http://dyn.politico.com/printstory.c...B-8D71F06E7AF8
The race canard
By: Rich Lowry
August 30, 2012 12:19 AM EDT
Silly season is over. Racist season is here.
Silly season is when nothing is going on in the presidential campaign and the debate focuses on trivialities. Racist season is when the presidential campaign begins in earnest and President Barack Obama looks vulnerable. Then, liberal commentators pull out all the stops to deem practically any criticism of the president racist.
Chris Matthews of MSNBC led the charge this week with an on-set rant against Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus. Matthews didn’t muster an argument so much as an accusation — a lot of them, actually.
Criticizing the gutting of welfare reform? That’s racist. GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney’s joke about no one ever asking for his birth certificate? Racist, too. Saying the president is inspired by a European welfare-state model? Obviously racist.
Priebus looked like he’d been button-holed by a persistent drunk at a bar and didn’t know how to get away.
Thomas Edsall, the respected former Washington Post reporter now at the Columbia Journalism School, bested Matthews by declaring Romney’s ad against the Obama’s Medicare cuts racist. Timothy Noah of The New Republic seconded Edsall’s insight.
The impressively single-named commentator Touré claimed that calling the Obama campaign “angry” is racist — a close cousin to the argument that calling him “arrogant” is racist.
It’s only late August and the campaign is tied. Wait until October. Particularly if it’s equally close or if Obama is trailing. In the imaginations of the president’s devotees, an America where he is behind by 2 or 3 points will be indistinguishable from an America where blacks are set on by dogs during Civil Rights marches.
Technically, Touré didn’t find Romney guilty of racism, only “Luck_The_Fakers_Luck_The_Fakers_Luck_The_Fakers_L uck_The_Fakers_Luck_The_Fakers_Luck_The_Fakers_ifi cation,” which must be one of the ugliest neologisms in the history of the language. (He later apologized for using the term.) Allegedly, Romney was playing to negative racial stereotypes. But even if you accept Touré’s assumptions — which is not recommended — Romney called the president’s “campaign,” not the president, angry.
You can argue with the word choice. “Conscienceless” or “reptilian” seem more apt to me — but “angry” is not racist.
As for that other adjectival offense against the president—calling him arrogant—it’s hard to remember a time when one party has criticized the leader of the other party for his modesty.
Republicans attacked President Bill Clinton for being arrogant. Democrats attacked President George W. Bush for being arrogant. Now, it’s Obama’s turn. Not to mention that he is supremely self-confident — a quality often characterized as, shockingly, arrogance.
When Romney joked in Michigan that no one ever had to ask for his birth certificate, it was a banner day in the racist season. Michael Eric Dyson, who apparently earned an advanced degree in finding obscure ways to accuse people of bigotry, detected the tell-tale signs of “othering.”
“Other” used to be a perfectly fine word, until it became a jargony verb fit for use only by people with regular MSNBC gigs — or endowed chairs in nonsense.
It’s not clear why the former Massachusetts governor would insist that Obama is an American during the Republican primaries only to lurch toward birtherism in the general election. And with an unscripted joke he will never, ever repeat.
Even Dyson, who is a pro in this stuff, lacks Edsall’s imagination. He wrote a blog post for The New York Times contending that, by attacking Obama for cutting Medicare to pay for “Obamacare,” the Romney campaign is engaged in a politics of “racially freighted resource compe ion.”
Why? Because Medicare beneficiaries are “largely white” and “Obamacare” beneficiaries will be “disproportionately minority.” Edsall calls this supposed strategy “subtle.” Very, very subtle.
According to this twisted reasoning, the Obama ads hitting Romney for wanting to end Medicare as we know it must be a naked racial appeal, the das ly “othering” of Romney’s plans for en lement reform.
If the Edsall Medicare theory is novel, there is a consensus among Democrats and the media that Romney’s attacks on Obama for “gutting” welfare reform are out-of-bounds and racially charged.
This, too, is wrong. Obama has indeed unilaterally altered the welfare reform law fundamentally. The purpose of the law was to change welfare to workfare. The section of the law imposing the work requirements was written to be unwaivable. The Obama administration unlawfully claims the authority to waive it.
Imagine that a Republican administration claimed the authority to waive the en lement status of Medicare and Medicaid. Wouldn’t Democrats accuse that administration of “gutting” those en lements?
A Romney ad goes too far in suggesting that the work requirements will disappear immediately. It will probably be a slow unraveling. And any loosening comes in the context of work requirements that already don’t have much force. Only about 40 percent of adult welfare recipients in any state are required to undertake “work activities,” according to Robert Rector of the Heritage Foundation. (Roughly a third of the welfare caseload is black, by the way.)
Work is not some racist code. It’s a core American value. Ninety-seven percent of conservatives thought able-bodied welfare recipients should be required to work or prepare for work, a 2009 Heritage Foundation poll revealed. Ninety-two percent of liberals agreed.
The usual suspects probably consider this universal sentiment as prejudiced. What a dim view they take of their countrymen. They believe the American public is keenly attuned to racist dog whistles and—though they elected Obama with 53 percent and still give him a healthy personal favorability rating—is ready to reject him partly because he’s an African-American.
The silly season can occasionally be fun. The racist season is rancid.
LOL don't read any articles posted by boutons, Yonivore, nor DarrinS.
"Stop calling our racist criticisms of the black president racist!"
Boutons would be proud of these responses. Congrats
Repug/tea baggers are the party of racists, xenophobes, jingos, chauvinists, and just all- around assholes.
RNC delegate offended by ‘Mexican’ working at Epcot’s ‘America Pavilion’
Even as the Republican Convention in Tampa winds down, instances of highly questionable judgment on the part of its attendees continue to make headlines. According to Think Progress, Pennsylvania delegate Mark Harris and his wife Irene took a trip to Disney’s Epcot Center as a part of their trip to Florida, and were shocked and horrified by what they found there.
In a post called “Offended at Epcot” at the couple’s blog “Rock Star GOP,” Irene Harris wrote, “During our time at Epcot we visited the different countries. It was neat seeing each country and the employees were from that individual country. Then we visited America . . . one would think you would find American employees. We were offended to find a person from Mexico working in America.”
Mark Harris apparently complained to Disney personnel, but the blog post was not clear as to whether he spoke to anyone besides the Latino employee, such as a supervisor or customer service representative, or whether he was content to simply snipe at the offending worker. Irene wrote that her husband was “civil, but his point was well made.”
Local Republican officials have decried the foofaraw to website, The Daily Item.
“The statements made by Mark and Irene Harris are uninformed and highly offensive,” said Snyder County Commissioner Joe Derk. “The Harrises’ comments show their ignorance as they cast judgment on someone they do not know. They do not speak for our county or party.”
( iow, Derk was pissed Harris would be so blatant and noise-making about Repug policy)
As Think Progress notes, this is not the first ugly racist incident to stem from the RNC in Tampa. Earlier this week, an African-America 34-year-old camera operator for CNN had peanuts thrown at her by a pair of older white male delegates who said, “This is how we feed the animals.”
In what may be an historic first, support of the Republican candidate by black voters is statistically invisible. According to polls, the Romney/Ryan ticket is pulling in 0 percent of the African-American vote.
Latino voters favor the Democratic ticket this year nearly two-to-one.
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2012/08/3...=Google+Reader
You know how it gets annoying when Ron Paul loyalists do nothing but post Ron Paul threads? Take a look at how many threads on racism you've posted and ask yourself why no one seems interested in joining the discussion. You're like the very definition of "doth protest too much." I've never seen anyone so goddamn sensitive to people's accusations of racism. Do you feel like they're talking to you specifically? Get over it.
(Just a friendly suggestion)
"so goddamn sensitive to people's accusations of racism"
... because the racism claim hits so directly on the truth.
Golf, please
Chicago, please
It's all code
This vision of president's Obama reflects a general view of a typical, simple minded far right republican. It's very simple, obvious and very sickening.
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