Madness.
Gingrich campaign strategist Rick Tyler opened his mouth last night and a whole lotta stupid fell out. The below clip demonstrates that Republicans really do live in an alternate reality where up is down, the sky is green, and asking a question about racism ipso facto makes you racist.
It’s surreal:
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As karoli over at Crooks & Liars put it:
It’s as though the last 30 years of barely-veiled hate has bubbled up and is erupting like a volcano filled with the hottest, stinkiest, most disgusting offal we’ve seen. They’re spewing it all over the nation, because they’re that desperate to see our first African-American President fail.
Indeed.
I can’t help but think that the GOP is getting desperate, and that their desperation is causing a sort of political schizophrenia. On the one hand, Republicans believe that black folks are lazy, unemployed, food stamp hustlers, who are taking the hard-earned tax dollars of “ordinary” (white) Americans. On the other hand, they’re pandering to black folks in an absurd attempt to win us over by trying to convince us that Democrats are bad for us; that Democratic policies don’t work; that Democrats are keeping us enslaved to the almighty hand-out; that Democrats are killing us through abortion genocide or eugenics.
The GOP psyche is splintering and causing Republicans to spew incongruous talking points.
So what’s the deal? Are there too many of us or not enough? Do you want us to keep breeding and producing future food stamp hustlers or not?
Operation Spite Babies, ladies. Wait for my signal.
UPDATE: I meant to add a (partial) transcript for those who can’t watch video. Here it is:
[cross-posted at Angry Black Lady Chronicles]Rick Tyler: I don’t understand this. The president sings, the president — Newt Gingrich makes a little thing, and all of a sudden it’s a racist thing. More people are on food stamps today because of Barack Obama. They fail in the schools, you can ask Al Sharpton, the democrats have failed in the public schools with the African-Americans , they abort their babies, they’ve done nothing to lift them out of poverty. I hear all the time the democrats have these great intentions, but their policies fail. Maybe we have good intentions too, but our policies haven’t been tried. Maybe we should try our policies that put people back to work and not give them a handout. Live in public housing, and shut up and vote for the democrat.
Al Sharpton: That’s not what Newt Gingrich said. He brought race up in this campaign.
Rick Tyler: Tell me when he did, Al.
Al Sharpton: I’m getting ready to tell you, he said, and I’m quoting here, that he would go to the NAACP and tell black people to stop being satisfied with food stamps, he didn’t say people on food stamps, he said black people. Don’t be satisfied with food stamps, they should demand jobs. Black people in communities, youngsters don’t have role models. This is not what he said when he went on the tour that president Obama asked him to go on. He’s brought race in the campaign by name. You cannot then turn around and act like Rachel or I’m bringing up racism. Wait and minute, I’m going to let you finish, but I want to finish this part. He brought up race, now you have to answer. If he didn’t want to deal with race, why did he bring up race. It is a patent untruth that president Obama has more people on food stamps — more people went on food stamps under George W. Bush than president Obama. Would you call him a food stamp president?
Rick Tyler: We’re not running against George W. Bush, we’re running against Barack Obama.
Al Sharpton: If more people went on food stamps under George W. Bush, you just said that Obama had more, that is factually incorrect.
Rick Tyler: 98% of African- Americans vote democrat, okay? What have they gotten for it, poor schools, poor neighborhoods, crime ridden neighborhoods, a destruction of the family, and the democrats want to abort their babies. That’s their position, I’m not going to defend that.
Al Sharpton: People vote democrat — black people vote democrat because the Civil Rights Act, Voting Rights Act and many of the members of congress –were the Abe Lincoln party and the party of Little Rock, we voted republican like anybody else in America, sir. We vote our interests. Republican or not. Why would we vote for people that call our parents criminals, that says that you can’t even admit you’re wrong on the facts of food stamps, we’re not sadists or Masochists.
Rick Tyler: I haven’t said the republican party has done a good job of reaching out to African- Americans. I think Newt Gingrich is trying to reach out to African-Americans, there’s an upset. There are better schools, there’s a way to prosperity, a way to earn a paycheck. There’s a way to get ahead in life, and it doesn’t mean depending on the democratic party for hand outs. He’s brought it in to appeal to African- Americans, that they might vote for a different way, that republicans may have good intentions, just like democrats do, but your policies fail, and our policies work.
JPL
Welcome back.
Gus
I disagree. They’re not trying to win over black votes. They’ll take however many they can get, but what they’re really trying to do is deflect criticism from their race baiting to salve the consciences of “moderate” Republicans who aren’t cool with overt racism.
John Weiss
ABL! Glad to see you.
Cris (without an H)
At best, they’re trying to get mushy-thinking White voters to go “oh no, I didn’t realize my support for abortion rights was part of a secret genocidal conspiracy! I better vote Newt!”
Horrendo Slapp (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.)
Just once. Just once. Just one fucking time, I would love to hear one of these turds own up to what they’re doing. It’s bad enough that they spew this shit all over the country; but then they turn around and try to explain why they aren’t racist, it’s the Democrats who are. Can’t they have the guts to own up to what they’re doing? Well, that’s a dumb thing to ask; it answers itself: Of course not. I hate those people.
And by the way, ABL, just in case nobody else brings it up, you’re the real racist here for calling Newt Gingrich a racist. You should be ashamed of yourself. Hopw can you live with yourself? (If it makes you feel any better, I’m a racist, too, since I did the same thing. I sometimes wonder how I can live with myself.)
marcopolo
speaking of african american role models, I thought that guy in the White House was, you know, just about the most amazing positive role model possible…except, you know, when you question his citizenship, or his ability to speak without a teleprompter, or claim he is destroying the country or wonder how he was accepted to Harvard, or or or…
rea
@Horrendo Slapp (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.): Just one fucking time, I would love to hear one of these turds own up to what they’re doing
Well, famously, Lee Atwater. Too bad it took imminent death from cancer to get him to do it.
tBone
This is the part that really pissed me off:
Like all good card-carrying Democrats, I’m completely color-blind when it comes to the unborn – I want to abort them all, regardless of race or ethnicity. Tyler’s suggestion that I only care about aborting black babies is patently offensive.
Donut
Welcome back.
Horrendo Slapp (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.)
And there’s something else. It’s something even people who are generally on the ball miss, and I don’t know why. It’s the pattern of racial words that Gingrich and other Republicans use that’s so damning, not any one specific outburst. This is something the Republicans understand well, and are good at using. I think it was Richard Nixon who first called it “plausible deniability” (I could be wrong about this).
Plausible deniability: That’s why they’re so careful to talk about “food stamps” and “not like us” and “fundamentally un_American” and all that shit. That’s why you’ll never catch them letting loose with a “nigger” when anybody’s listening. They know that they can point to “food tamp president”, and say, “Well, I never said anything about black people. I was only pointing out that more people are on food stamps under this president, blah, blah, blah… You’re the one who brought race up here. I never said anything at all about race.”
And the problem here is that it is true, in a narrow way. It is true that they never specifically said anything about black people in the above example.
Donut
Isn’t the modern (and arguably even the long term, historic) Republican party message to black folks basically, “yer doin it wrong. You should be more like white people, why aren’t you more like white people?”
In a nutshell.
Dee Loralei
I can’t wait to see your signal. I bet it’s some super cool bat signal kinda thang. Get Amanda Underwood on it!
Twitter was funny last night when that guy was talking, OY. Poor dears, they just cant help themselves. (The Republicans that is.)
gwangung
Mendacious liar.
The black middle class was the biggest it EVER was under Democratic initiatives like the Great Society. It’s only when Republicans tried to “crack down” on supposed welfare cheats with their arcane, bureaucratic requirements that black poverty started to rise.
Donut
…not that a lot of white Dems are all that much better, FWIW
Dee Loralei
@Donut: yea, but then they are presented with a black couple who did exactly those things the Republicans have been saying black people should do to make it in America, and they promptly call them just about every name in the book, and insist that the Obama’s are still un-American Commie non-Christians who hate whitey and got everything they have not because they earned it through hard work and education, but because of racial quotas and the like. No one can win when the goal posts, the rules and even the playing field keep getting changed mid-game!
Surly Duff
If Rick Tyler is one of the “leaders” of African-American outreach for the Republican party, they are even more fucked in that department than I previously thought.
Elie
Definitely “Welcome Back”, ABL…
There is a schism between their emotional reality and their intellectual/objective reality. Emotionally, they hate/fear blacks and browns but intellectually, they know they need to retain the votes of independents and others who reject that emotional appeal. They cannot reconcile the two and its just going to lead to more dysonance between their actions and the views/feelings that they express. (This time was always coming way back when Nixon adopted the southern strategy for the Republican Party… sooner or later you have to either split off as insurgents or decide to come in and be part of the whole….)
This is going to get worse before it gets better…
Donut
I know I and my fellow Illinoisans certainly were Obama supporters back in 2004 because we were certain that he would direct the evil librul soshalist machine to murder more African American babies. It was all a Jedi mind trick that we played on the rest of you. We were THISCLOSE to giving you Alan Keyes, but then marching orders came down from Soros and the union Stalin-Hitlers. Anyway, all has gone as planned.
Horrendo Slapp (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.)
Shit. I hit “send” or whatever before I was done.
Anyway, what I was going to write:
So, the word “black” or “African American” never show up in that example. So they can point that out, and turn it around on the other person, and some listener who doesn’t follow all this too carefully might buy into it. And the other side, Democrats, we here, we can get too hung up on trying to show that, yes, that truly was a racial statement. A casual listener might hear us say something like that, and then hear us try to show just why, yes, that really was a racial statement, and they can end up believing what Gingrich or whoever said. We’re the real race baiters.
So what we have to get better at doing is staying away from getting into a fight about any one specific thing that Gingrich says, and begin to talk about the overall pattern. I mean, everybody slips up, right? We all say dumb and hurtful things that we didn’t mean in that way, and that we wish we could take back, and that others take in a way we never meant. We’ve all done that. So there’s a part in us that’s willing to overlook that and forgive it when, say, Gingrich does it, even more so when it’s, as I said above, somebody who doesn’t follow this much who’s hearing it.
That’s what happened in the clip here. They got going about “food stamp president” and they began going around in circles, and it gives Mr. Cockbag there a way to throw sand in everybody’s eyes. By the end, they were fighting about semantics, and many casula wtchers would have forgotten what it was all about to begin with.
So we have to get away from the specifics and find a way to show the pattern. One slip-up can be a mistake. Maybe even two. One or two specific things, well, a defender can wave those away or explain them away as misunderstandings or less than apt choices of words.
It’s when you begin to collect all of these and run them all one after another that it gets much harder to explain away. If Maddow had run a two minute clip before she began talking with that guy, a clip that showed two minutes of Gingrich saying shit like that, well, then it would have been much harder for Mr. Cockbag to weasel out of responsibility.
This is what we need to work on now, since racism in Americ really has changed. It’s far less overt. Far fewer people–and pretty much no politicians at all any more–who’ll be caught saying “nigger” in public. Now it’s all patterns of behavior and questionable wording. We need to work out a way to bring this to light.
Culture of Truth
I saw that interview last night. I don’t say this often, but that guy came across as really creepy. I mean like a vampire or something.
Mark S.
1. Outlaw abortion
2. Eliminate all programs for poor families
3. ????
4. Black people vote Republican!
CT Voter
Welcome back! This just made my day.
Not the content of the post, of course. That made me want to eat nails.
Really glad you’re back.
Zandar
The right to vote, motherfucker. Let’s start with that.
Short Bus Bully
I’m with the poster above, I want the GOP to just own it. Stop being such pansies about it. I know they want to get up on stage and just yell about “lazy n—–” until the sun comes up again.
Treat them like Jack Nicholson’s character in A Few Good Men and push and prod them until they finally say what they ACTUALLY want to say.
Get some of the poison out.
harlana
Glad you are back, ABL!
You know, this racist stuff was getting to me big time until I realized that all of this just makes Obama look like Gandhi and stuff – and it’s great for the Dems as a whole, they are sitting back and letting the nasty attacks fly – independents are not going to go for this kind of stuff. The Dems will look noble and genuinely concerned about the welfare of the people while these republicans have NO PLAN other than to attack the President and Dems. These disgusting, putrid, inflammatory comments will come back to bite them in the G.E. Bring it!
JPK
Nice to see you posting here again ABL. Saw that interview last night in real time and was just floored. As somebody said upthread, it was really a creepshow seeing Tyler attempting to stick to his increasingly bizarre talking points even as the panel slowly but surely took him apart, like taking wings off of a fly. I felt a little sick when it was all over.
comrade scott's agenda of rage
@rea:
If there is a hell, I hope that fucktard is roasting right now, death bed “conversion” nothwithstanding.
Linnaeus
Let me add to the chorus of voices saying that Tyler’s message isn’t about appealing to black voters. It’s about appealing to white voters who might be alienated by displays of overt racism because they don’t want to think of themselves as people who would vote for a racist candidate.
DanielX
Black poverty also started to rise under the impact of the War on Drugs, which disproportionately targets black males and has resulted in roughly 1 in 3 black males being under supervision of the judicial system and 1 in 8 black males 20-29 being in prison. Not so incidentally, those convicted are also disenfranchised. A twofer – they can’t vote in the slam and they can’t vote or get jobs when they get out.
Also, too – the Republicans are catering to the Fox News demographic, which is predominantly over 60, white and for the most part as ignorant as a barrel of hair. In a previous incarnation I worked with a lot of people 65 and older, and I can tell you for a fact that a great many of them regarded the election of Barack Obama as a prequel to the end of the world, and weren’t shy about it. The reaction was roughly, and in a lot of cases explicitly and in so many words: “A nigger president? What on earth is this country coming to?”
Playing on and reinforcing people’s fears and prejudices is hateful and contemptible, but it shouldn’t come as a surprise to anybody familiar with the Southern Strategy and Lee Atwater. This tactic has arguably won them five out of eight elections since 1980. Why would they stop now?
Let it be noted also that the Mormon Church just got around to conceding that blacks were human beings in the 1980s (yes, Mitt, I’m looking at you), and that Newt Gingrich, as a white congressman from Georgia, has always known upon which side his whitebread is buttered. Use of racial keywords on the part of either of these two? Big whoop, the surprise would be if they didn’t use those words.
Culture of Truth
Also, at the end L O’D asked him about conservative policies and he said none had been tried. So according to this loon, no conservative policy has been enacted at the federal or state level in the past 50 years. So we won the Cold War, I guess but…um.. what the hell?
gwangung
@Zandar: Oh. Well DONE.
pete
He said “abort their babies” TWICE. It wasn’t a slip of the tongue it was a fking talking point. And it wasn’t aimed at blacks, who according to Gallup split 52–39 pro-choice (Dems overall 62–32, Reps 27–68). Once could have been mis-speaking, but dragging in the language twice completely gives his game away. His whole purported defense is in fact a dog whistle. I’m surprised Rachel didn’t hammer him on that one, while Sharpton was doing a nice job on the food stamps.
ruemara
It is too early to go on a murderous spree of republican racebaiting pundits. Or drink enough tequila to drown a rhino. And I’m a pacifist who doesn’t drink. Fuck all.
The Snarxist Formerly Known as Kryptik
@Short Bus Bully:
Sadly, many have embraced Nicholson’s character as the HERO in that exchange. And they’d probably think the same once someone drops the dreaded N and says just how evil, shifty, and dirty all them there brown folk really are to them. :/
LAC
@JPK:
Me too…unfuckingbelievable. He was sickening. I was so glad to see the MSNBC crew tear him a new asshole. Over at CNN, they would have been hunched over writing his bon mots verbatim, like the good secretaries they are.
harlana
these types of remarks, btw, smell like pure desperation to me, plain & simple
harlana
@DanielX: i think this is why Newt is forging ahead, planning to win some of those southern states – i say, fight it out boys, make it long and bloody and offend as many people as possible. Independents may be ill-informed and skittish, but not all of them are racists.
Gust Avrakotos
Why do you people fall for this media bullshit every single fucking time.
News flash, they want you to react the way you do ABL. To goal of every single one of these professional poop throwers is to anger the left and throw read meat out to the right. If they can get that twofer they are doing a good job in their world. You, ABL are their best friend whether you realize it or not.
At the end of the day a lot of these clowns are probably just as liberal as you and I. But they make a living with this nutjob act. Get it???!!!
Culture of Truth
Gingrich lost Florida in a landslide, right?
Someone should go over to his headquarters and talk to his staff about the value of hard work.
Sophist
You know, except for the last three decades or so. But other than that, totally untried.
Bubblegum Tate
This, sadly, is nothing new. Wingnuts have been singing the “Democrats keep blacks on the Welfare Plantation, and abortion is the new Holocaust (with blacks playing the role of Jews)!” song for years now. Tyler’s just adding his voice to the chorus.
Paul in KY
I don’t see how the Tyler guy says all that with a straight face.
GrandWazoo
I am not always a huge fan of the Rev. Sharpton, but my wife and I were watching MSNBC last night and Sharpton’s slapdown of Tyler was an amazing thing to watch, just a thing of beauty. Oh, and good to have you back, ABL, I always enjoyed your posts on BJ.
cckids
@Culture of Truth: Yes. Even my 17-yr old daughter, who isn’t all that interested in the Repub primary, was watching this. After 30 seconds or so of the hate, when asked “who the hell IS that?”, she instantly flipped back “some asshole Republican”.
Her generation, largely, identifies the R’s with racism. Which is so weird to them, because they don’t get the division/hate tactics. It is similar to the dislike for the LGBT population; they’ve become part of the norm to “the kids”, to them, if you are hating, YOU are the problem.
Steve
I like the new screen name “ABL 2.0.” It gave me a chuckle.
Can someone provide a link to support what Sharpton is saying about more people going on food stamps under Bush than Obama?
jacy
The worst thing about any of this kind of talk (sometimes even when liberals employ similar styles of rhetoric) is that it takes away the agency of black people. It’s always implying that black people or some monolith category and they don’t know what’s best for them, or are easily tricked or confused, that they simply don’t have the ability to understand the complex mechanisms of society or the world.
That’s the heart of racism: not hating someone because they look different, but reducing them people to children or simpletons.
Linda Featheringill
You’re missing the point ABL. The point is that melanin-rich people are too stupid to make such decisions on their own and they really need us [white Republicans] to make those hard decisions for them.
/snark
Hell, such nonsense makes me angry and I’m actually very fair-skinned. Assholes.
[Welcome back, ABL.]
Paul in KY
@Donut: Now you’ve gone & spilled the beans! The guys with the fedoras will be by soon enough. No sense running, you’ll only piss them off.
daveNYC
Hell, maybe they think that the anti-abortion portion of the black population is as batshit crazy as those on the paler end of the spectrum, and their plan is to just scream about abortion non-stop. It’s not like they could really do much worse as far as getting black people to vote for them.
I suspect I’m giving them far too much credit.
Phoebe
What about all those racist black women aborting their black babies? What do we do about THEM?! My head hurts.
jacy
And I can see I’ve typoed up my response to near incoherency.
“or” should be “are” and I really didn’t try to say “them people” as a form of performance art.
eta: and the stupid comma splice.
Damned multitasking. Garcon, more caffeine!
Villago Delenda Est
@Cris (without an H):
Which demonstrates just how delusional these idiots are.
Bruce S
Although RickyBoy got deservedly crushed in that exchange, I was a bit taken aback that neither Rev Al nor Rachel went after him on that “Dems kill black babies” angle. Frankly, this little jerk got let out of his spate of toxic spew and bizarre disinformation way too easy. (The 1854 Republican Platorm? Really, Ricky?) He deserved everything harsh that could be mustered in response to his cynical nonsense, short of a 2X4 aimed at his head.
ShadeTail
@Gust Avrakotos #38:
You are so utterly full of shit. Pointing out their vicious and evil lies helps them? It’s people like you who are on their side, knowingly or not. You’re willing to just shrug and ignore them, which allows them to spread their poison unchallenged.
How can there still be anyone as naive as you after the Bush years? You obviously learned nothing from the presidential elections in 2000 and 2004.
Villago Delenda Est
Oh, and a laurel and a hearty “welcome back!”, ABL!
Stillwater
@Linda Featheringill:
Yeah. That’s one direction this type of stuff goes in – to edumecate blacks about the evils of their marriage to the Democratic party. But stuff like this
is designed to make people believe that liberals and Democrats are the real racists, not conservatives. All you have to do is look thru the tripping-toy at the evidence to see that Democratic policies lead to terrible outcomes for black people.
So, if you hate racism, vote GOP!
The Other Bob
@Short Bus Bully:
I have been thinking the same think. Take a few Newt supporters who say he is a real fighter and poke a prod until they admit they just want a candidtae that will put the n[CLANG!]r in his place.
Comrade Mary
Oh, so this was the guy I wanted to punch in the throat last night. Really, some a lovely, punchable throat.
fasteddie9318
Hey, welcome back ABL.
FlipYrWhig
IMHO Republicans want to say something like, “It’s not that we hate black people. We love black people as people. We just hate the terrible habits and attitudes the Democrats have given them.” That’s why they love being able to hold up, say, Allen West as One Of The Good Ones. The grand unified theory of Republicans is that Democrats give away free goodies to bribe people into supporting them, and stick hardworking Republicans with the bill.
rollSound
@DanielX:
… and that only happened because BYU needed better wide receivers.
FlipYrWhig
@rollSound: BYU always seemed to have a conspicuously large number of Samoan players, too.
Sour Kraut
@ShadeTail:
This.
Don’t stand up the bully, it just makes him mad! He just does it to get a reaction!
Talk about clueless.
wrb
@rollSound:
Church President Tanner received his revelation concerning the admissibility of Blacks in 1978.
Utah landed the Jazz in 1979.
HelpThe99ers
@Steve: source: USA Today
Jim Pharo
I missed ABL 1.5 — can a get a patch?
I LOVE your work here.
Note that a tactic related to demonizing black people is the demonizing of any poor person. Turns that if if white people are poor enough, they too are lazy and shiftless.
Keep ’em coming!!
ABL
@Zandar: Winning.
ABL
@Culture of Truth: That bit was amazing. He basically admitted that GOP policies haven’t worked under a combined twenty years of GOP reign since 1980, but somehow the new and never-been-floated-before ideas of free market enterprise and Libertee LOL are going to work this time.
It’s ridonkulous.
tone
I was watching and what really finally struck me is that at some point all of the shows on MSNBC have adopted the “we must a a right winger on to spout the talking points” in every case.
I don’t tune into that show or any of them [Rach, Ed, L O’D]
to hear right wing talking points -I can get that on every other station, every hour of the day.
ugh.
ABL
@Gust Avrakotos:
This is quite possibly the dumbest shit I’ve read today.
Polar Bear Squares
Welcome back ABL!
KSH
I never post, but I have to say, welcome back, I really missed your stuff… so much that I started going to your blog out of desperation.
Fezzik
It’s like this: that guy probably earnestly believes what he’s saying, as I’ve heard many “non-racist” conservatives spout the same thing. The paternalism and tone-deafedness of saying things like that is evidence of very deeply ingrained, unconscious racism.
That is: they are so clueless about and uncomfortable with race that they can’t help but betray how racist they happen to be, even if they are not “knowingly” prejudiced. It’s a blind spot, and that’s why they get upset when you point it out–they literally cannot see it.
crosspalms
Welcome back. Will Rick Tyler let me use my food stamps to buy a shiny new photo voter ID, or should I use my unemployment debit card instead? (Speaking of which, did you know that everytime someone uses an unemployment debit card, a banker gets his wings?)
Commenting at Balloon Juice since 1937
ABL 2.0 is not as good as the Original Coke. Give us back the original!!
(welcome back)
Jay C
@Jim Pharo:
Sometimes: but statements like this go against the grain of 300 or so years of American social history, in that while poor white people may not possess a lot in assets or income, they are still part of the greater (white) polity: via the existence of a special caste/class of Designated Others (black people) legally and socially their “inferiors”.
Pre-Civil-War Southerners used to go on – at length – about this shit all the time: their slave societies were held to be a much “better” expression of American democracy, since “all” (white) citizens, thanks to a system of racist slavery, had more social solidarity and political “equality” than the supposedly-more-egalitarian North (which they liked to paint as a capitalist-exploitation dystopia).
Sadly, Confederate attitudes don’t seem to have changed much in 150 years: it’s just that their on TV more nowadays…
Oh, and welcome back, ABL!
ABL
Thanks for the good tidings. My software is touched.
Wait, that sounded untoward…
Brachiator
@ABL:
Hey welcome back.
I’ve read through these posts, some on the political dimension, and the racist “dog whistles” and all kinds of other stuff.
Here is the bottom freakin’ line. Democrats abort black babies?
In this mutha freakin racist America, people in power sterilized black women against their will. For their own good.
Give this woman her lost babies back. Then come back and talk to me about phony ass abortion issues.
Elie
The more that I think about it, the more I believe that this type of messaging is basically to get the whites aroused and identifying with their tribal calls. There are signs that it isn’t really working as well anymore however. State after state in the early primaries have lower Republican turnout, not higher.. there remains real confusion about who their best standard bearer might be. All this requires more “goosing the kitty” — more dog whistles, more veiled and unveiled messages to the tribe to be stimulate their link to the tribe. If they didnt do this stuff, those folks might forget that they are supposed to be hating and thinking black and brown folks should be this or that.. Problem is that over time, it takes more stimulation to illicit any response from the target audience. They may not be there yet, but my thought is that its headed there…
Steve
@HelpThe99ers: That’s 8 years versus 3 years, right? But still, a valid point.
Ben Cisco
It’s all going to make the win so much sweeter.
__
They are going to realize that they threw everything they had at everybody they could, AND FAILED ANYWAY.
__
They slander those of us of color, GLBT, the poor, the sick, the disabled, etc. (in other words, pretty much EVERYBODY EXCEPT THEMSELVES) for, well, EXISTING.
__
They demonize the would-be “normal” Americans that support the President and his policies instead of them. They insist that to not support them is somehow “Un-American.”
__
And it is all projection.
__
They are the ones acting un-American; Hell, I’d go as far as to say acting INHUMAN. Certainly unlike the Christ they claim to follow.
__
We’ve gone beyond “GAME ON.” They’ve made it clear this ain’t no fucking game.
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Well I say, “So be it.”
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So say we all?
Roger the Cabin Boy
Bill Bennett says no.
Origuy
@FlipYrWhig: The Mormons have done a lot of proselytizing in Polynesia. There’s something in the Book of Mormon about them being descended from Abraham.
rikryah
WELCOME BACK, ABL!!!
AND, I was so happy to see Rev. Al take it to that phucker.
RossinDetroit
Late to this party, but thanks ABL for putting this horror front and center.
And as a critic of Sharpton I’d like to recognize the excellent job he did here in pressing the attack. Good show, AL, and way to hold their feet to the fire. If more of our media personalities were this alert and assertive TV and radio would make a bigger contribution to our politics.
g
I thought that guy in the White House was, you know, just about the most amazing positive role model possible…except, you know, when you question his citizenship, or his ability to speak without a teleprompter, or claim he is destroying the country or wonder how he was accepted to Harvard, or or or…
Yeah, funny about that. Kid from a broken home, still ends up graduating school, going to college, gets a job, stays married to the first and only woman he marries…..
Very unAmerican.
Schlemizel
@rea:
I suppose it would be unkind to wish they all had a reason to come clean really soon?
Schlemizel
@Donut:
There are racist in the Democratic Party for sure. But they have to be much more careful, not open about it because they will get called out unlike in the GOP. Additionally, the Dems actually want to help all Americans, even the darker ones, to have an equal chance at the American dream. Again, thats 180 degrees from the behavior of the GOP.
DFH no.6
I’ve said it here before, and I’ll say it again – I have never known a conservative that wasn’t racist.
Not one. Ever.
And I’ve spent most of my adult life – the past 31 years – living and working in Joe Arpaio County, AZ. AKA, Conservative Central (Southwest Region). Living and working with a metric fuckload of conservatives (I’m in the building contracting industry, and I live in north Scottsdale, so I get a double dose of concentrated American-style fascism).
Privately — at work and in the neighborhood – conservatives have no problem speaking their “piece” regarding race, and it ain’t pretty.
Sure, many of them know I’m on “the other side” politically, but I’m still usually pretty invisible to them in work and social situations since I “pass” so easily (older affluent white guy who appears a lot – anymore – like McCain’s much better-looking and somewhat younger brother).
Racists, the lot of them. Even the sweet old widow lady from across the street who we have over for dinner all the time and take care of her house when she’s gone visiting somewhere. It’s a bedrock, core belief of the tribe.
Svensker
@Roger the Cabin Boy:
Now, if they were card sharks he’d be totally down with it.
Plantsmantx
According to the conservative rhetorical playbook on race, the Democrats give black people handouts because they need their vote, AND they’re simultaneously committing a genocide against the group of people whose votes they desperately need. Only in the conservative mind does that make sense.
Horrendo Slapp (formerly Jimperson Zibb, Duncan Dönitz, Otto Graf von Pfmidtnöchtler-Pízsmőgy, Mumphrey, et al.)
@Plantsmantx:
I want to see somebody ask that of a conservative on the air sometime. Soon. Like tonight, if not earlier.
Lojasmo
Welcome back, lady!
WereBear (itouch)
Anyone who hasn’t been watching Rev Al’s show has been missing out on sharp commentary and a devotion to facts, but also on a lot of great guests and wonderful deadpan humor. He’s a favorite in our house.
Nice to have you back, ABL.
A Humble Lurker
Welcome back, ABL. The blog missed you.
jazzgurl
Great to see you back. You were sorely missed,you feisty thing! And please, no dilution of You…just tell us how you feel, girl.
DarcyPennell
Welcome back from a lurker who missed your presence here! I was so excited to see you back, I had two spite babies already.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@WereBear (itouch):
I watch him every day and I think he’s doing an excellent job at MSNBC. Ol’ Rev. Al had Tweety in stitches yesterday as he was acting out a sane voter ticking off the numerous problems with Romney and at the end rhetorically asking Mitt ‘exactly why should I vote for you?’
Rachel had a shit-eating grin on her face the whole time too. When Al gets on a good tear he really lets it rip.
Definitely fun to watch, that’s for sure!
SpreadingSantorumdotcom
I said blah people
lkb
ABL,
From the UK, nice to see you back. Did you see that John Cole photo???
Gust Avrakotos
@ABL: Well then the joke is on you. Take your blue pill and go back to sleep.