When Joe Wilson, who is thus far the GOP Representative from South Carolina, called the President a liar and was quickly found to be himself a liar, something happened that was quite significant. A wound was re-opened that may not soon be closed. How serious was Rep. Wilson’s mistake? For him, it was quite serious. His Democratic opponent increased his campaign coffers by an astonishing $500,000 overnight. But it was perhaps more serious for the Republican Party.
The Republicans have been attacking the President by issuing written instructions for the weirdos who attended the “tea parties” organized in early July that were designed to accomplish…who knows what? There were people at these relatively sparsely attended gatherings who had simply painted signs with the President’s picture with a Hitler-moustache. OK, a little caricature never hurt anyone. But then there were others who carried signs calling the President a Communist. Then others with signs calling him a Fascist. Then others with signs comically calling him both a Communist and a Fascist.
What could conceivably have caused such total irrationality? Well, it must be something that the President has done. Let’s see if we can identify what it was. Has he taken us into a foreign war by lying? No. He has said that he will bring the troops home from Iraq, and pursue Al Queada in Afghanistan and Pakistan to end that war. And he is doing those things.
Has he given huge tax cuts to the rich and not to the middle class? No. He included a huge tax cut for middle and lower income taxpayers that we all received early this year in the stimulus. Has he neglected the economy? No. He has brought the best economists in the country, both Democratic and Republican, into the White House to develop a stimulus that has created large numbers of jobs and stabilized the economy, and allowed the stock market to climb by three hundred points in less than six months.
Could it be that the President has ignored the Republicans on policies and disregarded their ideas? Well, first of all, he has continually said that he wants Republican input on legislation. But in both public statements in press conferences as well as in private memos sent out to Right Wing propaganda organizations the Republican leadership in Congress has told the Party members and the public that it will not participate in a Democracy where they cannot make the rules. It has told Party members not to cooperate with the Democrats on anything.
On health care reform, the Republicans were offered amendment after amendment in the Senate deliberations but only came up with those that would delay or inhibit the legislation. For months, the Finance committee has been in session trying to come up with a compromise and bi-partisan health care reform bill. But the Republicans have steadfastly believed that if they simply delayed and obstructed the Democrats would ultimately give in.
Democrats could not concede even if they wanted to. They look at polls and see that–despite all the hate speech and the anger trumped up among the great unwashed–the American people at large still want health care reform by a factor of four to one. And fully 70% of the American people, 7 out of 10 expect to see some reform in health care this year. It is the reason they elected a Democratic President, House of Representative, and one assumes, a Democratic Senate.
So, one might say that it is simply the huge battle, with the health care industry spreading tens of millions, that is causing unrest and crude antagonism. Some estimate that as much as $120 million is being spent on both sides to fight this battle. And who wins, by the way? The television media wins. They get the lion’s share of that money. How many people can turn on a television set and not see, within ten minutes, a commercial from one organization or another trying to stop health care reform?
How many can say that they have not seen a counter-advertisement from an organization sponsored by an organization made up of groups like AARP, concerned physicians, unions or Liberal political groups? And all the while the media is simply raking in its chips. Why do the media have talking heads on both sides? One could make the case that it is simply to keep up the controversy. Except for Fox News which is an acknowledged arm of the Republican Party, the media does not take a position. But they take the money…especially Fox News Channel. So, are the insults from racist dolts like Joe Wilson of South Carolina merely a result of heated concerns over health care? No. They are not.
The sponsors of the Right Wing fringe have now achieved their purpose. They were out, not to do anything except build a list of people who are nutty and who can be promoted easily, using terms like “fascism,” and “communism,” to mask their real objective which is to express their…racism. These people wouldn’t be out doing all this nonsense if a John Kerry or a Howard Dean were President, even as crazy as these Right Wing whackos are. They shout and scream inanities and deface pictures of the President because they are racists.
Who, for example, is Joe Wilson of South Carolina? He is a member of a white supremacist group and a follower of the principles of Strom Thurmond, who was one step in principle from being a slave owner. Strom Thurmond bolted the Democratic Party in 1948 because they wanted to let black people drink from water fountains or ride buses or get an ice cream soda in a place where white people did those things. He wanted to perpetuate the idea that because your skin was darker than his that you were somehow dirty and stupid. He wanted to, and did, perpetuate the acts of white slave owners who took advantage of black women and not only used them for sexual purposes, but impregnated them. He did this, having fathered a daughter with a maid in his household. As degenerate an elected official as ever lived, in whose traditions apparently the current governor and one Senator apparently follow. But to think that this predatory racist was elected Senator…elected to the Senate of the United States…from South Carolina. He was scum.
So for Joe Wilson, an avowed racist, it is galling to see an African-American as President (though some blacks still think Bill Clinton is blacker than President Obama.) He couldn’t take it and so, using a trumped-up, ridiculous issue, he made an immortal fool of himself.
And of course, Senator Kyl of Arizona and others who are themselves protective of the racists and degenerates in their Party, like Senators DeMint and Vitter and Ensign and Craig and others, must come to Wilson’s defense. They do so even though many Republicans, now considering a new Independent Party because they have differences in policy with the White House, will look at their defense of Wilson and wonder if Kyle and McCain and Graham are not themselves closet racists.
The racism on the right, sponsored and promoted by FreedomWorks, which is really a lobbying group for Verizon, AT&T and the other members of CTIA, has now spread from that kind of lobbying group and from the radio-hate talkers like Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and the demented Glenn Beck to the elected representatives of the Republican Party. The Neocon Republicans now have what they seem to have wanted. They wanted to be free to opt out of government. Merely attack, criticize and lie. That they have done. They are no longer a factor in any legislative decision making. They wanted to express their opinions, freely and let the public know exactly the kinds of people they are. And we found out. They are, plainly and simply, racists.
