The GOP's 'Magic Negro' Debacle

[babylonsister]

The GOP's 'Magic Negro' Debacle

By John Avlon, The Daily Beast. Posted December 31, 2008.

In the era of Obama, the GOP’s tone deafness on race could ultimately destroy the party.


Would-be RNC Chair Chip Saltsman's decision to send out a Christmas CD to GOP committee-members featuring a song calling our President-elect "Barack the Magic Negro" is the just latest sign of Republicans' tone deafness when it comes to race. It's a problem that has led directly to the pathetic lack of diversity on its political bench and underscores the party's long-term challenge of regaining relevance in the Age of Obama.

Saltsman presumably did not intend to offend by mailing out the parody CD by Paul Shanklin with songs that first aired during the campaign on Rush Limbaugh's radio show. A look at the lyrics shows that the song's real target is the Al Sharpton-sound-alike singer who feels that Obama has usurped his rightful place as the protest leader of African-American politics. But now that Obama has been elected the president of all Americans, and Saltsman is attempting to run for leader of the opposition party, the song — whose title comes from a Los Angeles Times column — could not help but become a lightning rod. The failure to anticipate the outrage points to the blinders that exist in racially homogenous Republican backrooms. Conservatives who take good ol' boy pride in being politically incorrect are either unaware or don't care that they come off as being somewhere between indifferent and hostile to the full diversity of American life.

But ultimately, this is not a problem of political perception—it is rooted in the Republican Party's electoral strategy over the past four decades.

Republicans rightly take pride in calling themselves "the Party of Lincoln." It's sometimes easy to forget that Lincoln was the first Republican president, and that his promise to preserve the Union, even by ending slavery, caused the South to secede after his election in 1860. People who lose wars have long memories and the (white) South voted straight Democrat for 100 years.

But when Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act over southern conservative objections—whispering to his press secretary Bill Moyers, "I just gave the South to the Republicans for your lifetime and mine"—some Republicans smelled electoral opportunity. Conservative icons Ronald Reagan and Barry Goldwater opposed the Civil Rights Act on the grounds that it was an unconstitutional infringement on state's rights and freedom of association. These men were not racists, but they gave some racists the cover of political legitimacy in a new party. Mississippi returned the favor by casting 87 percent of its votes in 1964 for Goldwater—the first time the state had voted Republican in its history. Soon, the entire red/blue map was reversed.

more...

http://www.alternet.org/story/116399/the_gop%27s_%27magic_negro%27_debacle/?page=entire

[tomreedtoon]

1. Do Republicans treat racists like the religious right?

It's been acknowledged here that Republicans have been manipulating the religious right to win elections. They promise an end to abortion, making Jesus the Real Leader of America, rounding up Jews and Islamics and putting them in concentration camps, all the rest of that. And ultimately they betray those unredeemable promises but stay friendly with them.

The end result of that is that people here turn against religion completely, or against evangelicals, which further polarizes people with deeply-held religious views. Sure, you don't like Bush, but since the Republicans are the only ones acknowledging Christianity, where else can a Christian go?

I think the Republicans are doing the same with racists. Oh, they're more hands-off in this area, of course. Karl Rove didn't show up at a cross-burning, as far as we know. But there were Republicans who promoted the use of state flags that remind people of racism, couching the issue as "state's rights" or other things like that. They had quiet support for Republican candidates that had Klan membership in their backgrounds.

As a result, racists believed that Republicans secretly supported their agendas and helped them out. This ugly song parody is a good example. I'm sure that whispers around the barbershop are another major way of undercutting Obama and other non-Klan candidates. Oh, and then there's Limbaugh, an apologist for every racist attitude in America - if Rush says there's nothing wrong with a lynching song, well, whatever foul things we secretly support must be okay too, right?

Recently a lot of Christians have been changing their views, leaving the right-wing and political evangelists and seeing Christian virtues in candidates like Obama. That's wonderful.

However, if the racists realize they're being used by the Republicans, they won't become Democrats or support Obama. They also won't change their racist views. But I'm thinking they might get very angry at the "traitors to their cause" that used their racism to get their votes, then turned their back when they needed support. And these guys have guns and are addicted to their use.

[salguine]

2. I think a lot of these so-called "Christians" really need to re-evaluate

exactly what they think Christianity is supposed to be. Of course, tying black people to trees and whipping them is something good Christian people used to do back in the day.

You know, after the last eight years, I've really had enough of "Christians" to last me the rest of my lifetime. And I'm kind of supposed to be one.

[NorthCarolina]

3. Racism and Bigotry are Deeply Rooted in the GOP

McCain/Palin used racial code words repeatedly throughout their campaign in an appeal to white America. Would you typically associate the term "Soccer Mom", "Joe Sixpack" or "NASCAR Fan" with Black America? Not likely as they are all euphemisms for "White America" and were repeated ad nauseam in the closing weeks of the McCain/Palin campaign.

[Peace Patriot]

4. Republican leaders care only about one thing: stealing lots and lots and lots and LOTS of

of other peoples' M O N E Y!!!

--from mind-boggling theft of the federal treasury

--from billions of dollars in no-bid, profit guaranteed government contracts

--from war profiteering

--from police-state profiteering

--from multiple tax cuts for the rich

--from an egregiously unfair tax structure

--from elimination of social programs and any helps for the poor, the workers or the middle class

--from the 'free trade' race to the bottom on wages and benefits

--from oil price gouging

--from credit card usury

--from raping the environment, here and abroad

--from exploiting sweatshop labor

--by slaughtering a million innocent Iraqis to get their oil

--by 'de-regulation'

--by poisoning your water, your air and your children's toys

--by threatening the nation's and the world's food supply with GMOs and pesticides

--by purging millions of black voters from the voting rolls

--by convicting high percentages of black citizens for petty crimes and imprisoning them in sparsely populated, white, rural areas, to eliminate their votes in urban areas and to 'count' them as bodies for redistricting purposes

--by shorting black precincts on voting machines and other vote suppression, including squadrons of Republican thugs making threatening phone calls to black voters

--by putting anti-gay initiatives on ballots to stir up hatred and 'inspire' their 'christian' base

--by stealing elections and politicizing the Dept. of Justice, to keep advocates of the People out of power

--by bribery, dirty lobbying, dirty campaign contributions, spying, blackmail and murder

--and from every bad government, fascist policy, and immoral action you can think of.

MONEY! MONEY! MONEY! That is all Republican leaders care about--for themselves and for their corpo/fascist supporters and cronies, here, or in Saudi Arabia, or Israel, or South America and other places.

Republicans, beginning with Nixon, have long had this tendency. Under Bush, it has become an outright criminal enterprise of vast, almost unfathomable proportions.

They DON'T CARE about abortion, family values, religion, race or sexual orientation, illegal immigration, the "war on terror," the "war on drugs," or anything else that they SAY they care about. They USE these issues to gain and keep power to GET MORE MONEY. They USE these issues as the plausible narratives of their stolen elections. They USE these issues to "divide and conquer," all the better to steal your MONEY. They have their "house Negroes"--Kenneth Blackwell (corrupt Ohio SoS), Clarence Thomas, Condi Rice. They have their pet preacher-men. They have their front people. They have their lying, murderous, drug trafficking, scumbag allies in places like Colombia, and their many pretend policies. It is all a Mt. Everest of bung.

I don't consider them racists or sexists or christianists or anything else. I consider them THIEVES. And the more power they grab, the more they can STEAL.

I don't think our Democratic leaders are virtuous or clean. Many have been collusive with the Pukes. But never, in the history of this country, has there been such a gang of low-minded, greedy, conscienceless, traitorous, lying robber barons running a major party, and lying and conniving and buying their way into public office.

This article asserts that Goldwater and Reagan weren't racists. That is irrelevant. Although I think Goldwater would be appalled at the Bushwhacks, he in fact started this cowboy, rugged individualist horsepucky in our modern era, which first Reagan then Bush Jr. used to disguise their horrendous thievery and horrible crimes in pursuit of thievery that have become characteristic of the Republican Party and of the worst of the global corporate predators--Exxon Mobil comes to mind--who have used the Republican Party to take over our government.

Fucking traitors--in the pursuit of MONEY! Fucking liars, hypocrites, torturers and murderers in the pursuit of MONEY!

One final thought and then this rant will be over: Something like 90% of black voters vote against these dirtbags, time and again. So, insulting black citizens is not going to destroy the Republican Party. They will continue to use racism as one of many scurrilous means of power and control over our multi-cultural society. They will use it--are using it--in whatever plan that the global corporate predators have for Obama. They've set him up for failure, with their Financial 9/11. We will see if they succeed in destroying him and Diebolding Hitler II into power in 2012. But they care not at all that he is black--except that blacks are special targets, due to black voters' dislike of Pukes. And the white bigot vote is part of their narrative. I suspect they're going for breadlines and food riots, and civil disorder of various kinds. And they want Obama and 'the liberals' to take the heat in their corpo/fascist press. Oh, it's all set up. But it really and truly has nothing to do with race, and never has. It has to do with M O N E Y. And the sooner we understand that, I think the sooner will we find or invent the mechanisms of people power to defeat them. One thing for sure, we need to start with restoring transparent vote counting and getting rid of these Puke 'TRADE SECRET' voting machines.

End of rant.

:patriot:

[samplegirl]

5. I'm still trying to figure out the punch line to

this stupid little jingle!!! Rush & Hannity certainly find lots of humor in it...but what could make either of them any happier than an all out racial war!
They love the promotion of it.

[predfan]

6. As much as Republicans worship the Gipper, the rise of the Republican Party in the South

owes more to the AIP and George Wallace.......Wallace organized the segregationists, got them registered to vote............made it easy for the racist Republicans to scoop them up.