What a surprise! Racist Repug Campaign

[boutons_deux]

12 Bigoted Taunts Peddled By Romney Camp and Allies

Mitt Romney's named campaign advisers want you to know that they had nothing, nada -- oops, didn't mean to use a foreign word -- to do with the assertion [2] of an unnamed campaign adviser that Barack Obama just doesn't get that special relationship between the United Kingdom and the United States on account of his father being from Kenya. From the Telegraph [3]:

“We are part of an Anglo-Saxon heritage, and he feels that the special relationship is special,” the adviser said of Mr Romney, adding: “The White House didn’t fully appreciate the shared history we have”.

Yowsa. Might that have been a bit too explicit a revelation of the Romney metamessage? Late on Wednesday, the Associated Press reported [4]:

Romney campaign spokesman Ryan Williams said Wednesday that if an adviser did say that, the adviser wasn’t reflecting Romney’s views.

But Telegraph readers, and those of us following the campaign stateside, might be forgiven for taking the report at face value, seeing how it simply follows a pattern of race-baiting and xenophobic condemnations of the president by Romney and his surrogates -- a pattern that dates back to last January. Corporate media largely ignored the subtext of Romney's earliest race-coded comments, and have been content to let more recent and blatant examples die after a day in the news cycle. So, as a public service, AlterNet here serves up 12 of the Romney campaign's great moments in bigotry.

1. Only Anglo-Saxons need apply.

As recounted above, and blogged [2] by Sarah Seltzer, a Romney adviser, speaking with the Daily Telegraph's Jon Swaine, made anonymous comments that essentially boiled down to the notion that Obama couldn't understand the UK's special relationship with its former colonies across the pond because he is either a) the son of a non-American African; b) black; c) not white; d) not Anglo-Saxon; or e) all of the above.

While spokesperson Andrea Saul said either the story or the assertion was "not true," it's not clear from the e-mail [5] she sent to CBS News which she meant. The story broke on the eve of Romney's visit to London to evoke his Olympic-helming triumph and raise campaign cash.

In fact, Anglo-Saxon-gate fits so neatly into the Romney campaign narrative that the candidate himself seemed a bit tied in knots during a Wednesday interview with Brian Williams of the NBC Nightly News (via USA Today [6]):

"I don't agree with whoever that adviser is," Romney said in an interview with NBC News that aired this evening. "But I can tell you that we have a very special relationship between the United States and Great Britain. ... I also believe the president understands that."

Note that Romney has not pledged to fire "whoever that adviser is" if he finds out who he or she is, nor has he pledged to find out who that person is. (We do, however, note that Romney foreign policy adviser John Bolton has used the term "Anglo-Saxon [7]" before in his critique of Obama.)

2. Dog-whistling "Dixie."

Here we speak of Romney's linguistic outreach to those Republicans for whom the Civil War never ended. During the campaign for the Iowa caucuses (which Romney lost to former U.S. senator Rick Santorum, himself a master-race-baiter), Romney unveiled his nativist, dog-whistling strategy for the general election. Chauncey DeVega unpacked [8] an awkward bit of Romney phrasing, delivered during the heat of the Republican presidential primary:

Mitt Romney wants to "keep America America [9]." The dropping of one letter from the Ku Klux Klan’s slogan, “Keep America American,” does not remove the intent behind Romney’s repeated use of such a virulently bigoted phrase. While Mitt Romney can claim ignorance of the slogan’s origins, he is intentionally channeling its energy.

During that same period, Romney also debuted, in more subtle form, the notion of Obama as not quite American, contending that the president "doesn't understand America."

3. The "lazy Negro" theme.

At the end of May, the Romney campaign rolled out a new campaign based around the theme, "Obama Isn't Working." It was a neat little double entendre, with a surface-level, grammatically tortured meaning that Obama's policies aren't working, while its grammatically correct meaning implied that the African American president is, well, shiftless [10] -- a notion that is a persistent racial stereotype of American black people.

As Chauncey DeVega wrote [11]:

This is one of the core attributes of what social scientists have termed “symbolic racism.”

This stereotype is central to contemporary right-wing political discourse, and can trace its lineage back to the Southern Strategy under Richard Nixon, and through to Ronald Reagan’s mobilization of anti-black sentiment with his allusions to “welfare queens” and “strapping young black bucks” who buy steaks with food stamps.

4. Using phobia in a race-based, anti-Obama ploy.

The National Organization for Marriage is an organization run by white people [12] who are determined to deprive same-sex couples of the very ins ution its leaders claim to cherish. So when a group of black pastors sprung up out of nowhere to oppose Obama's evolution on the question of marriage equality, blogger Alvin McEwen was su ious.

A NOM memo leaked just weeks before outlined a brutal strategy for aiding Romney, whom NOM endorsed, in clearing a path to victory.

"The strategic goal of this project is to drive a wedge between gays and blacks -- two key Democratic cons uencies," the memo reads. "Find, equip, energize and connect African American spokespeople for marriage;...provoke the gay marriage base into responding by denouncing these spokesmen and women as bigots."

McEwen explained [13]:

The goal of the [Coalition of African American Pastors] protest (which NOM has so generously proven) is not to take a stand against marriage equality. Nor is it to get President Obama to rescind his support of marriage equality.

The point of the CAAP protest is to generate a hostile division between gays and blacks which would help Romney get elected.

As it turns out, this strategy has been less effective than partisans on either side would have predicted. Since Obama announced that he personally favors the legalization of same-sex marriage -- following an endorsement of same-sex marriage by the NAACP, African American opinion has moved significantly [14] in the direction of approval of marriage equality.

5. The booing strategy.

And speaking of the NAACP, when one considers that Romney is still playing for the racially resentful Republican base, one has to view his seemingly hapless appearance before the civil rights group's national convention as a stroke of mastery. First of all, the kind of white people who are afraid of black people are likely to view one's appearance before a nearly all-black audience as an act of bravery. Secondly, if you say something that insults that black audience in a way that is lost on your target living-room white audience, one can be guaranteed a vociferous response from the black audience that will be viewed as impolite by the target scaredy-cat white audience. Roll 'em.

As I wrote [15] earlier this week:

He had to know that trotting out his "promise to repeal Obamacare" line would generate a negative response, and the audience delivered with a chorus of boos -- just as he had to know that his right-wing base would love to watch that video clip on instant replay. And when he patronizingly asserted himself as the best candidate "for African American families," Romney was clearly playing to the the white Republican base, whose leaders often express purported knowledge of what's best for black people.

6. "Free stuff": the 21st-century "welfare queen."

If you think I'm reading too much into the thinking behind Romney's NAACP strategy, consider what he told supporters at a fundraiser later that same day, when discussing the audience reaction to his speech. From my earlier report [15]:

"I hope people understand this, your friends who like Obamacare, you remind them of this, if they want more stuff from government, tell them to go vote for the other guy -- more free stuff," Romney said, according to a pool report. "But don't forget nothing is really free."

Given the racial context of the remark, it was, at best, insensitive. At worst, it was eerily reminiscent of Newt Gingrich's gambit in the South Carolina primary, when the former House speaker dubbed Obama the "food stamp president."

7. Subliminal reduction.

As demonstrated above, Mitt Romney and his message gurus have displayed a diabolical cleverness in word choices that appear to be benign on the surface, but provoke a more precise and malevolent meaning, often subconsciously, in the minds of their target audience. And because of their subtle evocations -- nay, their inherent deniability -- of malicious content, I tread dangerous turf here. But somebody's gotta say it.

Since the Florida primary in January, I have been struck by the consistency with which Romney claims that Barack Obama "denigrates" things. He doesn't ever, in Romney's lexicon, "demean" these things, or "disparage" them: he "denigrates" them. Here's a bit from Romney's victory speech in Florida, from my AlterNet report [16]:

"Like his colleagues in the faculty lounge who think they know better, President Obama demonizes and denigrates almost every sector of our economy," Romney said.

In Ohio earlier this month, Romney said [17]:

“Barack Obama’s attempt to denigrate and diminish the achievement of the individual diminishes us all.”

Last week, speaking in New Hampshire, Romney twisted his own syntax into a pretzel in order to accommodate the insertion of that word, saying that Obama was "denigrating making America strong." Now, check out the etymology [18] of the word "denigrate":

denigrate --1520s, from L. denigratus, pp. of denigrare "to blacken, defame," from de- "completely" (see de-) + nigr-, stem of niger "black" (see Negro [19]). of unknown origin. "Apparently disused in 18th c. and revived in 19th c." [OED]. Related: Denigrated; denigrating.

Perhaps this word was chosen at random by Romney and his message-mavens. Maybe it's just a word that Romney likes the sound of. (It's got that percussive "nig" syllable.) But it's definitely a word he's used repeatedly as an attribute of the president. When a word has been part of the lexicon for several centuries, people don't need to consciously know its provenance in order to feel its intent.

But sometimes it's not simply the word choice, but the arrangement of words in a phrase that carries the subliminal message. When, after weeks of being hammered by Obama surrogates for his mysterious status at Bain Capital from 1999-2002, Romney took a blow from the president himself, Romney and his wife Ann repeatedly said [20] Obama's attack was "beneath the dignity of the presidency" or "beneath the dignity of his office [21]." Note that he did not say that the attack was beneath the president's dignity. (That would imply that Barack Obama had inherent dignity.)

Metamessage? That Barack Obama is "beneath the dignity of the presidency." And if your target audience is people who harbor racial resentment, you're likely to find agreement with that statement for reasons that have nothing to do with where you worked and for how long.

8. Explaining America to the black guy.

In a story that barely survived the 24-hour news cycle, Romney surrogate John Sununu, the former New Hampshire governor and chief of staff in the George H.W. Bush administration, said of Obama: "I wish this president would learn how to be an American."

The occasion was a Romney campaign press call with reporters. By the following day, Sununu apologized for his choice of words, and the press replied, "Bygones."

He did not, however, apologize for saying this (from my AlterNet report [15]):

In three separate interviews on Tuesday, July 17, Sununu asserted that Obama was somehow foreign, having been partly raised in Indonesia, and then in Hawaii, where Sununu characterized him as "smoking something." (History be damned: Hawaii, apparently, doesn't qualify as an American state in the United States of Sununu.)

9. Painting president with African father as "third world."

In the realm of diplomacy, people who actually care about international relations long ago abandoned the term "third world" as one of disparagement -- a catch-all phrase once used to describe poor, non-white nations that conjures images of disease, disaster and upheaval. And that's what made it the perfect term for Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., in his guise as Romney surrogate [22] and running-mate hopeful, to describe Obama. As the Romney campaign's resident Latino, it was left to Rubio to challenge [23] Obama's assessment of Venezuelan dictator Hugo Chavez as not such a big threat to the U.S., as he did on July 11.

But after Sununu's stellar performance, Rubio, not to be upstaged, took to Twitter [24] to compare Obama to Chavez and his ilk:

Listening to @barackobama [25] wage #classwarfare [26] in #Jacksonville [27] #Florida [28].Parts of it sound like speech by left-wing 3rd world leader.#sayfie [29]
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) July 19, 2012 [24]

10. "Foreigner" affairs.

And in case those angry white people didn't get the message that Romney and his pals just "know" that the black president with the Kenyan father and the internationalist mother who says he's from Hawaii isn't, like, really from here, the candidate himself stepped out to make his meaning abundantly clear last week, in a speech delivered in New Hampshire. As I wrote [15]:

Romney himself followed up [Sununu's comments] a few hours later, characterizing his own vision as "Celebrating success instead of attacking it and denigrating making America strong." He continued: "That’s the right course for the country. [Obama's] course is extraordinarily foreign."

11. Courting the birther vote.

On the very day he hosted a fundraiser for Romney, casino owner, reality show star and failed presidential candidate Donald Trump took to the airwaves [30] to assert the perennial trope Barack Obama's birth certificate is not authentic and that Obama is ineligible for the presidency. That didn't stop Romney from appearing at Trump's side later in the day. On his campaign plane, Romney told reporters, according to Reuters [30]:

"You know, I don't agree with all the people who support me," Romney said. "My guess is they don't agree with everything I believe in. But I need to get 50.1 percent or more and I'm appreciative to have the help of a lot of good people."

12. Michele Bachmann's Islamophobic crusade.

Would it be wrong to tar Romney with brush wielded by former presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., for her McCarthyite attempt to paint Obama administration staffers as closet jihadis? It might, if only Romney had disavowed her actions. But Bachmann endorsed Romney, with the presidential candidate at her side, at a high-profile event [31] in May, and Romney hasn't uttered a peep about the Tea Party leader's preposterous attack [32] against State Department aide Huma Abedin, who Bachmann has suggested is tied to the Muslim Brotherhood. (She also alleges [33] a broader infiltration of the Brotherhood into the U.S. government.)

It's hardly a subtle attack; Obama has been a target of Islamophobes since it was learned that his father's family is Muslim. The timing of its revival seems geared to energize the anti-Muslim segment of the GOP base just in time for the election, and to stoke fears among swing voters.

While other Republicans, including 2008 presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, Ariz., and House Majority Leader John Boehner, Ohio, have condemned Bachmann's broadsides [34], one prominent Romney surrogate sought to steer clear of the controversy while another threw in with Bachmann.

Marco Rubio, when questioned on NPR's "Diane Rehm Show," simply said [35] he didn't agree "with the feelings expressed" in Bachmann's letter to five national security agencies that challenges Abedin's security clearance and alleges that her relatives are linked to the Brotherhood. That's hardly the "condemnation" some headlines claimed Rubio has made.

Romney campaign foreign policy adviser John Bolton, however, is all for the Bachmann witch hunt. Right Wing Watch's Brian Tashman caught Bolton's performance this week [36] on the radio show of Islamophobe extremist Frank Gaffney [37]:

What I think these members of Congress have done is simply raise the question, to a variety of inspectors general in key agencies, are your departments following their own security clearance guidelines, are they adhering to the standards that presumably everybody who seeks a security clearance should have to go through, are they making special exemptions? What is wrong with raising the question? Why is even asking whether we are living up to our standards a legitimate area of congressional oversight, why has that generated this criticism? I’m just mystified by it.

To which Romney replied -- oh, right -- he didn't.

http://www.alternet.org/print/electi...amp-and-allies

[boutons_deux]

Pat Buchanan: GOP Imperiled by Decline of White Population

In the Golden Land, a state Nixon carried all five times he was on a national ticket and Reagan carried by landslides all four times he ran, the GOP does not hold a single statewide office. It gained not a single House seat in the 2010 landslide. Party registration has fallen to 30 percent of the California electorate and is steadily sinking.


http://www.rollingstone.com/politics...ation-20120727

Buchannan knows he has an audience in the racist Repug party, esp in the South (Southern Baptist divisiion created as part of the pro-slavery sentiment), and rural, red-state America.

[AussieFanKurt]

Republicans being racist. SHOCH HORROR. Not sure why anyone who votes over their can go with that party

[Wild Cobra Kai]

Republicans being racist. SHOCH HORROR. Not sure why anyone who votes over their can go with that party

They're fear mongers, and frightened people are easily led around by the nose. They're more docile than cattle.

[Clipper Nation]

Some of these are total reaches (like the "denigrate" one and the "free stuff" one) but there's no denying the large base of racist, ignorant Bubbas in the GOP that neocons appeal to, tbh.....

[Creepn]

lol "denigrate" huh? Pretty deep.

[boutons_deux]

Let's see if consistently repeated deNIGRAte is used from here to November.

"free stuff" really is another wording of St Ronnie's Welfare Queens In Cadillacs.

But $Bs in "carried interest" tax breaks for hyper-wealthy fund managers is "hard earned" and untouchable.

$100Bs "spent" in tax free employer health care and mortgage interest deductions are untouchable.

[Yonivore]

Some of these are total reaches (like the "denigrate" one and the "free stuff" one) but there's no denying the large base of racist, ignorant Bubbas in the GOP that neocons appeal to, tbh.....

Some? I see one that is less a racist strategy than a legitimate political strategy.

#4) Using phobia in a race-based, anti-Obama ploy.

. How 'bout we just re- le that, "Using the prejudices of one traditionally Democrat voting bloc against the prejudices of another traditionally Democrat voting bloc to demonstrate the hypocrisy of the Democrat Party's pandering to both."

Pitting rabid gay activists against blacks who, in overwhelming numbers, favor traditional marriage (just like that evil Chick-fil-A), is a timely comparison and contrast to make for voters reassessing their loyalty to a party that seems a bit schizophrenic on the topic. Brilliant, I'd say.

The rest is just a bunch of Liberal tea leaf reading and playing the what-does-that-cloud-look-like-to-you game. I think a bunch of the erudite, sophisticated, liberals, in this forum, are fond of calling it "confirmation bias."

"Let America be America" is as much a nod to the KKK as "Forward" is to the Communist Party except, your article had the task of explaining why they dropped the "n" from American while, well, "Forward" is an exact repe ion of the Communist motto. .

Denigrate?

But, seriously, thanks for the entertaining and illuminating peek into how a ed up political mind works.

[boutons_deux]

The above points are much more valid attacks on the racist Repug party than the attacks on Barry from Yoni's beloved Fox Repug Propaganda network.

[Spurs da champs]

They're fear mongers, and frightened people are easily led around by the nose. They're more docile than cattle.

Well said.

[Yonivore]

Well said.

Well said? Grammatical, true; but, that doesn't make it true.

I'm not sure I would describe the Republicans as either "led around by the nose" or "docile."

While I don't agree with the Left's characterization of the Tea Party as a violent hate-mongering, racist band of militant red necks, that characterization doesn't jibe with "docile."

And, considering there are more contested campaigns, around the country, between so-call "establishment" Republicans and staunch Conservative Tea Party candidates, I'm not sure the "led around by the nose" description is that accurate, either.

Care to try again?

Now, Democrats, on the other hand...

Cory Booker deviates from the party line that Bain Capital is bad and he has to be yanked back onto the plantation.

Dianne Feinstein (my bad) suggests the White House bears some responsibility for the national security leaks and her botox is withheld until she clarifies.

Rahm Emmanuel and that Menino idiot declare spittle-flecked solidarity with gays and their dream of same-sex marriage until, of course, they're forced to moderate that view when Louis Farrakan reminds Rahm sexuals should be put to death.

And, those are just recent examples.

Lead around by the nose.

[Clipper Nation]

And, considering there are more contested campaigns, around the country, between so-call "establishment" Republicans and staunch Conservative Tea Party candidates, I'm not sure the "led around by the nose" description is that accurate, either.

No, but "gullible" is a good description, as there's usually very little difference between establishment Republicans and Tea Party candidates.... same big spending, same warmongering, same nanny state at ude, the only difference is that Tea Party candidates' rhetoric is slightly more racist, tbh....

[Yonivore]

No, but "gullible" is a good description, as there's usually very little difference between establishment Republicans and Tea Party candidates.... same big spending, same warmongering, same nanny state at ude, the only difference is that Tea Party candidates' rhetoric is slightly more racist, tbh....

, you've got Democrats and Independents, in here, saying there's no difference between Democrats and Republicans.

How is Tea Party rhetoric racist?

[Clipper Nation]

How is Tea Party rhetoric racist?

Tea Party candidates tend to whip the rednecks into a frenzy with Birther conspiracies and blatant Islamophobia, tbh...

[Yonivore]

Tea Party candidates tend to whip the rednecks into a frenzy with Birther conspiracies and blatant Islamophobia, tbh...

Aside from being untrue, neither example is racist..

With what rhetoric are the Tea Party whipping up red necks? Surely there are YouTube videos you can post. And, again, to what racist rhetoric are you referring. Let's see the evidence.

Just because you accept the Tea Party is racist or Islamophobic, as an article of faith, doesn't make it so. If the Tea Party is Islamophobic then Democrats are Republicanphobic for the fear-mongering they do about Republicans wanting to see old people die and want to let people starve to death, etc..., and Christianphobic for calling Chick-fil-A a hate-group for supporting traditional marriage.

Name one act of violence committed in the name of the Tea Party.

Then, when you get through with that, let's run through the myriad of crimes committed by the idiotic Occupy group -- explicitly supported by President Obama and every major Democrat politician in the country.

[Clipper Nation]

"Traditional marriage"
Marriage isn't even defined in the Cons ution
Acting like the Bible's bigotry supersedes Cons utional law

[Yonivore]

"Traditional marriage"
Marriage isn't even defined in the Cons ution
Acting like the Bible's bigotry supersedes Cons utional law

Is this a response to my post?

By the way, Republican groups aren't the only people interested in maintaining the sanc y of "traditional marriage." African-Americans are a large Democrat cons uency who share that value.

And, who cares if it isn't defined in the Cons ution? I don't even think the law should have any bearing on marriage. You see, I'm in favor of allowing same-sex marriage. I'm just opposed to churches being required to recognize it as the equivalent of traditional marriage.

The Bible isn't bigoted and nobody considered same-sex marriage on equal terms with traditional marriage (except for a small minority of very vocal gay activists) until Democrats saw an opportunity to exploit yet another cons uency by pandering and promising.

How do you explain that the DOMA passed overwhelmingly in both houses of Congress just 15 years ago and was enthusiastically signed by liberal God Bill Clinton? How do you explain that until just a few months ago, current liberal God Barack Obama was opposed to same-sex marriage?

How do you explain Rahm Emmanuel's and Menino's (sorry, I just can't remember his first name and have no interest in going to look it up) bizarre behavior over Chick-fil-A?

Come on, let's hear some specific, racist, Islamophobic, and phobic, Tea Party rhetoric. Better yet, let's see the videos. Surely they exist.

[Clipper Nation]

The Bible isn't bigoted

Come on, let's hear some specific, racist, Islamophobic, and phobic, Tea Party rhetoric. Better yet, let's see the videos. Surely they exist.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1597334.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinio...iwW_story.html

http://newsone.com/2006635/jesse-lee-paterson-quotes/

http://www.politico.com/livepulse/03...c_meeting.html

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2010...mophobic-slurs

I could go on, tbh...

[Yonivore]

The Bible is a book.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/0...n_1597334.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinio...iwW_story.html

http://newsone.com/2006635/jesse-lee-paterson-quotes/

http://www.politico.com/livepulse/03...c_meeting.html

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2010...mophobic-slurs

I could go on, tbh...

Please do because, you're obviously not leading with your strongest cases. Right?

If Inge Marler's racist joke represented Tea Party values, she'd still be associated with the Tea Party and the Tea Party would not have forced her to resign or even condemned her for the joke; both of which the Arkansas Tea Party did. Frankly, I hadn't even heard of Inge Marler or this incident until you linked it here.

Should we paint the entire Democrat party with the words of Jeremiah Wright or Louis Farrakhan? How bout that idiot State Senator, up in Virginia, that's calling her own State voters racists because Obama is losing support there?

One person's stupidity doesn't necessarily reflect the ideology of an entire organization. If it did, Democrats would be ed...but, so would Republicans and, yes, the Tea Party; along with the Green Party, the Cons ution Party, etc...

I think most of your other links fall into this category except for Bachman's comment about Hillary Clinton's aide. I'm not sure how the Tea Party has responded to Bachmann's comments but, Republicans in general are either condemning Bachmann's unproven allegations or are agreeing that Abedin's association with the Muslim Brotherhood should be vetted. Even then, many of the Republicans say they assume this was done. I think Bachmann's pretty much on her own here.

Oh, and the spitting incident has been disproven pretty conclusively. The two Congressmen are liars.

Now, exactly what Tea Party rhetoric (as in platform ideals) is racist or phobic?

[AussieFanKurt]

The Bible isn't bigoted. Oh now I have heard it all

[Yonivore]

The Bible isn't bigoted. Oh now I have heard it all

Bigotry is usually left to people. I'm not sure how you can call a book bigoted.

Name a historically oppressed group, or group against which bigotry is typically and tell me which of them have no members that are Christians who identify the Bible as their religious canon.

[AussieFanKurt]

Bigotry is usually left to people. I'm not sure how you can call a book bigoted.

Name a historically oppressed group, or group against which bigotry is typically and tell me which of them have no members that are Christians who identify the Bible as their religious canon.

Sorry I must have been mistaken when I thought the book was written by people..

[Yonivore]

Sorry I must have been mistaken when I thought the book was written by people..

Inspired by God and adhered to by many of the very people against which you seem to believe the Bible is bigoted.

[AussieFanKurt]

Inspired by God and adhered to by many of the very people against which you seem to believe the Bible is bigoted.

I can't and won't have an argument with someone who believes some random supernatural being inspired a book or ultimately believes in said supernatural being.

[ElNono]

Mein Kampf is just a book!