Empty of better ideas -- of any ideas -- of how to remain relevant, the reactionary wing of the conservative movement has chosen to quit faking respectability and get back to doing what they do best: cranking up the hate to eleven.
This is the week we have lived:
A week when Texas Governor Rick Perry -- a man with presidential aspirations -- gets comfortable being flippant about the idea secession, raising the specter of both the anti-civil rights movement and the Civil War.
A week when Texas Republican State Rep. Betty Brown (what is it with Texas?) told a hearing on voter registration that if Asians wanted to avoid problems at the polls they needed to change their names to something that's "easier for us to deal with."
A week when Illinois Republican Congressman Mark Kirk said he thought the people of Illinois "are ready to shoot" anyone who's going to raise taxes.
A week when the Caucasian Stepin Fetchit Glenn Beck -- which is more of a slam against Lincoln Perry than it is Glenn -- thought it was humorous to take on the guise of our president and pantomime him pouring gas on the average citizen before setting a match to him.
This is the week when even his cover as GOP Chairman couldn't outweigh his blackness and Michael Steele was unwelcome at the not-even-slightly-white-fright based tea parties where signs stoking the fears of WHITE SLAVERY were as prevalent as any saying: I LOVE AMERICA.
And this was the week where Minority Leader John Boehner's only take away from the Bush-authorized DHS report on the threat of extremist violence was that it was offensive to American soldiers.
Really? Offensive to soldiers? From the same John Boehner who, when presenting the Congressional Medal of Honor to the famed WW II era Tuskegee airmen repeatedly -- repeatedly -- referred to these great Americans as the "Tush-Chee-geee airmen." All those aides of his, and he couldn't have one of them run and get him a pronouncer?
Boehner could not disrespect or minimize more. Unless he were disrespecting and minimizing a warning on hate attacks directed primarily at people of color in this country.
And that's what really cuts: the conservatives, aided and abetted by their own Axis Sally Michelle Malkin who does the "that's not racist" dance of the seven white hoods at the slightest yank of her chain -- hate and deny and get indignant and deny some more when the reasoned try to connect the dots between their reactionary rhetoric and the violent consequences to which they lead. We're all just blowing some liberal kookiness and lefty conspiracies.
Tell that to the three Pittsburgh police officers killed by the young man who frequented neo-Nazi and anti-Semitic websites.
Tell that to the families of Marcelo Lucero, Jose Sucuzhanay. Both killed in the wake of President Obama's election in attacks prompted by their perceived place of origin and sexual orientation.
Tell that to the Southern Poverty Law Center which has been tracking an increase in hate crimes and hate group activities long before the "offensive" "conservative-baiting" DHS report.
Have something to say besides peppering every sentence with buzz words like "revolution," "fascism," and "secession."
And in that week what do reasonable people do? Wait to find out if CNN or Ashton Kutcher can arrive more quickly to a million Tweeters. Instead of meeting outrage head on, we let the haters slide.
These may be the last, desperate days of reactionary, anti-American Conservatism. But in the manner of a rabid animal backed against a wall, these are its most dangerous as well.
For more perspective, please visit That Minority Thing.com
It’s what you’re doin´ when you’re doin´ what you look like you’re doin´!"
Charles Wright and the Watts 103rd Street Band
WTF! This is serious, folks. I can't believe a US Concgressman would say some dangerous schitt like this. Letter writing time, people.!
Are you saying my $17 bribe, a paycheck, means that I must pledge my allegiance and loyalty to Obama??
The push to make everyone believe the tea parties where racist is falling on deaf ears outside of the pro-Obama liberal world.
I'm a Latina living in the South but originally from LA and I have NEVER been discriminated against by any white people. Matter of fact I have kids from white men. And one of them is from the most Southern of Southern lands. Appalachia. Several miles north of Milton, FL right on the Alabama-Florida border.
I always joke with my girl that I couldn't understand her dad when I first meant him. But hey hormones and hot bodies have ways of communicating all of their own.
So what was this about white racists???
Americans have sent a clear message that the politics of division are no longer acceptable, and that's why I wholly encourage Rush, Steele, Bachmann, Palin, Sanford, Jindal, Hannity, et al, to continue down the rhetorical path they chose to take before Obama even took the oath of office.
Each day that they maintain the incendiary posture, they relinquish just a little bit more of their share of the voting population's allegiance.
Obama has been relinquishing his share of the voting public's approval rating since he took office.
http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/obama_administration/obama_approval_index_history
At the risk of repeating yourself, don't hesitate to print follow-ups on this topic - the right isn't going to stop, and something tragic may come of it. Vigilance is our only hope,
I got the idea that this is a "Main Street or Real Americans will save the economy because there is no recession." It is all in our heads. We just need to think it away. One comment was that Main Street will solve the problem, not government.
Churches and businesses will link up by signing up and I think they pay a fee that goes to charity. Sorry I got so little but did anyone else hear this?
Someone younger with a better memory.
He does what he does for one reason. millions of dollars. He's a sell out.
' Comedy Group ' Except that nothing they say is funny - just DESPERATE. The hard line GOP seems to be frailing around looking for a way to' crush ' Obama before the 2010 mid term election.
They want power & control back so bad they can taste it. Remember :
the GOP has been in power 20 of the last 28 years.- most with a GOP congress.
So now they are having ' withdrawal pains ' and crave a ' FIX of POWER ' TO CALM THEIR PAIN.
They need to realize that they've had their time- Now someone else is in charge.
They need to step up , be statesman, and do what's good for the county - NOT the party .
After GOP / Reagan / Bush deregulation policies gave free reign to bankers & WAll ST- that led to
this crisis- that's the least they can do.
The tea party movement and all the rhetoric it engendered scared me greatly. As you say, this party may be on the wane, but a lot f deadly damage can still be wreaked.
http://emiliawahoo76.blogspot.com
http://myspace.com/virginiadem
with Cheney. King just let him lie and revise history ! No wonder voters are mis- informed / confused. Isn't the corporate owned news media supposed to keep us apprised of the truth ?
Are the fat cat anchors are out of touch with the people ? Seems so.
. I give them a grade of D . That's being kind.
Good Article.
Linda L. Ridley
Edgar J. Ridley & Associates, Inc.
International Management Consultants
www.globalproductivitycenter.com