The Racism Party (Rolls On)

Back in July Nettertainment touched on the modern history of Republican reliance on the atavistic racist element of the electorate in the context of their almost complete non-participation in the NAACP GOP Presidential debate. Can the irony that "The Party of Lincoln" is so goddamned racist in the bone be lost on anyone?

I do believe that everybody has at a minimum trace of racial identification, if not racism, in everyone. To deny it seems Pollyannic. But to have that be your political party's safe haven is tragic, assuming the Republican Party is ever again capable of generating good governance ideas. Not just empty "principles."

But you can't keep a good racist down.

Not when so-called President Bush's White House spokesperson is saying, so officially for The Decider:

As for Obama, a senior White House official said the freshman senator from Illinois was "capable" of the intellectual rigor needed to win the presidency but instead relies too heavily on his easy charm.

"It's sort of like, 'that's all I need to get by,' which bespeaks sort of a condescending attitude towards the voters," said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity. "And a laziness, an intellectual laziness."

Is it even worth my commenting on this? What, was Massa Bush putting his plantation in line? Is this the political posturing of the Confederacy had it survived to 2007?

Then there's Bill O'Reilly spewing racist ignorance, if one is to take him at his word. It seems he went to the famed Sylvia's in Harlem and thought maybe he was the first white may who had ever dined there:

O'REILLY: That's right. That's right. There wasn't one person in Sylvia's who was screaming, "M-Fer, I want more iced tea."

WILLIAMS: Please --

O'REILLY: You know, I mean, everybody was -- it was like going into an Italian restaurant in an all-white suburb in the sense of people were sitting there, and they were ordering and having fun. And there wasn't any kind of craziness at all.

He got bad reviews at the restaurant. Watch Whoopi and Sherri respond on The View. Everyone is laughing at tinpots this week.

And, once again, they're skipping out on actually speaking before black audiences. Bill Clinton taking them to task for snubbing Travis Smiley, like assholes, liked scaredycat chickenhawks. Bob Herbert explaining, "The Ugly Side of the G.O.P.":

The G.O.P. has spent the last 40 years insulting, disenfranchising and otherwise stomping on the interests of black Americans. Last week, the residents of Washington, D.C., with its majority black population, came remarkably close to realizing a goal they have sought for decades — a voting member of Congress to represent them.

A majority in Congress favored the move, and the House had already approved it. But the Republican minority in the Senate — with the enthusiastic support of President Bush — rose up on Tuesday and said: “No way, baby.”

At least 57 senators favored the bill, a solid majority. But the Republicans prevented a key motion on the measure from receiving the 60 votes necessary to move it forward in the Senate. The bill died.

At the same time that the Republicans were killing Congressional representation for D.C. residents, the major G.O.P. candidates for president were offering a collective slap in the face to black voters nationally by refusing to participate in a long-scheduled, nationally televised debate focusing on issues important to minorities.

The history goes back to Nixon -- and Reagan:

In one of the vilest moves in modern presidential politics, Ronald Reagan, the ultimate hero of this latter-day Republican Party, went out of his way to kick off his general election campaign in 1980 in that very same Philadelphia, Miss. He was not there to send the message that he stood solidly for the values of Andrew Goodman. He was there to assure the bigots that he was with them.

“I believe in states’ rights,” said Mr. Reagan. The crowd roared.

In 1981, during the first year of Mr. Reagan’s presidency, the late Lee Atwater gave an interview to a political science professor at Case Western Reserve University, explaining the evolution of the Southern strategy:

“You start out in 1954 by saying, ‘Nigger, nigger, nigger,’ ” said Atwater. “By 1968, you can’t say ‘nigger’ — that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states’ rights, and all that stuff. You’re getting so abstract now [that] you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things, and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites.”

Even the last black GOP Congressmen, former Rep. J.C. Watts (R-OK) takes them to task:

"I think the best that comes out of stupid decisions like this," said former Oklahoma Rep. J.C. Watts, is "that African-Americans might say, 'Was it because of my skin color?' Now, maybe it wasn't, but African-Americans do say, 'It crossed my mind.'"

How out of touch do you have to be to be snubbing Travis Smiley? He's a fair and informed interviewer, he puts people at ease, but sure, he's going to call you on stuff. Like any real reporter, even some of the ones hosting the current debates.

What does it say about the Party's fundamental character? What is defensible about this? That you're preserving the white core of 19th Century America?

The Dems have their race problems but for the past fifty years it's been a Party engaged in the debate, even if the spectrum can be wide.

Doesn't this seem like a national scandal? That one of our two major political parties is self-segregated through coded messages of hate?