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The hate that dare not speak its name

It’s self-evident that a movement that calls the president a lying, socialist, Nazi eugenicist with a fake birth certificate is about something more than deficit spending. People don’t brandish automatic weapons and pray for the president’s death because they want to keep their employer-sponsored health plans. But to name the stalking beast is more than we can bear.

From The Root

Of course it’s racism. It smells from halfway around the world. Yes, it’s also an unreasonable and antidemocratic opposition to anything Glen Beck doesn’t like, but the viciousness here is racism. Not antiabortionism, despite a press release I got sent today which uses Martin Luther King’s daughter as the mouthpiece. Racism.

8 Comments

  1. Chris' Wills Chris' Wills

    Isn’t a lot of it simply fear whipped up by the likes of Glen Beck and his masters.

    Yes, of course, racism comes into it and is a driving force for many but there is also a lot of fear of change.

    Change is frightening for most people, even if the proposed change may help them enjoy a better life at lower cost.

    Doesn’t help that Mr Obama is up against a lot of powerful vested interests both without and within his own party.

  2. jeff jeff

    I think it’s just good ole us vs them, ingroup outgroup hatred, coupled with a country about to implode due its population achieving a critical mass of sheer stupidity. Many of these people aren’t very bright, and are easily whipped up into a paranoid conspiracy frenzy by the likes of Glen Beck (who makes in excess of $30 million a year for doing it). They view their politics and their religion in the same way they view their favorite football team – they grew up with it, it’s always been their identity, and they’ll stick by it to the bitter end. The racism is certainly a factor, but there are many other forces at work. Mainly, Fox Noise makes alot of money by stirring up controversy.

  3. American politics is often analyzed as if it were a dispute between political philosophies, but I’m inclined to look at things more in terms of specific populations and their histories. Absent the block of southern and Appalachian whites and their diaspora in other states, America would look a lot like a normal European country with the usual mix of conservatives and social democrats. The religious goofiness, the persistent racism, the xenophobic patriotism, and the other markers of what I call, when I’m in an irritated frame of mind, the White Trash Republic, is not the majority attitude in this country. The yahoo right is disproportionately influential, however, because of our increasingly disfunctional Constitution and the way in which reactionary populism so admirably serves the purposes of monied interests who could care less about the cultural obsessions of its homespun tools so long as they help reduce the tax rate on the top one percent.

    Thing is, the middling people who are endlessly riled up by AM radio and Fox are a genuinely abused group. Airing this fact in public only makes them more angry, however, since their self esteem is so low that sincere concern for their situation–the abysmal level of education and health care in Southern and rural areas, for example–only strikes them as another intolerable form of disrespect. And you don’t want them as enemies because as America’s genuine peasants, they have a peasant’s proclivity for spite.

  4. Desensitization is a bad thing, folks.

    Yes, there are many factors at work. Yes, there has always been racism in US politics. But …

    We’re in whole new territories when people arrive at meetings displaying automatic weapons. Those weapons will be used if they keep getting carried.

    We’re in new territory when a Representative of his state screams ‘You Liar’ at the President during an address to congress. Seriously. Consider the liars who have inhabited the office one time or another of the past 40 years. Consider what Obama was saying when the other-party representative screamed out ‘you liar’. And consider that it has not happened since at least WW II. Whole new ballgame.

    As Stephanie Zvan observed some time back, and I believe John linked to, the conservatives (or people who call themselves conservative, or are at least members of the same party as the screamer) are responsible for what they are legitimating. What they are legitimating (often they are demanding it) is mindless, reflexive, frothing fury and terror. The kind of fury and terror that causes mass murder, bombings, etc..

    Racism is the US’s inherited mindlessness, and fear. The Becks, et al, playing to it are exactly the folks who were brown shirts in 1920s Germany. I almost never make such comparisons (John knows this from our lengthy acquaintance electronically). But I really find it hard to avoid the comparison. There is in both times and places a long-standing history of “Hate and fear this group”. And there is a new peak in public figures declaring it and preaching the fear and hatred of that group. (Plus, in both cases, tacking on gays.)

  5. Look, folks, the United States is a republic, not a monarchy.

    The President of the United States is only an elected politician. Nothing more.

    According to the Constitution of the United States, the Congress of the United States is the supreme branch of the government, charged with deliberation about the public good. The legislative article is the first and longest article of the Constitution.

    Prior to Woodrow Wilson, presidents were not even permitted to address Congress. Obama’s recent speech to a joint session of Congress to promote his own partisan political agenda has no constitutional basis.

    So what’s wrong with members of the deliberative branch of the government questioning the executive–particularly, when he delivers a speech accusing them of lying?

    Oh, by the way, Obama has just said in an interview that the vigorous debate here is not motivated by racism, but by a disagreement over whether big government is legitimate or not. Is he wrong?

  6. ckc (not kc) ckc (not kc)

    …the Congress of the United States is the supreme branch of the government, charged with deliberation about the public good.

    Perhaps the question is. to whom are they beholden? (charged vs bought)

  7. jeff jeff

    We’re in whole new territories when people arrive at meetings displaying automatic weapons

    Yes we are. And isn’t it curious that people can attend Obama meetings with automatic weapons with no consequences whatsoever, when only a few years ago, anti-Bush tee-shirts were grounds for dismissal and ejection (if not legal action) at Bush rallies?. Security and all that, of course.

  8. Greg. Tingey Greg. Tingey

    From the Daily Kos ……

    The Teabagger Socialist-Free Purity Pledge

    I, ________________________________, do solemnly swear to uphold the principles of a socialism-free society and heretofore pledge my word that I shall strictly adhere to the following:

    I will complain about the destruction of 1st Amendment Rights in this country, while I am duly being allowed to exercise my 1st Amendment Rights.

    I will complain about the destruction of my 2ndAmendment Rights in this country, while I am duly >being allowed to exercise my 2ndAmendment rights by legally but brazenly brandishing unconcealed firearms in public.

    I will foreswear the time-honored principles of fairness, decency, and respect by screaming unintelligible platitudes regarding tyranny, Nazi-ism, and socialism at public town halls. Also.

    I pledge to eliminate all government intervention in my life. I will abstain from the use of and participation in any socialist goods and services including but not limited to the following:

    Social Security

    Medicare/Medicaid

    State Children’s Health Insurance Programs (SCHIP)

    Police, Fire, and Emergency Services

    US Postal Service

    Roads and Highways

    Air Travel (regulated by the socialist FAA)

    The US Railway System

    Public Subways and Metro Systems

    Public Bus and Lightrail Systems

    Rest Areas on Highways

    Sidewalks

    All Government-Funded Local/State Projects (e.g., see Iowa 2009federal senate appropriations–http://grassley.senate.gov/issues/upload/Master-Approps-73109.pdf)

    Public Water and Sewer Services (goodbye socialist toilet, shower, dishwasher, kitchen sink, outdoor hose!)

    Public and State Universities and Colleges

    Public Primary and Secondary Schools

    Sesame Street

    Publicly Funded Anti-Drug Use Education for Children

    Public Museums

    Libraries

    Public Parksand Beaches

    State and National Parks

    Public Zoos

    Unemployment Insurance

    Municipal Garbage and Recycling Services

    Treatment at Any Hospital or Clinic That Ever Received Funding From Local, Stateor Federal Government (pretty much all of them)

    Medical Services and Medications That Were Created or Derived From Any Government Grant or Research Funding (again, pretty much all of them)

    Socialist Byproducts of Government Investment Such as Duct Tape and Velcro (Nazi-NASA Inventions)

    Use of the Internets, email, and networked computers, as the DoD’s ARPANET was the basis for subsequent computer networking

    Foodstuffs, Meats, Produce and Crops That Were Grown With, Fed With, Raised With or That Contain Inputs From Crops Grown With Government Subsidies

    Clothing Made from Crops (e.g. cotton) That Were Grown With or That Contain Inputs From Government Subsidies

    If a veteran of the government-run socialist US military, I will forego my VA benefits and insist on paying for my own medical care

    I will not tour socialist government buildings like the Capitol in Washington, D.C.

    I pledge to never take myself, my family, or my children on a tour of the following types of socialist

    locations, including but not limited to:

    Smithsonian Museums such as the Air and Space Museum or Museum of American History

    The socialist Washington, Lincoln, and Jefferson Monuments

    The government-operated Statue of Liberty

    The Grand Canyon

    The socialist World War II and Vietnam Veterans Memorials

    The government-run socialist-propaganda location known as Arlington National Cemetery

    All other public-funded socialist sites, whether it be in my state or in Washington, DC

    I will urge my Member of Congress and Senators to forego their government salary and government-provided healthcare.

    I will oppose and condemn the government-funded and therefore socialist military of the United States of America.

    I will boycott the products of socialist defense contractors such as GE, Lockheed-Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, Raytheon, Humana, FedEx, General Motors, Honeywell, and hundreds of others that are paid by our socialist government to produce goods for our socialist army.

    I will protest socialist security departments such as the Pentagon, FBI, CIA, Department of Homeland Security, TSA, Department of Justice and their socialist employees.

    Upon reaching eligible retirement age, I will tear up my socialist Social Security checks.

    Upon reaching age 65, I will forego Medicare and pay for my own private health insurance until I die.

    SWORN ON A BIBLE AND SIGNED THIS DAY OF ____________ IN THE YEAR ______________.

    ___________________________ ___________________________

    Signed Printed Name/Town and State

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