Black Republican Ken Barnes confronts his conscience and becomes Black ex-Republican Ken Barnes
I have always thought that black and/or gay Republicans are odd. Over the last few years, however, I have begun to think that black and/or gay Republicans are fundamentally damaged in some way. I know it sounds wrong, and call me small-minded or partisan, but I do not understand pledging allegiance to a party that despises you for what or who you are. This is the party of Donald Trump. Glenn Beck. Antonin Scalia. Michelle Bachmann. Andrew Breitbart. Fox News. Bobby Franklin. Pat Robertson. Sarah Palin. Clarence Thomas.
Certainly, the Democrats are no walk in the park, but at least gays, minorities, and women stand a chance by voting blue. I mean, sure, you may get a dick pic via Twitter, but at least the dude sending it to you doesn’t oppose your right to have an abortion.
Nobody — and I mean — nobody stands a chance with Republicans, and certainly not a bunch of coloreds, ‘mos, and dames.
Below is a snippet of one black Republican’s realization that the GOP is overrun by intolerance and bigotry:
I was one of those rare species: a black Republican, the guy willing to spit into the wind of conventional thought, who was often showcased on camera at party events to prove inclusiveness.
But as a proud black man, I can no longer be a member of the Republican Party.
Being a Republican has long been a part of my personal and professional identities, so leaving the party is a difficult and emotional decision.
In 1998, as a young man searching for what I believed were shared values, I cut ties with the Democratic Party and became a Republican. Democrats, in my view, had become unwelcoming to those holding center-right views not in lockstep with the party, and it was my belief that through hard work, the Republican Party could be utilized as a vehicle for improving our community.
For the next 13 years, I dedicated myself to growing the conservative base of the Republican Party, and in the process bound myself in emotion and deed.
…
As of late, however, when I look at myself in the mirror there is one question which perplexes me: Can I, in good conscience, remain affiliated with an organization whose message purveyors of racism and bigotry find attractive?
Generally speaking, Republicans are decent people, and naturally, many of my closest friends vote Republican. As with any large organization or group, there will always be people at the fringes who hold views that are not representative of the body.
An organization cannot control the behavior of each individual actor, but it can control its response to abhorrent conduct.
The latest incident in a string of tawdry, race-based actions was the promotion of a racist cartoon by elected Orange County Republican Party Central Committee member Marilyn Davenport1. The cartoon depicted President Barack Obama and his parents as chimpanzees, while simultaneously implying that the president is not a legitimate American, but rather an African-born interloper.
While the Orange County GOP chairman and a number of other committee members were quick to condemn the image and Davenport, what’s disturbing is the incredible number of people who continue to defend Davenport’s actions as well as the cartoon itself.
Had this been an isolated event, it could be set aside as a mere aberration. However, when placed in the context of similar offenses by the same self-identified tea party-conservative Republicans, there emerges a disturbing pattern of extreme intolerance.
Over the past two years, we have seen Republicans use long-held racist imagery in portrayals of Obama. The president has been depicted as a communist witch doctor, a man inclined to plant watermelons on the White House lawn, and we watched in disbelief as his face was placed on an “Obama Buck Food Stamp” along with stereotyped pictures of fried chicken, barbecue ribs, Kool-Aid and the obligatory watermelon.
What does any of this have to do with public policy or conservative values? Here is a man who excelled academically at the finest schools in the world, has a wonderful in-tact family, worked hard and rose to become president of the United States. Yet in spite of his accomplishments, the president is still labeled an illegitimate, socialist, African witch doctor and has his face superimposed on a chimpanzee.
If this can be done to a black man who is the leader of the free world, how long will it be before fellow Republicans insert my face on a chimpanzee?
These behaviors also raise larger issues for African Americans and other minority groups within the GOP. How can I look my parents in the eye and tell them I’m a Republican in spite of these offenses? If he were still living, could my Latino father-in-law be proud that his daughter supports the GOP, in spite of the constant anti-Latino rhetoric that comes from the party? Can gay family members reconcile my support of a party that seeks to strip them of their basic human rights?
These are not issues which pit moderate against conservative views, but rather consequential matters which transcend political positioning and speak to universal human values.
There are a number of Republicans (and Democrats) who will view my switch to “decline to state” as a net gain for the Democratic Party. However, I reject the theory of zero-sum politics which claim we live in a binary world of Democrats and Republicans, where a lack of support for one side works only to empower the other.
Having now been active in both major political parties, I’ve discovered the common prohibited activity is critical thinking.
Indeed. As we stare down the barrel of another week of WeinerTalk (TMZ released new pictures, didn’t you hear?!), I wonder if an unhealthy media-driven obsession with the tawdry dalliances of politicians has permanently supplanted critical thinking. It certainly seems it has.
Ugh.
1 You remember Marilyn Davenport, don’t you? First she fired off some offensive emails, then she (not really) apologized, arguing the whole time that it was all okay because she has black friends.
(H/T trollhattan!)
[via Sacramento Bee]
Just Some Fuckhead
This guy’s an idiot if he thought the Democratic party of 1998 wasn’t far enough right.
JGabriel
ABL @ Top:
And at the least the dude sending it isn’t simultaneously lecturing you on the sanctity of marriage and how sex should only take place for the purpose of procreation.
.
Jimperson Zibb (formerly Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.)
I saw this when somebody linked to it in an earlier thread. As always, the lifeforms that chimed in with their thoughts [sic] are horrifying. I know I should never read comments in an online newspaper, but somehow I can’t help myself. I really need to stop, though, since it only pisses me off and depresses me.
ant
omg Weiner.
what an idiot.
JGabriel
@Just Some Fuckhead:
Of course. What part of “Republican” didn’t you understand?
.
ant
@Jimperson Zibb (formerly Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.):
i am fully convinced that there is an army of people that are paid to post dumb shit on online newspapers.
It has to be.
Linda Featheringill
Well bless his heart. It must have been very painful to leave an organization he felt he had so much in common with.
And it’s okay to be an Independent. You get to vote how you please anyway.
ruemara
I used to at least believe you could negotiate and discuss issues with republican. Now I think they should be kept under lock & key until a cure is found.
Steeplejack
Glad he finally got the wake-up call. So he hit the snooze button like, what, 158 times?
Jewish Steel
Our hero still has a few steps to take, it would seem.
elisabeth
I’m on my phone so I can’t blockquote but the part about if they could treat the leader of the free world like this how long before they do it to him (or someone else) should make every minority in the GOP pause. Of course, it seems like he knew he was being trotted out for awhile and took it.
asiangrrlMN
I’m glad he left and good luck to him, but he’s still doing the false-equivalence thing that drives me batty.
This stuck in my craw. I don’t know what Democrats he was hanging with back in the day, but there’s critical thinking a-plenty with the Dems I know.
@ruemara: Word. I got no patience with the Republican Party any more, if I ever had it in the first place.
@Steeplejack: Snort. You funny. How you be?
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: The pad thai I ordered didn’t taste quite right, so I poured some of the potsticker sauce I got on top and that put it over the edge. Rice noodle dish FTW.
And Lexie is being a butthead, but she’s still cute.
Hi hon. I know you weren’t asking me but I’m butting in anyway.
French Frog
Well…someone just got enlightened,pretty good stuff.
RosiesDad
Sadly true
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: How can pad thai not taste right? It’s a fail-proof dish. Glad you were able to fix it.
How is Lexie being a brat now? I just got done watching the NBA finals and am about to eat lunch before watching the Tonys. You?
Mike G
In 1998? What else was there BUT center-right views in the Clinton-DLC era?
“The Dems were beige, and my light taupe views left me feeling alientated.”
My guess is he was primarily a follower, someone who admired and envied the wealthy and powerful, and internalized the view that by emulating them some of their wealth and power would trickle down to him.
He wanted to be in on the Repuke con, but sadly found out they would never let him in the club.
Yutsano
On topic: I still say the man is a marshmallow. But at the very least he figured out he was on a destructive course. Because he is NOT the exception to their rule. Nor is Clarence Thomas. Nor is Thomas Sowell. They will always be expected to be on the outside looking in regardless of their success. It’s why I’m convinced Herman Cain is going nowhere and fast.
@asiangrrlMN: Condo is mostly clean and a brownie is begging me to consume it soon.
The Hallway Game is back in full swing. I think she’s in heat AGAIN.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: Brooooownieeeeeeees. Time for me to eat lunch.
Um, shouldn’t she be spayed?
Steeplejack
@asiangrrlMN:
Recuperating after fighting off a minor but lingering cold all week. Can’t believe how much I have slept this weekend, and still I’m tired. Is there some black hole of sluggardness from whose gravitational field it is impossible to escape?
How you doin’?
Steeplejack
@Mike G:
True dat.
This guy was way too sensitive with the Democrats, but only after 13 years is he finding himself shocked–shocked!–that the Republicans are not his BFF’s?!
eastriver
And this is interesting how? The black base for the GOP is tiny. So it’s not that surprising that it got a tad tinier. If conservatives suddenly started picking up Latino or black voters, THAT would be noteworthy.
What’s amazing is the huge number of ignorant white folk that vote against their own economic self-interest each and every election.
amk
What a fucking idjit. It took him over a decade to realize this ?
Lojasmo
Republicans also hate the xx 51%
asiangrrlMN
@Steeplejack: Aw, sorry to hear that you’re not doing so well. Hope you’re on the mend. I’m all right. I’ve been strenuously avoiding politics for the past week or so, but now I have to get back to it.
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN:
My guess is they went a little light on the sauce. Not unusual for when they’re dumbing it down for Americans, but I lurves me some tamarind. The worst part really is they have a ketchup sauce option. There are culinary lines I will cross, but that is DEFINITELY not one of them.
Kyle
Add to that all of Republican-dominated corporate America, and nearly all large and most medium-sized organizations.
But if critical thinking is your bag, one of the two parties is ideologically a lot less hostile toward it. And it’s not the party that’s exalting authoritarianism and scientific ignorance, running lazy halfwits for the presidency, and having an obese drug addict blowhard on the radio enforcing ideological purity.
He claims to have center-right views and prizes critical thinking, yet he left the corporate-friendly late 90s Dems to join the Clinton cockhunter party. Methinks he’s not being quite honest about his motivations.
mclaren
@asiangrrlMN:
Hilarious. If memory serves, you’re the Obot who explained to us how wonderful it was that Obama ordered the illegal assassination of an American citizen without charges and without even accusing him of a crime.
Whenever Obama commits some crime or some new violation of the constitution, Democrats swoon with rapturous delight and rush to rationalize it, throwing out every last vestige of critical thinking, common human decency and even basic civilized humane empathy for other human beings.
Obama orders American citizens kidnapped and hurled into a dungeon without charges and without a trial?
NO PROBLEM!
Obama keeps us in Afghanistan despite his claim that he’d withdraw troops by July 2011?
MARVELOUS!
Obama approves of warrantless wiretapping in flagrant violation of the 4th amendment of the constitution?
GREAT!
Obama extends the Bush tax cuts?
SUPERB!
Obama gets us mired in a third unwinnable war in yet another hellhole, Libya?
FABULOUS!
Obama appoints yet another corporate RIAA/MPAA stooge to his adminstration, this time as solicitor general of the United States?
EXCELLENT!
If Obama bit the head off a live kitten on national TV, you’d applaud until your hands cramped and you’d cheer yourself hoarse.
So much for critical thinking by Democrats, kiddo.
Yutsano
@mclaren:
You don’t win points here by lying. In fact Obama never said anything of the kind. You just shot whatever little credibility you had.
EDIT: feel free to call me a sociopath and impure. All you’re doing is reinforcing your own narratives.
Handsome Stranger
“I have always thought that black and/or gay Republicans are odd.”
Gay Republicans, as far as I can tell, are far beyond odd. I take part in a message board for gay Latinos and one of the regulars is an extremely conservative white Republican. He’s not only 100% nuts, he drives everybody crazy with endless tirades against Obama, many of which he posts in response to criticisms of Sarah Palin. Most of us on that board have come to the conclusion that he is in fact mentally ill.
amk
@mclaren: Lost your way to firebaggers’ loony colony ?
asiangrrlMN
@mclaren: Memory does not serve you correctly as I never commented on any of that shit. You must have me mixed up with another foul-mouthed, tattooed, bi Asian American liberal chick. Go back on your meds, mclaren, and leave me the fuck alone.
@Yutsano: I hate tamarind. It’s better than ketchup, though.
Joel
@ant: You don’t even need people. Just code some bots and off you go.
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN:
Don’t move back home. You’d starve. Tamarind is fucking everywhere in honest real Asian cuisine. It’s like their high fructose corn syrup, only not as poisonous.
Joel
@Yutsano: I just don’t get how thai restaurants fuck up pad thai, but they do. I just make my own now, because tamarind is ridiculously cheap and although straining out the seeds is a pain, it’s worthwhile to have the real thing, instead of some weird peanut-oily-saucy thing.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: It’s not in Taiwanese food.
Jewish Steel
@Yutsano: Thai-ku in Ballard made the best pad thai I ever had.
@asiangrrlMN: We have a little self-righteous Canadian problem around here. S’ok. I’ve called Canadian Abatement. Their going to spray on Thursday so remember to keep your pets indoors.
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: Hmmm…teh Wiki backs your assertion. Interesting since they grow there.
@Jewish Steel: Will make note, though I’m a fair distance from Ballard. And I wanna know how they got the spicy food past the native Vikings.
asiangrrlMN
@Jewish Steel: Hold up! I have a very dear Canadian who’s coming to visit me. Put off the spray until roughly two weeks from now. kthxbai.
P.S. It’s really neat to see you at RumpRoast.
@Yutsano: They are smart. They recognize the suckitude of the tamarind. Heh.
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: Heh. They win Lord Stanley’s tableware you bet your bippie I’m going north to party down with them. Hell I’d even bag day of work for that.
@Yutsano: No larb gai. I haz a sad. If I have the chance I’ll sample though. Hip doc is in Ballard so maybe.
Jewish Steel
@asiangrrlMN: I heart my Canadian homies. Word is bond, pplci! ppcl? ppci? pepsi? You know who you are!
Re Rumproast: We’re always going to turn up at the same bumpin’est parties!
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: Wrong thread! I think you were trying to post this on the thread below.
Jewish Steel
@Yutsano:
Trojan Volvos.
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: Am I mistaken about the cause of the Canadian Problem? It’s happened before. At least they drive okay. Better than Oregonians.
(hi Cain and Odie!)
@Jewish Steel: Snicker. Now I’ll just have to go down to Olympia and buy me that cute one for sale.
bryanD
@Yutsano:
“Tamarind is fucking everywhere in honest real Asian cuisine.”
Bogus! Bogus! Fake Jap! Fake Jap! Peggy Hill! Peggy Hill!
kwAwk
My thinking on this is that this is the Limbaugh effect on our Democracy. Limbaugh get the most attention when he says the most offensive things, and he justifies it by claiming that he is infact the more open minded person because he is willing to say things that are offensive to others. He is the inspiration for others such as Laura Ingram, Michael Savage and Michelle Malkin. All of whom make their careers based upon always being the most conservative person in the room, and the most offensive.
Speaking the truth however doesn’t have to be done in an openly aggressive and offensive manner. But the Limbaugh School of Rhetoric has infected most all of the Republican Party, and I applaud this guy for having the self awareness to get out.
Remeber the good ole days when Ann Coulter was the it girl because she was so obnoxious? Now she can’t even interview because she’s no match for Michelle Bachmann…
The Raven
People don’t choose their party allegiances on politics mostly. I know that sounds odd. But look at Barnes. Even people who you think would know better make the choice on who they know, and how sympathetic they are to the people they meet, and never mind how genuinely awful the party’s policies are for them and theirs.
What I have written many time to John Cole I also think stands for Ken Barnes: I wish him leaders worthy of his loyalty.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: I thought Jewish Steel was referring to mclaren? Now I’m confuzzled.
@Jewish Steel: And RedKitten. I thought you were saying mclaren was Canadian, which doesn’t make sense, but neither does his attack on me, so WTFever.
A party ain’t a party until you show up!
Jewish Steel
@asiangrrlMN: mclaren is not Canadian? I thought she was. I am muddling my trolls, this is likely.
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: I don’t know a lot of Canuckistanis with libertarian tendencies. Plus she seems too emotionally invested to be a foreigner. I could be wrong though.
SamKitteh for the next PM of Canada! I’m calling it right now, y’all heard it here first!
@Jewish Steel: Fred is Canuckistani, so maybe you are mixing your trolls up. I’ve never heard mclaren identify herself as anything but female. And firebagger in extremis.
Alex S.
He left the Democratic Party in 1998? Probably because of Lewinsky…
asiangrrlMN
@Jewish Steel:
@Yutsano:
Wait a minute, mclaren is female? I did not know. I have no idea of her nationality–I only know that she’s off the rails with her rant at me. But, I’m brushing it off my shoulders like Obama (hee hee).
Whatevs. I have a good Canadian coming to visit me, so all is well.
Jewish Steel
@Yutsano: Yes, Cole’s outing of Fred took the idiotfire out of his belly, if only for a moment. Twas rich.
Like I say, I’m mixing up my trolllore most likely (Three els in my made up word. Welsh Steel!)
Yutsano
@Jewish Steel: PICK A NATIONALITY DAMMIT!!
(though you can stay Jewish, that’s the beautiful part.)
@asiangrrlMN:
Will boot knocking be involved?
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano:
A lady doesn’t kiss and tell. Yes! (I ain’t no lady).
@Jewish Steel: You’re Welsh? Niiiiiice.
James E. Powell
Like many of you, I have to wonder where Ken Barnes has been all these years. Racist appeals have been central to Republican messaging since Reagan in 1980. Why would Clinton have considered it necessary to do the original Sister Souljah move if it wasn’t to try to persuade all those Real ‘Muricans that they had nothing to fear from him?
Without the solid and enthusiastic support of racist voters, Republicans could not hope to compete nationally. Anyone who identifies as a Republican either joins in promoting racist politics or, at the very least, does nothing to stop it.
2008 is an example of what happens to a Republican campaign that isn’t built on hating blacks, immigrants, or gays. 2010 was an example of how they do when they animate their core voters. Which tack do you think they will be taking in 2012?
Anya
Were there any Blue Dogs at that time? They’re a less hateful republicans, so he should fit in well with them.
Karen
It’s one thing for Mr. Barnes to switch parties. It’s another for him to admit it and I give him credit for that. So much of politics is single issue oriented (like the gay Republicans whose sexual orientation is not as important to them as their hatred of taxes. Or minorities).
Jewish Steel
@asiangrrlMN: Sometimes a “good Canadian” is just what you need to take the edge off.
As I once told morzer, in any group photograph of Welsh coal miners, I will resemble 2 or 3 of them.
Tim Connor
@Linda Featheringill: Being an “independent” in this time and place is like saying you are holding your voting options open in 1932 Germany.
I am not wild about either the Democrates or Obama. So what? The other side is solipsistic and unprincipled, and will ruin my children’s and grandchildren’s futires.
There is no honorable choice that involves voting Republican right now. And 3rd parties are a vote for the Republicans, in effect.
asiangrrlMN
@Jewish Steel: Exactly.
And, I Googled Welsh miners. Now I know what you look like.
Allan
I highlighted Mr. Barnes’ op-ed on the website of my local Democratic Club, and wanted a picture to include. So a quick Google search led me to the perfect illustration, of Mr. Barnes at a Sacramento GOP fundraiser in 2010, shaking hands with… Karl Rove.
What’s even more amazing is that the post from whence I lifted the pic was on a website for black Republicans. And Mr. Barnes had uploaded this picture and posted to that site less than one month ago.
Something must have really snapped for him, and it was recent. More recent than the episode he describes.
I wish him the best.
Jewish Steel
@asiangrrlMN:
4th from the left.
http://thomasgenweb.com/welsh_miners.jpg
asiangrrlMN
@Jewish Steel: That’s the pic I saw! So funny! (You’re a cutie. Or, at least, your proxy is).
@Allan: My guess is that it accumulated over time until something fairly trivial pushed him over the edge.
Allan
And here he is with Sarah Palin. Again, note that Mr. Barnes uploaded this and other pictures on May 25, 2011.
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: We could call it the Schiavo moment. Charles Johnson had his. Now Ron Barnes has experienced it. Really John Cole was just the canary in the coalmine.
burnspbesq
@mclaren:
Dearie, in this universe July 2011 doesn’t start for another 18 days. Why am I surprised that you can’t even read a calendar when it gets in the way of your bizarre narrative?
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: Good point, Yutsy. Here’s hoping that more Republicans have that moment.
@burnspbesq: Fuck. I didn’t even see that. Nice catch, burnsie!
trollhattan
Thanks for the H/T ABL!
I do wonder whether Mr. Barnes bothered to wander around the Tea Party rallys a couple years back? If he was a Republican wheeler-dealer he’d certainly been there, at the
behestcommand of Roger Ailes.Anyhoo, even a cursory look around would have harvested plenty of signage worse than what puked forth recently. Was he hoping it was all just an anomoly?
Also, too, Mavs! Jason Terry went to my high school, like decades after me but I can still absorb a bit of the glow.
TaMara (BHF)
@asiangrrlMN: @Yutsano:
Hey guys, I don’t hang much this late at night, but has TatooSydney been around at all? Just dawned on me I haven’t seen him in a while (I do have an email for him that I could use..but thought I’d ask you guys).
Also: Clarence Clemmons, the Big Man, had a stroke tonight. Hoping he’ll be okay, the E-Street Band without him wouldn’t be the same.
Yutsano
@TaMara (BHF): He left his job being a lawyerly type person and is now on more or less a mission to find himself. He will respond to e-mails (I’ve kept in contact with him that way) so feel free to use that. Unless it’s the baker-mackenzie one, in which case that one no longer works.
Yutsano
Also too, Nia Vardalos rocks my existence.
(warning: Hufflepuff link)
TaMara (BHF)
@Yutsano: Thanks. I’m pretty sure it’s his personal one, but if not, I’ll shoot you an email with a request. Jeez I miss all the good stuff in the name of sleep.
asiangrrlMN
@TaMara (BHF): He’s content to be a kept man and a fledgling cook. He’s good with the email, though. He usually responds within a week or two.
@Yutsano: That’s really fucking good. You’re forgiven the link.
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN: Alls I can say is he’d better get off his duff and start apprenticing in a local Sydney pastry shop like yesterday. I’m anxious to see what he will come up with. Hell I’m half tempted to bully him into making my wedding cake.
(okay you can stop laughing now wifey-poo.)
asiangrrlMN
My blog post in which I wave the white flag of surrender to Sarah Palin.
@Yutsano: Two-timer!
But, bwahhahahahhahhahha! Oh, Caaaaaanaaaadaaaaaaa!
mclaren
@Yutsano:
Apparently you hope to. Your obvious lie is now posted above for everyone to see, and the headline proving that you’re a liar is visible here:
Obama’s Afghan withdrawal date bolsters enemy: Marines
The far-left-wing unreliable bullshit scandal sheet which published this headline was, of course, Reuters news service.
Pro tip: when Reuters publishes a headline showing that Obama set a July 2011 withdrawal date for U.S. troops in Afghanistan, it’s a bad idea to try to pretend a major headline in a major news service didn’t exist.
But then, you could always join your buddies in reality-denial out on the climate-denial fringe…
After all, as Ronald Reagan put it so eloquently, “Facts are stupid things.”
Yutsano
@asiangrrlMN:
You’re welcome.
/pedant
Otherwise nicely done hon.
@mclaren: An article from AUGUST OF LAST YEAR?? C’mon, you can do better than that. And you are aware that the Commandant of the Marine Corps cannot go against the President, amirite?
No ad hominems though. You may just be learning.
asiangrrlMN
@Yutsano: Gah. Thanks. I hate when I make stupid mistakes like that.
ETA: Although, I kinda like conscience choice, too.
Ecks
I thought the final nail in his coffin was “no bills over 3 pages”. I mean, a municipal order to install traffic lights would be longer than that, and more to the point, everyone who made it through high school has written a paper longer than that too. It’ll play ok with the teatards, but none of the VSP’s will be able to get behind him.
And BTW, I think that the institutional Democratic Party might not be that open to free thinkers, but Democratic leaning people as a group certainly are FAR more so than Republicans…
BT(extra)W, you didn’t have in mind THIS picture of Welsh coal miners did you?
mclaren
@burnspbesq:
Proof once again that you’re ignorant as well as stupid and incompetent. Out here on planet earth, everyone else knows that Obama White House Backing Off From July 2011 date for Afghanistan drawdown
Go back to your crackpot claims that scratchy clicky inner-groove-distorted vinyl LPs sound fabulous, kook. You’ll have better luck than when you try to deride facts long since proven.
Obama Administration Walking Away From 2011 Afghan Withdrawal” (By the dreaded Jane Hamsher, the better to make your heads explode. That skeptical critical thinking just…goes away when you find yourselves confronted about unpleasant facts concerning your hero & idol Barack Obama, doesn’t it?)
U.S. Officials back away from July 2011 Afghan withdrawal deadline
All these headlines and stories date from late 2010.
But of course you’re too ignorant to realize that, aren’t your, burnspbesq?
Typical. What else is a lawyer for, if not ignorance as well as stupidity and incompetence?
Ecks
@mclaren: Copying and pasting from the article that you posted (the first paragraph, or so, no less):
(emphasis added).
So yeah, he TOTALLY said that we’d have every last troop out of Afghanistan by July 1 2011, no matter what, cross his heart, hope his mother dies, call him-a-big-fat-liar-if-it-ain’t-so.
Literacy, I’d recommend you give it a whirl some day.
ETA, ok, the part about “starting” to withdraw is in the first paragraph, but the bit about “if conditions are right” isn’t till the 6th. But in my defense, they’re very short 1-2 sentence paragraphs, and short sentences at that.
(another) Josh
mclaren, you’ve refuted the no he didn’t response (although, as others have pointed out, until July actually starts, no one can know whether Obama’s planning a surprise troop withdrawal!). But you’ve neither substantiated nor retracted your accusation against asiangrrl.
Yutsano
@Ecks: You realize of course this just makes you a blind O-bot sheeple being led to your slaughter. Why are you stopping her from creating her Hamsher-inspired paradise on earth?
jwb
@Ecks: mclaren gets paid by the word count not the accuracy of the comment so you’ve gotta cut the troll some slack.
Ecks
But I can’t be a sheeple! I taste like chicken!
ETA: And I’m Canadian… But not telling whether I’m a good one or not.
Allan
What about this story of a black Republican turning away from his party would cause mclaren to hijack the thread and turn it into an attack on Obama? Why would it be important for mclaren to derail this conversation about the racism of the modern GOP in order to make false and malicious claims about Obama and bring in Jane “Blackface” Hamsher to bolster them? What on earth could be maclaren’s motivations for attacking an Asian-American with libelous charges? Can anyone think of any reason why this story about a black Republican would cause mclaren to lie about the president and an Asian-American member of the BJ community? Someone help me out here because I can’t put my finger on the common denominator…
Yutsano
@Allan:
C’mon…put it together…it’ll come to you…
@Ecks:
I choose not to inquire how you are aware of this fact.
Ecks
@Yutsano: Tact and discretion… wait, I thought this was the internet?!?
Yutsano
@Ecks: I blame my job. I chase tax evaders all day. Well the ones we catch up with and did something nasty to that they want me to fix. It does require a great deal of tact and discretion. Unless they start bullshitting me. Then I get to have real fun. And make work for Burnsy. It’s a symbiotic relationship.
asiangrrlMN
@Allan: Geeeee….it’s on the tip of my yellow tongue, but I can’t quite grasp it.
ETA: Although, to be fair to mclaren, she rants about Obama in every thread, so there’s that.
@Ecks: Well, since I’m the one who’s labeling Canadians, I hereby pronounce you good.
@(another) Josh: Don’t hold your breath. mclaren doesn’t DO apologies.
Jewish Steel
@Ecks: I resemble all those miners.
I run a tampermonkey script that tells me what sort of Canadian you are. taps nose, winks
Kevin
Saint Reagan announced his candidacy in Philadelphia, Mississippi, a town known for one thing: the murder of civil rights workers. His speech embraced all of Lee Atwater’s advice on racial code.
Truly, there is nothing new under the sun.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN)
I had forgotten how quickly kittens go from 0 to 60 and then back to zero. Harry is now collapsed in my arm, which makes it very hard to type.
boss bitch
@asiangrrlMN:
mcclaren is a she?!
Comrade Kevin
mclaren lying about something? Say it ain’t so!
BDeevDad
And they wonder why Jews aren’t Republican either.
Hillary Rettig
>the guy willing to spit into the wind of conventional thought,
not the pride at being contrarian. It’s been a while since I’ve read David Brock’s Blinded by the Right, but I think he, too, describes being motivated, as a young gay Republican, by pride at being a contrarian.
I wonder how many of the Republican POC and gays are motivated by a similar juvenile kneejerk contrarianism.
SRW1
In 1998, as a young man searching for what I believed were shared values, I cut ties with the Democratic Party and became a Republican.
The dominant issues in the years before and during 1998 were Newtie’s government shutdown and the Clinton impeachment saga. Makes one wonder what ‘shared values’ he saw in the GOP to switch sides. Even ‘keep your zippers’ shut doesn’t seem to apply, after all 1998 was also the year of Henry Hyde’s ‘youthful indiscretions’ and the resignation of Speaker-elect Bob Livingston for marital infidelity.
Oh, and lest anyone forgot, Bob Livingston was succeeded by David ‘The Diaper’ Vitter.
Nerem
Reminds me of Donald Thornton. I hear his show a lot and he makes me think he doesn’t understand he’s being used by white guys. http://blog.xservativestalk.com/
chopper
lolz. yeah, it only took him a decade to realize the GOP were racist clowns, but the rest of us are the ones lacking critical thinking skills.
Swellsman
ABL, I’ve often thought the same thing about blacks or gays who persist in being Republicans. One other, more cynical, thing I thought I’d throw out there too, though — there is always the possibility that professional pols like Michael Steele find it advantageous to be Republican because they believe they can leverage their ethnicity to achieve greater personal power within the party.
(I don’t think the same can be said about gay Republicans, because I don’t think the Republican party really believes that gays should have equal rights, whereas they understand that they have to at least try to give the impression that they are not racist. Besides, black people are easy to identify, although homosexuals are not.)
Steven Colbert did a bit about this a couple of years ago with Tim Meadows. Meadows played a wealth black Republican, and explained to Colbert that – as a Republican – he got a lot more face time that he did as a Democrat. As a Democrat he was just another black supporter, but as a Republican he was constantly being asked to appear on stage next to Republican candidates and his face was plastered across Republican literature to “prove” the Republicans care about black people too.
Obviously, I don’t know Steele or – to give another example – Clarence Thomas, but I have long had the niggling thought at the back of my head that both these individuals made a conscious decision to go with a party that needed high-profile black participants to provide it cover. And so long as they parroted the party-line, they were more than welcome to participate.
Again, I am just speculating here, really, but I’ve always thought that these two men found it easy to support a party that is so clearly anti-civil rights because, at the end of the day, they knew the party would take care of them personally.
henqiguai
@Top – re: Mr. Barnes
Funny, I thought the general requirement to engage in at least a rudimentary bit of critical thinking was the only thing keeping most actively engaged Democrats sane.
And yeah, just seeing this post and haven’t yet read through all the comments.
someguy
The only people who really belong in the Republican Party are those white men who just aren’t quite ballsy enough to come out of the closet about their race hatred and join the KKK.
Chris
As a kid first reading about politics, I initially found a lot of Republican ideas attractive. Sure, government should stay out of people’s lives! Sure, we need a strong national defense! Etc.
That era passed. What I remember most fondly about it, though, was that even when I found myself close to their ideas, I could never actually call myself a conservative or a Republican or fully identify with them… and that was the reason. The undercurrent of “we’re better than you because of our ethnic/racial background/what God we pray too/what part of the country we live in/etc and therefore we deserve a special status in this nation” takes many forms, but it’s an undercurrent that runs through the entire right-wing base and is the prime factor in determining how most of them vote. Even as a noob, I wanted nothing to do with that.
gene108
@BDeevDad:
Karl Rove / Lee Atwater and other leading lights of the Republican Party over the past 40 years would be proud of the way Sarah Palin went about targeting people for personal gain.
Based on the link, she would make an excellent candidate for President for the Republicans. She has really internalized the essence of being a Republican in elected office: deflect people’s attention from your policies and short-comings and character assassination of your enemies.
Chris
@Handsome Stranger:
The sick part about it is that in my observation, Republicans from minority demographics feel obligated to double down on the bashing of another minority to prove how loyal they are to “real America” (witness Herman Cain’s cascade of gay-bashing and Muslim-bashing comments).
JasonF
I have a non-white (and also non-black) friend who I’ve known for about 10-15 years. During most of that time, he’s been a Republican. Not a politically active one, but a Republican all the same. He’s a professional and an entrepreneur, and he liked what he perceived as their pro-business, low-tax message. He was basically a Wall Street Republican.
But over the last 3 years, he’s seen the way the GOP treated President Obama. My friend isn’t stupid. He knows if they feel that way about a black man, they probably feel that way about him, too. And it’s driven him away from the GOP, to the point where he’s hosting fund-raisers for a Democratic House candidate.
WereBear
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym (JMN): I am wild about Harry! Hope he’s just wild about you.
Oh, yeah! Because Republicans are so open and accepting, you know.
polyorchnid octopunch
@Ecks: I would’ve thought you tasted like pork. Long pork, as it were.
rikryah
you know ABL, I’m all for free thinking and such, but first, and foremost, I’m a Black woman and some shyt just doesn’t get past me. Some shyt, as a Black person in America, I won’t even find a rhyme, reason or excuse for because it offends so deeply. Watching these slave catching coons trying to find some sort of excuse for these ‘ isolated incidents’ of OBVIOUS RACISM that pop up faster than you can say pickaninny has been disgusting to watch. And, it’s just makes me look at the Black folks that remotely try to defend being in a party with these people with absolute disgust.
AxelFoley
@Steeplejack:
ROFL
AxelFoley
@eastriver:
Hell, didn’t we see every black GOP member in existence in that one little section at the 2008 GOP Convention?
Exactly.
Chrisd
@Handsome Stranger:
Whatever you do, DON’T waste your time trying to reason with them. In their own minds, they are the truly principled ones, but their rhetoric can turn on a dime and will only give you a headache.
Just chalk it up to naked economic self-interest and dark sublimated masochism and back away. Or better yet, view their blogs as excellent parody sites and have a good laugh.
AxelFoley
@Swellsman:
I see what you did there.
jrg
@eastriver:
I don’t buy this argument anymore. We still give them farm subsidies. We still give elderly “conservatives” Medicare.
Ask the hicks to truly “vote against their own economic self-interest(s)”, and they will scatter like cockroaches with the lights on. They vote against the economic interests of minorities. The instant it impacts them, they’re gone.
Glen Tomkins
It’s about money and faith in humanity
Gays and blacks whose personal wealth would be enhanced by R policies are going to tend to be able to hold their noses and vote their economic self-interest.
And, frankly, as an ABL, you should be able to relate to the idea that the pressure you need to apply to the nostrils to keep out unwanted odors is only marginally greater for Rs than Ds. One frequent effect of persecution and marginalization by the herd is a loss of confidence in the behavior of any sort of herd.
It’s surprising there aren’t more gay and black Rs. The Rs are the party of people who have given up on humanity in general, which is something that the persecuted have much more excuse for than the privileged.
Woodrow/asim Jarvis Hill
@Glen Tomkins:
That’s…not always the case.
I keep mentioning my Mother, because she was such an interesting women in many ways. And one of those is that, a couple of years before she died, she switched, very publicly, to the GOP.
The reason, sad to say, was re-segregation of schools. see, my Mom believed in education — to my and my Brother’s benefit. But she fell in with a crew that convinced her that the best thing for African American kids was to have their own, independent, charter schools.
And she fought hard, like a dog, on her deathbed, for this group (who didn’t even bother to attend her funeral, but I digress…there’s some real anger I have towards them). And in the process of that work, she, a woman who believed int he political process, decided to work the system — and int he process, found that Democrats didn’t want charter schools, but the GOP loved the idea.
And so, she made a Grand Bargain with the local GOP, giving them publicity over converting in exchange for helping them push for charter schools here in SC. And, in the process, causing even more of a rift between she and I, as I saw the game, and how they were playing her, and the (on average) poorer, less-able-to-pay African American kids in the process.
She died with that voting registration, and believing that this move was best for the kids she cared so much for. I daresay the GOP never showed any real interest in her work, and also never gave a damn when she passed. It was, in short, a waste and a shame.
But it was NOT done out of “Uncle Tom-ism”, or self-hate, or economic self-interest. On the contrary, it’s a cautionary tale. She cared so much she left herself open to being used. This may not be true of all Black GOP members, but I submit it’s important to keep in mind, as we move forward.
Ben Cisco
@Swellsman: __
Yup. With Steele, it’s not so much that he hates anybody else as it is that he lurves him some HIM. You could tell from some of the statements he made even while head of the RNC that he KNEW the NeoConfederates were full of shit. Yet, he soldiered on and collected every dime and minute of airtime with the F.C.I.N. (Ferengi Controlled Infotainment Networks) that he could – then promptly signed on with MSNBC as a less loathsome version of Uncle Pat (yeah, I know, low bar and so forth…)
__
I’ll go one step further and state that I find not only black Republicanism, but black conservatism as a whole, to be oxymoronic, at least as practiced at this late date. I personally know a couple that, if cornered, will eschew the Republican label in favor of the conservative one on “no true Scotsman” grounds, but I ain’t buying it.
cinesimon
mclaren you really need to grow up.
markeros
I’m pretty sure I went to school with this social-climbing, selfish, arrogant, entitled douchebag and I’m also pretty sure that he’s not only a person of color, but one of his colors is lavender.
I wonder if he’ll be popping out of a closet soon.
If he is who I think he is, I couldn’t spend 2 minutes in the same room with him without being driven out by the toxic stench of his Eau de self-hatred and the blinding glow of his aura of smug superiority.
Methinks he will be even more unbearable as a refugee from the GOPKKK than he was as one of their apologists.
He and Lanny Davis and their ilk are as entitled to redemption and forgiveness as anyone.
But, not till they give up grifting and truly join the human race.
(I doubt this is anything other than one more con to get the attention that our hero thinks he deserves.)
grandpajohn
@Tim Connor:
Too bad we couldn’t convince the foolish Naderites of this back in 2000. Think how different a country we would now live in.
Catsy
@mclaren: Aw crap, someone’s off their meds again.
Catsy
@asiangrrlMN:
Yeah, mclaren is basically a slightly more literate incarnation of Joe Beese. They’ve both got that near-Pavlovian compulsion to crap all over any thread in which they see an opening to say something dishonest or unflattering about Obama.
DFH no.6
@James E. Powell:
It actually goes further back than Reagan in ’80.
For conservatives in general it goes back, well, pretty much forever (in political terms).
For the Republican Party, specifically, it goes back to the Southern Strategy started under Nixon (the time the two parties began moving in earnest to where they are now – a center-left Democratic Party, and an entirely rightwing Republican Party).
With the Southern Strategy, southern white racists began moving en masse from their previous home in the Democratic Party to their new home (which they now dominate) in the Republican Party.
Any black American who didn’t realize that either had their head firmly up their ass, or were simply engaged (I’m guessing this is the most common factor) in the bedrock conservative value of “fuck you, I got mine” (and pretended they didn’t see the racism).
Both racism and FYIGM are key features, not a bugs, of course, for modern movement conservatism. Pretty simple, really. And the resulting cognitive dissonance (“doublethink” in Orwell) for modern conservative non-whites can apparently be juggled successfully for quite a while if the $$ are right. Herman Cain, for example.
I suppose Ken Barnes just couldn’t do the doublethink anymore.
HyperIon
This dude still does not get it.
Jebediah
@Jewish Steel: That is exactly how I pictured you, including the stylin’ attire!