Crossposted with the Center for American Progress
For once, Foxnation.com got it right. "Dems Now Get Taste of Being Called 'Racist,'" said a screaming headline, and there's no denying it was true. How else to characterize a story in which ex-Republican presidential candidate Tom Tancredo and radio host Rush Limbaugh compared Sonia Sotomayor's opinions on race to those of the Ku Klux Klan.
David Duke found this to be a bit much. After all, he wrote, Judge Sonia Sotomayor, while Hispanic, was actually part and parcel of a Jewish conspiracy. Subsequently, Tancredo was asked if he wished to reconsider his KKK analogy. Alas, he declined. He also mentioned that he wasn't sure if the Obama administration hated white people.
Newt Gingrich also termed Sotomayor a "racist,"--a discovery he apparently felt so strongly about he announced it on Twitter it while visiting the Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland. Not long afterward, however, Gingrich apparently thought twice. In what was widely characterized as an "apology," he averred the word "racist" was perhaps an unfortunate choice, but that Sotomayor's words revealed "a betrayal of a fundamental principle of the American system--that everyone is equal before the law."
Forgive us if we are a little slow on the uptake here, but in fact, that's simply another way of calling the nominee racist. To be fair, it also implicates sexism as well. And even if Gingrich could be honestly judged to have dialed back the criticism ever so slightly on this inflammatory accusation, several other conservative minions of truth and taste, Ann Coulter, Glenn Beck, and Tucker Carlson clearly felt no such compunction...
You can read the rest of Eric Alterman and Danielle Ivory's analysis in their recent article, "Think Again: The Surprising Success of the Right-Wing Rant ."
Eric Alterman is a Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress and a Distinguished Professor of English at Brooklyn College. He is also a Nation columnist and a professor of journalism at the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism. His seventh book, Why We're Liberals: A Handbook for Restoring America's Most Important Ideals was recently published in paperback. He occasionally blogs at http://www.thenation.com/blogs/altercation.
Danielle Ivory is a reporter and producer for the American News Project. She lives in Washington, D.C.
This column was recently named as a finalist in the category of "Best Commentary -- Digital" for the Mirror Awards.
... and be warmly welcomed and abetted by what comically passes for "the press".
Every man, woman, and child is a racist. It is part of our natural DNA. Live with it.
The real question is how are we going to live harmoniously together on this earth. Maybe we can get lucky and destroy each other before we destroy the earth. That way we don't have to worry about the enviornment, global warming or any of those other insignificant real life items.
History will tell all. Hopefully there will be some non-racist around to read "Personkind History"
Why the reluctance to call it what it is? Words matter to clear thinking-- isn't "enhanced interrogation techniques" a different frame than "torture"?
The racist allegations about Sotomayor are a pattern of false accusations magnified by mass media outlets to appeal to emotion and prejudice to persuade opinions for political advantage. That is propaganda, and for a solid 20% of the audience, it is effective, which makes ignoring it dangerous.
If what the right is doing isn't propaganda, I would appreciate your analysis why it isn't. If there was some other point to your post, what was it?
It's true of plenty of Democrats too, of course. It's the ruling class mindset. The ruling class LOATHES real journalism.
There's nothing at all novel about the conservative attack on Sotomayor: it's the same old-same old we've been hearing for decades.
The politicians don't care if you are moderate, as long as you vote for them and buy from their corporate sponso... I mean contributers.
Listening, accepting and rational discourse are not valued because of the mass TV mentality. People who value intellectual conversation over a screaming match will either read something or listen to NPR.
If you want to see mass appeal for a left point of view, give the stage to guys like Keith Olberman, Jessie Ventura or even Jello Biafra (Yeah, that guy from the old punk band) and see how long it takes for them to gain popularity. Especially if you pay someone like Rush or Hannity to take regular abuse from them. (All those left wing representatives on most shows are paid to shut up and take it.)
It is sad, but that is how you get a point of view to the masses. Critical thought takes work and we are, after all, a lazy bunch of people, especially when we are off the clock.