Hereditary Traits: Bigoted taunts by the children of GOP honchos have everything to do with politics

[cali]

On Thursday, BuzzFeed Washington, D.C., bureau chief John Stanton published a pair of articles calling out the sons of two separate Republican members of Congress for racist, anti-immigrant, anti-Semitic, sexist, and homophobic social media accounts.

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While it’s true that dumb kids saying racist things on social media isn’t a particularly shocking news story, I think there is something about present-day conservative politics worth taking away from these cases. It’s something that most of us already knew and something that occasional Slate contributor Tom Scocca articulated wonderfully in an article on this site last fall. Namely, that there is a not insignificant portion of the GOP electorate that exists as a fever swamp of racism, sexism, homophobia, anti-immigrant hatred, and bigotry of all sorts. Obviously not all Republican politicians and voters, or not even a majority of them, are racist, sexist, homophobic, anti-immigrant bigots. But it’s a sizable enough constituency that a key part of the Republican message is to use coded—and sometimes not so coded—language to appeal to this crowd. As Scocca wrote right before last November’s election:

“For more than four years, without pause, Republicans have been campaigning and propagandizing against an imaginary Obama. At the most grotesque end of the fantasies, he is a foreign-born, anti-colonialist Muslim. In more reputable precincts, he is a power-mad socialist and a dumb affirmative-action baby, promoted all the way to the presidency by a race-crazed, condescending liberal elite.”

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To read Tanner Flake and Joey Heck’s online posts is to see the powerful strain of bigotry that exists within a certain sector of conservative politics. It’s true that children of Democrats can be just as wretched as children of Republicans and can do equally idiotic, terrible things. (See the news of Louisiana Sen. Mary Landrieu’s son, Connor, being arrested on charges of drunk driving and hit-and-run driving or any one of Al Gore III’s repeated arrests for driving under the influence and reckless driving.) But when bad Democratic kids behave badly, they’re way more likely to drive 100 mph while drunk than to say the president chucks spears. Likewise, you rarely ever see Democratic officials getting in trouble for passing on horrible, racist chain emails or making horrible racist remarks. This has everything to do with the political differences between the two parties and their voters.

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http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/politics/2013/06/racist_tweets_by_gop_kids_have_everything_to_do_with_politics.html?google_editors_picks=true

[BeyondGeography]

1. Wonder if those journalists would have shrugged their shoulders

if a black or Hispanic or non-Christian Congressman's child had said something to offend racial and/or ethnic majorities. Actually, I don't wonder.

[Berlum]

2. Republican Family "Values" - Cesspool Style. As usual.

[LonePirate]

3. Bad parenting plays as much a part as politics does.

This merely supports the belief that. Republicans should not breed.

[JustAnotherGen]

4. And here I am feeling bad

That when I would misbehave my very political dad would say things like:

Stop acting stupid like a Republican.
I'm going to ship you both to Ronnie if you don't cut the crap.

When we wouldn't share or were being selfish little brats: you are being a little Republican.



Somehow - reading those words doesn't make me feel so bad about my brain washing anymore. Dad was pretty tame.

[BrotherIvan]

5. Too funny!

I wish people used that slur as ubiquitously as "librul" "professional left" (with all its iterations I hear on DU such as moaners, whiners, poutrage, etc). I'm going to start using it and give full credit to your dad!

And for the OP, if you're such a dick that you'll vote for racist, misogynist, homophobic candidates because you don't want to pay taxes, then well, go fuck yourself.