), chairman of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, agreed with his colleague that elements of the opposition can’t accept the reality of a black president.

“There’s a very angry, small group of folks that just didn’t like the fact that Barack Obama won the presidency,” Honda said, adding: “With some, I think it is [about race].

Said Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) about the race factor: “There are some issues that have been swept under the rug and we’re not witnessing them come out.”

But it's still a sensitive enough issue that the party doesn’t broach it directly.

Virginia Governor and Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine used a speech Friday to single out those conservative critics whose hostility toward President Obama goes deeper than just opposing his policies — but without mentioning that which many in his party believe drives the anger.

Here's a bit of the now infamous Maureen Dowd column.

I’ve been loath to admit that the shrieking lunacy of the summer — the frantic efforts to paint our first black president as the Other, a foreigner, socialist, fascist, Marxist, racist, Commie, Nazi; a cad who would snuff old people; a snake who would indoctrinate kids — had much to do with race.

I tended to agree with some Obama advisers that Democratic presidents typically have provoked a frothing response from paranoids — from Father Coughlin against F.D.R. to Joe McCarthy against Truman to the John Birchers against J.F.K. and the vast right-wing conspiracy against Bill Clinton.

But Wilson’s shocking disrespect for the office of the president — no Democrat ever shouted “liar” at W. when he was hawking a fake case for war in Iraq — convinced me: Some people just can’t believe a black man is president and will never accept it.

Now, all of these folks suddenly using the race card against their opponents must have very short memories. That's because they have quickly forgotten how they and their allies and friends treated the former president, George W. Bush. Bush was compared to Hitler, called a liar, a war criminal, an idiot, a meglomaniac, a zealot, and evil. This happened for much of the previous eight years. Yet, no one was accused of being a racist. That's politics. Opponents often don't merely oppose but rather they get nasty about it. That's what happened to President Bush and we merely called partisanship and politics.

Now, the same thing is happening to President Obama and immediately we call it racist. Bush can be called a war criminal and no one is called a racist. Obama is called a socialist and some say it's code for race. Is anyone surprised that as soon as there was enough criticism of President Obama, someone immediately played the race card? Some surmise that there are those that don't consider President Obama to be a legitimate president. That's true. There are those that think that. Some of those folks immediately insinuate that this is because people are racist. Are they serious? How many Democrats don't consider that Bush won in 2000 legitimately? Did we call them racist? So, what's the difference exactly?

In fact, President Obama hasn't been criticized or mocked nearly as much President Bush was. President Bush was called all sorts of nasty things by his opponents. Many of the were over the line and inappropriate. Yet, no one ever played the race card when it was President Bush that was criticized. Now, suddenly, President Obama is criticized and immediately people call it racist. Like I said, the chutzpah is stunning.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well you have to admit, southerners are some of the most unrepentant people ever to have lost a war.

Remember when Jesse Helms opposed an MLK holiday because MLK was a "communist"?

Remember when Pat Buchanan said this country was founded for and by white people?

Remember when you yourself claimed everything good about this country came from libertarians and free-marketers?

It is not too particularly difficult to make the case that the right considers free-market capitalism synonymous with White Culture.

mike volpe said...

I don't have to admit anything but even so, what part of what you have said means that someone is racist. I don't remember saying what I said, but what part of that is racist?

Are you kidding someone who is for free market must be a racist? Chutzpah...

Paul said...

South Carolina has a long list of dignitaries that includes Lauren Caitlin Upton (Miss Teen USA 2007 pageant contestant), Board of Education Chair, Kristin Maguire, Governor (and avid Appalachian hiker), Mark Sanford and now Joe “the hater not a debater” Wilson or the “screamer not the dreamer” as others have dubbed him. I did enjoy him cut and running through his apology, which only goes to show that he stands for nothing. He is just another good old boy where in the morning these married men preach to you that there should be prayer in our schools and in the evening they are on their cell phones setting up a date with their other women on the side, hypocrisy has been bred in. I am not surprised that he felt compel to yell like he was at some Friday night game. So long Joey, you too will be seeing the unemployment lines.

Lisa said...

Did stiff faced Pelosi ever apoligize for calling the CIA liars?
Didn't Obama call people who read the bill liars?
Will Obama ever make a statement to stop playing the race card and invoking him in the middle of it? Of course not. It just goes to show he is behind it.

Paul said...

Some call Joe Wilson a great statesman, and are even proud of his “Shout Out”, so lets see, he says, he was told by the Republican leadership to apologize (he did not realize the magnitude of his mistake), he then gives his weak “not for reals” apology, but then goes on to those “Commentator Talk Shows” and basically says he real was not wrong and plays the victim card and calls for people to send in for money to support him for re-election. Had he kept quiet after his apology, that might have been the end of it but now that people know he lied about the apology the story will continue, until he is out of a job and the funny thing is, he does not see it coming. This summer has been rough for his beleaguered political party. At least he did not end up on the “Republican 2009 Summer of Love” list: Assemblyman, Michael D. Duvall (CA), Senator John Ensign (NV), Senator Paul Stanley (TN), Governor Mark Stanford (SC), Board of Ed Chair, and Kristin Maguire AKA Bridget Keeney (SC). In my opinion the Republican Party has been taken over the most extreme religious right (people who love to push their beliefs on others while trying to take away the rights of those they just hate) and that’s who they need to extract from their party if they real want to win. Good Luck, because as they said in WACO, “We Ain’t Coming Out”. The birthers, the tea baggers, the screamers, and the deathers continued extreme minority presence will become tiresome to mainstream America, if it has not already done so.