Prize Winning Column Nailing Racist "Teabaggers"

[FOTD]

 POTUS OBAMA has to lead with more than words. Nobody should be surprised by wing nut racism.

Maureen Dowd does a good job splainin this :
OP-ED COLUMNIST
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/opinion/13dowd.html?_r=1&th&emc=th

Boy, Oh, Boy


By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: September 12, 2009
WASHINGTON

"The normally nonchalant Barack Obama looked nonplussed, as Nancy Pelosi glowered behind.

Surrounded by middle-aged white guys — a sepia snapshot of the days when such pols ran Washington like their own men's club — Joe Wilson yelled "You lie!" at a president who didn't.

But, fair or not, what I heard was an unspoken word in the air: You lie, boy!

The outburst was unexpected from a milquetoast Republican backbencher from South Carolina who had attracted little media attention. Now it has made him an overnight right-wing hero, inspiring "You lie!" bumper stickers and T-shirts.

The congressman, we learned, belonged to the Sons of Confederate Veterans, led a 2000 campaign to keep the Confederate flag waving above South Carolina's state Capitol and denounced as a "smear" the true claim of a black woman that she was the daughter of Strom Thurmond, the '48 segregationist candidate for president. Wilson clearly did not like being lectured and even rebuked by the brainy black president presiding over the majestic chamber.

I've been loath to admit that the shrieking lunacy of the summer — the frantic efforts to paint our first black president as the Other, a foreigner, socialist, fascist, Marxist, racist, Commie, Nazi; a cad who would snuff old people; a snake who would indoctrinate kids — had much to do with race[/u].

I tended to agree with some Obama advisers that Democratic presidents typically have provoked a frothing response from paranoids — from Father Coughlin against F.D.R. to Joe McCarthy against Truman to the John Birchers against J.F.K. and the vast right-wing conspiracy against Bill Clinton.

But Wilson's shocking disrespect for the office of the president — no Democrat ever shouted "liar" at W. when he was hawking a fake case for war in Iraq — convinced me: Some people just can't believe a black man is president and will never accept it.[/u][/u][/color]

"A lot of these outbursts have to do with delegitimizing him as a president," said Congressman Jim Clyburn, a senior member of the South Carolina delegation. Clyburn, the man who called out Bill Clinton on his racially tinged attacks on Obama in the primary, pushed Pelosi to pursue a formal resolution chastising Wilson.

"In South Carolina politics, I learned that the olive branch works very seldom," he said. "You have to come at these things from a position of strength. My father used to say, 'Son, always remember that silence gives consent.' "

Barry Obama of the post-'60s Hawaiian 'hood did not live through the major racial struggles in American history. Maybe he had a problem relating to his white basketball coach or catching a cab in New York, but he never got beaten up for being black.

Now he's at the center of a period of racial turbulence sparked by his ascension. Even if he and the coterie of white male advisers around him don't choose to openly acknowledge it, this president is the ultimate civil rights figure — a black man whose legitimacy is constantly challenged by a loco fringe.

For two centuries, the South has feared a takeover by blacks or the feds. In Obama, they have both.

The state that fired the first shot of the Civil War has now given us this: Senator Jim DeMint exhorted conservatives to "break" the president by upending his health care plan. Rusty DePass, a G.O.P. activist, said that a gorilla that escaped from a zoo was "just one of Michelle's ancestors." Lovelorn Mark Sanford tried to refuse the president's stimulus money. And now Joe Wilson.

"A good many people in South Carolina really reject the notion that we're part of the union," said Don Fowler, the former Democratic Party chief who teaches politics at the University of South Carolina. He observed that when slavery was destroyed by outside forces and segregation was undone by civil rights leaders and Congress, it bred xenophobia.

"We have a lot of people who really think that the world's against us," Fowler said, "so when things don't happen the way we like them to, we blame outsiders." He said a state legislator not long ago tried to pass a bill to nullify any federal legislation with which South Carolinians didn't agree. Shades of John C. Calhoun!

It may be President Obama's very air of elegance and erudition that raises hackles in some. "My father used to say to me, 'Boy, don't get above your raising,' " Fowler said. "Some people are prejudiced anyway, and then they look at his education and mannerisms and get more angry at him."

Clyburn had a warning for Obama advisers who want to forgive Wilson, ignore the ignorant outbursts and move on: "They're going to have to develop ways in this White House to deal with things and not let them fester out there. Otherwise, they'll see numbers moving in the wrong direction."



POTUS OBAMA, FOTD implores you to start matching your fighting words with your fight!!
The Civil Rights Movement succeeded in becoming Civil Rights Laws because blacks and whites of good will and dreamers of equality put themselves physically on the line to move the nation into action. It wasn't a victory of Democrats (who were still transitioning from being segregationists in the South at the time) or Republicans (remember which party Lincoln belonged too).

[Conan71]

"But, fair or not, what I heard was an unspoken word in the air: You lie, boy!"

I think Mo is way, way off base.  This is how the media succeeds in stirring the pot of rabid and divisive partisanship.  That comment "You lie, boy" becomes the truth in people's minds who don't read news and commentary with a critical eye.  It can't be long before those who don't pay attention to the actual account will think this idiot representative actually uttered: "You lie, boy!".  Then the story will morph into something much more racially explicit somewhere out in the blogosphere.

If this had been the other way around and a black member of Congress had publicly called President Bush a liar during a speech, no one would have tried to manipulate it into a racial incident, now would they?  Of course not.  President Obama's spooners in the media who want to see his agendas move forward are willing accomplices in a campaign of racial intimidation.  I think it's got dangerous implications, IMO.

If I were POTUS Obama, I'd be telling the media to back off the racial angle to any opposition to him or his policies.  I am quite well aware there's a fringe group of people who are still racially ignorant and intollerant in this country, but that's NOT the reason why his proposed policies are objectionable.

[Red Arrow]

Anyone posting stuff from Maureen Dowd should not complain about the other side posting from Faux News, or Limbaugh, or a host of others.

[FOTD]

POTUS OBAMA has not brought up the issue so why should he tell the media to back down from doing their duty of reporting the background and the memberships of a bigot congressman or for that matter exposing the thinking behind so much of the attacking and so little of the opposition ideas?

There aren't many like you Conan who offer up intelligent reasoning why POTUS OBAMA policies are objectionable. Please point out those proposed policies you object to and what you propose to do as an alternative. This would be a positive development.

And you may be aware of fringe groups who are racially ignorant and intolerant but why do you and those you prefer in government fail to stand against hate and obstinacy?

And Red Arrow, Maureen Dowd does not preach hate and divisiveness. To group her with Drug addicts, liars, and cheats from a foreign country is wrong. Grow up.

[Red Arrow]

And Red Arrow, Maureen Dowd does not preach hate and divisiveness.

Sorry, must have been a different Maureen Dowd that I used to try to read in the TW.

[FOTD]

Sorry, must have been a different Maureen Dowd that I used to try to read in the TW.

Then you just go ahead and google a sample column on up here Reddy and we'll go from there in comparisons.


Maureen is not owned by foreigners...

[Red Arrow]

Then you just go ahead and google a sample column on up here Reddy and we'll go from there in comparisons.


Maureen is not owned by foreigners...

I know I won't win a pi$$ing contest with the king so I won't waste my time.  I remember reading columns from her that started out fine and then wound up blaming Bush for something completely off subject.  I consider that spreading hate. 

[nathanm]

President Obama's spooners in the media who want to see his agendas move forward are willing accomplices in a campaign of racial intimidation.  I think it's got dangerous implications, IMO.

If Obama had media spooners on the scale that GWB did, there would have been almost no coverage of the teabagger rallies.

[cannon_fodder]

*yawn*

Rush explains how Obama is stupid and always wrong, Maureen Dowd explains how Obama is always right and the conservatives are stupid (and probably racist, even though they didn't really say anything racist). 

A few years ago Maureen Dowd went on and on about how stupid Bush was and always wrong.  Rush explained how the left was just jealous and were stupid (and probably jealous of wealth).

Not only is this not news, it isn't surprising.  I could have written that column for her.  Just as I could write Rush's next piece on a given issue.  It's bland, largely unsupported, and predictable.

And the racist comments are pretty stupid.  Does she think Al Gore would be treated better by right wingers?  Hell no.  Black, white, hispanic, or whatever . . . they hate his ideas and the letter next to his name (D).  And yes, they will use personal attacks to disrupt his ideas and try to make his party look bad.

Of course there are racists included in the discussion.  Hitler was a vegetarian, does that detract from other vegetarians somehow?  Of course not.  The inclusion of a group doesn't reflect the entire movement.

[Wrinkle]

But, fair or not, what I heard was an unspoken word in the air: You lie, boy!

....she said it herself, "what I heard", indicating her own bias, deficiency and racism.

Can't believe she decided to actually write it down.

But, in doing so, she's promoting the very thing to which she appears to object.

Personally, I believe that was the intent.

EDIT: Spelling, meant 'lack of' rather than 'full of', though, she's generally full of it, too.

[Conan71]

....she said it herself, "what I heard", indicating her own bias, defficiency and racism.

Can't believe she decided to actually write it down.

But, in doing so, she's promoting the very thing to which she appears to object.

Personally, I believe that was the intent.

You forget one very important point, Wrinkle.  It's not racist when they do it.

[Cats Cats Cats]

You forget one very important point, Wrinkle.  It's not racist when they do it.

By "they" do you mean, those people?

[custosnox]

I have observed that it seems that those that cry racist the most are the ones that tend to be  the most racist.

[FOTD]

I have observed that it seems that those that cry racist the most are the ones that tend to be  the most racist.

Oh Bull Sh!t

[Conan71]

By "they" do you mean, those people?

Heh, I saw that one coming just as soon as I hit "post".

"Ain't that 'bout a b!tch!"