The Politics Thread

[Max]

This was a very eloquent paragraph, and thanks for pointing out how Democrats race-bait as well. I concede that the GOP has been much worse on racial issues over the past 50 years than the Dems; even so, I don't feel that is an excuse for so many Dems (I'm not referring to you) to let their party off the hook whenever they say racist things. (And I believe that what Biden said was racist, although we'll have to agree to disagree on the matter.)

I have zero idea how these stereotypes arose, either.

The SC GOP Presidential Primary certainly has an ugly history. Many felt the "black baby" comments played a major role in McCain's defeat in 2000, much like hatred of Mormons played a role in Romney's defeat this year. (I will give SC Republicans credit, however, for McCain's 2008 primary win there.)

The thing is, if there was ever a Republican who was not racist, it was John McCain (who did adopt a dark-skinned child). But, that didn't stop civil rights hero and GA Congressman John Lewis from comparing McCain to George Wallace in 2008:

http://www.huffingto...y_n_133903.html

I would expect the race card to be played by Jackson or Sharpton, but I was totally shocked that a man of Lewis' stature would go there. (And Palin--though not McCain--used racial code words during the campaign, but even that is nowhere near the severity of actively promoting legal segregation.)

Edited August 19, 2012 by Max

[ReddFoxx]

Biden's remarks were about unchaining banks and wall street, unless you consider criticism of banks racist, then there was nothing racist or race baiting about what he said. Republicans would rather change the subject and talk about race, than banks.

No Republicans said a word when Allen West (Bachmann on steroids) said that Obama wanted to be put people into slavery and called Social Security slavery.

[DRW50]

Does it mean he was racist if he chose to launch his campaign on "states rights" in a place where civil rights workers had been murdered?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reagan%27s_Neshoba_County_Fair_%22states%27_rights%22_speech

[DRW50]

If you know any women in Missouri, let them know that according to the likely incoming senator of their state, they won't get pregnant if they are raped.

http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/08/todd-akin-legitimate-rape.php?ref=fpnewsfeed

[quartermainefan]

That's really funny considering Condaleeza Rice was once Sec of State and Hillary Clinton is now. Maybe we need a lesbian cabal or two. Get Oprah for Press Secretary!

Edited August 19, 2012 by quartermainefan

[Max]

And yet, partisan Democrats are having us believe that Biden's "gaffe" has nothing at all to do with race even though Danville, VA has a very ugly racial past. According to Wikipedia:

Also, I don't recall one Democrat saying a peep in 2008 about Biden being on the ticket despite the fact that he once said (regarding Obama): "I mean, you got the first mainstream African-American who is articulate and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy, I mean, that's a storybook, man." When he said that Obama was "clean," did he mean to suggest that Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton don't bathe? Additional words of racial "wisdom" coming from Biden include a 2006 statement that "In Delaware, the largest growth in population is Indian-Americans moving from India. You cannot go to a 7-Eleven or a Dunkin' Donuts unless you have a slight Indian accent. I'm not joking."

There should have been widespread condemnation of that remark, but a freshman member of the House has a lot less power in his party than the VP has.

Edited August 19, 2012 by Max

[I Am A Swede]

I'm speechless. I didn't think ignorance like that still existed. Or at least I hoped it didn't. But I guess you can never underestimate the stupidity of people.

[DRW50]

Allen West isn't just a freshman. The media worships him, as do much of the GOP. He is their great token.

[ReddFoxx]

That was very deliberate. Lee Atwater was behind a lot of the Southern Strategy and he admitted that Republicans came up with different words to say "N*****, N*****, N*****," in order to play to southerners with racist attitudes.

What does it matter who has more power? That's trying to apply a double standard.

[marceline]

That's one of the reasons I was *so* hoping that Herman Cain would get the nomination. I just wanted to see what the GOP would do without the Southern Strategy. As it is, I'm kind of enjoying the fact that they can't double down on the "Obama's a Muslim" stuff because they can't play the religion card on Mitt Romney's behalf.

[Wales2004]

I'm glad to see this thread so lively. I am not too smart or swift and yet there are so many politicians in political office who seem much dumber.

For the sake of argument, if Joe Biden was not talking about Wall Street but in fact implying that Mitt Romney wanted to enslave just the black members of that audience then this is primarily about Republicans thinking the Democrats need to pay for Joe Biden saying this. If he comes out and apologizes then will they run it in an ad campaign showing him saying what he did and then apologizing for his choice of words and what it implies. It would appear that the black members of that audience would need to demand an apology from Joe Biden. Otherwise, Joe Biden is supposed to apologize to Mitt Romney for what exactly?

I'll jump into murky waters and say this because no matter what Jeremiah Wright said, as far as I know, he didn't twist the Bible to support his anger towards this country or for the way he feels he has been treated after putting his life on the line during his military service. The snippet I heard that was deemed ultra inflammatory was that whatsoever you sow you reap. And people might not like the idea of his or anyone else saying that America is a sinful nation that paid for its sins because he really should not have used such a tragedy to do so. Pat Robertson took a tragedy that was nowhere near the level of 9/11 but a tragedy nonetheless and claimed that Hurricane Katrina was a result of the sinful nature of the residents of New Orleans. People condemn Barack Obama for having sat in that church for 20 years even though he's really supposed to be a socialist Muslim and his father is now Frank something or the other, according to the latest lunacy. Yet Brigham Young turned what was essentially an egalitarian church into one with a racist policy possibly because he had a problem with a black man who had multiple white wives but regardless, he twisted the Bible to do it and said that God darkened Cain's skin (turned him black) as punishment for killing Abel. I've never read anywhere in the Bible about race and Cain's punishment was that he was banished from Eden and no one was allowed to kill him or they would be cursed. This is right up there with Noah's son Ham being the reason that it was alright to make Africans slaves because somehow Noah apparently only had one black son and the rest I assume had to be white. Yet, Hebrew children had already been enslaved by the Egyptians and there's not a word about how they were black. But this is the kind of nonsense that people sit around a believe and use to justify their ill treatment of others. I doubt the Mormon Church would have backed off of this in 1978 had it not been for the fact that they wanted to expand into Brazil. Then they had a problem and a revelation from God. I'm glad that they corrected their doctrine.

Mitt Romney may love everybody and maybe he never agreed with that doctrine but he implicitly supported it. Jeremiah Wright wasn't acting according to any doctrine and he stepped down as a result of the negative attention he brought to that specific congregation which did not constitute all the churches of that denomination.

This is not a big enough of a deal for me to favor Mitt Romney over Joe Biden....especially when he could have directly addressed what Joe Biden said and named him instead of playing the "Barack Obama is an angry man full of hate and we can send him and his anger and hate back to Chicago" card.

Okay so we clearly disagree on this...

I was referring to the clean comment when I mentioned Joe Biden in my previous post and of course, there was Harry Reid's "negro dialect" comment. I don't recall hearing the 7-Eleven comment. Race in this country is a convoluted mess wrought with double-standards and people usually point fingers instead of giving it rational thought. In my book there are racists and there are racialists. Racists mean to do harm and racialists generally don't. Joe Biden is a product of his generation and let's be realistic, people do seem to be stunned when they encounter black people who can put an entire sentence together without any grammatical errors. Those kind of people are seen as the exception and not the rule. Two films that I think address stereotypes well are Finding Forrester and Crash. Race discussions might be more productive when people get to the point where they can admit that they have biases. We all do. We're told things when we are young, we absorb things, and we very seldom question the logic. That's how come people can sit in a church and believe whatever the minister, priest, preacher (or authoritative leader) is telling them without giving it a second thought.

Black Americans can be just as guilty of perpetuating stereotypes about themselves as white Americans are yet the focus is very seldom on that. You cannot have this "honest conversation" if white Americans want to keep claiming that Barack Obama made this nation post-racial and black people wanting to keep blaming every white American for slavery.

Allen West has said a whole lot more than that and I doubt that his party will rebuke him for it. Maybe he's one of those blacks that Ann Coulter says the Republicans have. Imagine if America had a viable third party which was moderately conservative and not at all racist or xenophobic.

[quartermainefan]

This is why you just gotta love republicans and their almost Mr Spock levels of understanding science and medicine.

That would be really cool, if somehow the egg got an "intruder alert!" warning and just told the sperm "sorry, closed for business, we don't want you here" You have to love this guy, the very embodiment of modern conservative thought.

[Roman]

The defense of the indefensible is laughable. But, IMO, this will all be rendered moot on Nov. 6th when Democrats regain control of the House and keep control of the senate because of the hateful, vile and disgusting language by Republicans today. And those who try and shift the blame to Dems while ignoring or defending garbage like what Akin said play right into that same garbage.

[Roman]

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/19/doug-priesse-ohio-early-voting-_n_1807434.html

Did the Republican Party pick this week to self-destruct?

[marceline]

Don't you just LOVE my state? If we get that early voting weekend back - and I'm cautiously optimistic that the court will rule in favor of that - the GOP is either going to have to honor that decision or shut down in-person early voting for the military. If the polls stay open that weekend you can pretty much count on black churches and liberal congregations of all stripes flooding the polls that Sunday. If they take away voting for the military, that gives the Dems here in Ohio a message they can hammer on until election day.