GOP Hypocrites: We Like our New African-American President!

Republican leaders, from President Bush and John McCain on down, have fallen all over themselves to hail Barack Obama's election as the first African-American president. In McCain's concession speech, where he had to briefly calm down the mob he and Palin had stoked during the campaign with their coded appeals to racism and fear, he referred to Mr. Obama's victory Tuesday night as "a historic election" and hailed the "special pride" it held for African-Americans.

By emphasizing Obama's victory as a triumph primarily for African-Americans, it's also a not-so-veiled way of marginalizing him, as if he was some sort of affirmative action hire, the "token Negro" they can approve of -- and then blame if anything goes wrong as he tries to clean up the mess of a cratering economy and two endless wars they left him. By pigeonholing him as the "black" candidate, it overlooks the fact that's he's a once-in-a-generation leader who has stirred the admiration of people of all races around the world with his eloquence, intelligence and vision for change.

What's especially galling, of course, is that the Republican Party's political strength and election victories have been built in large part on cleaned-up appeals to racism and fear, starting with the "Southern strategy" of Richard Nixon appealing to whites infuriated by Democratic-led civil rights laws and federal interference, along with rising inner-city crime rates. The strategy was first proposed in The Emerging Republican Majority by Kevin Phillips.

Ronald Reagan built on those appeals by praising state rights in Philadelphia, Mississippi to launch his campaign, the site where local bigots killed civil rights workers, or referring to mythological "welfare queens" riding around in Cadillacs. Lee Atwater's handiwork with the Willie Horton ad and other smear campaigns, brilliantly documented in the Boogie Man movie scheduled for airing on PBS, set the template for modern Republican campaigning. Karl Rove's divide-and-conquer strategy also included coded appeals to racial divisions and resentments.

The continuing impact of such direct and indirect racial politics as cornerstones of the Republican Party are chronicled in such important books as Nixonland and Chain Reaction.

The RNC's then- director, the almost-moderate Ken Mehlman, admitted as much just a few years ago to the NAACP: "Some Republicans gave up on winning the African American vote, looking the other way or trying to benefit politically from racial polarization. I am here today as the Republican chairman to tell you we were wrong."

But that didn't stop McCain, the Republican National Committee today and its allies from using racist appeals in this campaign. They featured ads flaunting the Rev. Jeremiah Wright's incendiary speeches, while McCain proudly approved an ad featuring the image of Barack Obama hovering over little white kids as a symbolic predator while an announcer ominously lied that he approved a bill promoting "comprehensive sex education" for kindergarten students.

Now they're getting all weepy with crocodile tears of emotion and new-found tolerance in hailing this special moment for African-Americans, the election of Barack Obama as president. Don't believe any of it: it's a mix of pompous self-congratulation for being so "tolerant" along with a set-up to attack him in the future and return to their coded racist appeals, if they think that will work, in upcoming elections.
***
You can hear more about about Republican hypocrisy, the impact of Obama's election and the prospects for progressive change on the Web radio show I co-host at Blog Talk Radio.

Comments

[joeyfoto]

Everyone now knows that the divide&conquer tactics of the McCain/Palin campaign were despicable, because they failed. They embraced the Buchanan, Helms, Atwater, Rove sleaze, as long as it worked. They were simply outgunned in 2008 by the brainpower of a clearly superior candidate who had the strength of character not to go there. I'm sad for Senator McCain. In following the lead of campaign professionals, he demonstrated that he lacked the character to lead a nation in crisis. In fact, his fatal mistake was out-of-character, unlike his running mate who has first-rate killer instincts, but lacks the brains for a national hunt.

It was a beautiful sight to see that Pat Robertson & James Dobson finally got their own third-party. Who would have thought that it would be the GOP. The diversions that the Republicans have used for decades to drive party loyalty among poor, rural, uneducated white people to inspire them to vote against their economic self-interest in the false hope of preventing my girl-friend's abortion or my gay neighbor's marriage - things which are essentially none of their business and things the prevention of which would have gained them nothing - have finally worn out their power. The battle is won. The war is not over. Now it is time to pump up the earnings of the middle-class, so that when Republicans finally return to power in eight, twelve or sixteen years, we will again have something for them to steal.

[Norge]

It is water under the bridge and Obama has had a land slide victory wherein there is no question about who won or votes uncounted.

First give it a chance and as for the repugs, consider the source and that they of course are very disappointed and perhaps depressed to some extent that after all of their work it did not come to fruitation. Others will of course also be very bitter and will require time to come to terms with their lose.

It is the election hangover.
Normal.

[margie42]

let me see if I understand this correctly. If a Republican congratulates Obama and offers to work with him they are hypocrites and if they don't they are racists. Something that I wonder about is how the Democrats would have reacted to a president elect Michael Steele. Another question that I have is where were the African Americans in Friday's meeting? I only saw white faces in that lineup surrounding Obama. None of you have given George Bush credit for his efforts to have his administration be racially inclusive.
I believe that this article and the comments posted so far are what the Repubicans as well as what white people have to look forward to in the next four years and that is a no win situation for everyone. How am I supposed to explain this attitude to my young children and still have them grow into adults that are accepting of all human beings regardless of their race?

[NYSF]

Most Americans act as if Lincoln was some kind of hero to Black people. That is a myth, and an underserving one at that.
Lincoln didnt free the slaves because he viewed it as deplorable, and immoral.
It was a purely political move. While I am not questioning whether or not he was a great president, I get tired of hearing people talk about him "freeing the slaves" as if he was Harriet Tubmans husband or something....

[apoyo]

Being that the Republicans are the party of Lincoln, they should have courted the African-American vote all along. Instead of scare tactics and voter suppression and demeaning coded language they should have had an outreach program to help them cast their votes. But, yet again they were on the wrong side of history.

How ironic that now we have reached a point in time where an African American president has to stitch together a country ripped apart by false rhetoric.

[MPeter]

Thank you Tom for calling the Rethugs on it. I particularly loved this part:
'What's especially galling, of course, is that the Republican Party's political strength and election victories have been built in large part on cleaned-up appeals to racism and fear, starting with the "Southern strategy" of Richard Nixon appealing to whites infuriated by Democratic-led civil rights laws and federal interference, along with rising inner-city crime rates. The strategy was first proposed in The Emerging Republican Majority by Kevin Phillips.'

Rethugs cannot eat their cake and have it too. They must really think we are so dumb!! We'll not be fooled by the rabid bigots now humbled in defeat.

[silverball]

tom, i couldn't agree more....they haven't put the knives away....they're just sharpening them...

[deepfreezevideo]

And lengthening them.
They're going to use the knives on each other first, then turn on
the rest of the world.