Wednesday, February 21, 2018

We Are Shocked, Shocked To Find That Racist Language Is Being Used Here

Senator Durbin, doing his best Claude Rains imitation, stated “I cannot believe that, in the history of the White House in that Oval Office, any president has ever spoken the words that I personally heard our president speak yesterday.”  Durbin was responding to Trump’s alleged comment that Haiti, El Salvador and African countries are “shitholes.”  Many of the reports omit mention of El Salvador because it does not fit the anti-black allegations.  Senator Durbin is not a young man and he certainly must have known about liberal icon Lyndon Johnson’s frequent use of the word “nigger.”  Snopes describes Johnson as “a sometime racist and notorious vulgarian who rarely shied away from using the N-word in private.”  Current criticism does not describe Trump as a “sometime racist.”  He is a full time racist.  Were his remarks, if he actually said them, racist?  Racism is often in the eyes of the beholder.  Was President Obama being racist when he commented on working-class voters: "They get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations?”  Was Obama being racist when he called Libya a “shit show?”  Was Bill Clinton being racist when he remarked about President Obama to Senator Kennedy, “A few years ago, this guy would have been carrying our bags?”

This is all an attempt to throw the President off balance during the immigration debate.  All the never Trumpers have chimed in.  Senator Lindsey Graham asserted, “America is an idea, not a race.”  Well, Haiti, El Salvador and African nations are also ideas, not races.  Graham added that diversity is our strength not a weakness and that he was descended from immigrants from “shithole” countries.  He should be reminded that this is a very undiplomatic term used primarily by racists.  This recalls Army Chief of Staff, General George Casey’s remarks following the Fort Hood massacre:  "Our diversity, not only in our Army, but in our country, is a strength. And as horrific as this tragedy was, if our diversity becomes a casualty, I think that's worse. What happened at Fort Hood was a tragedy, but I believe it would be an even greater tragedy if our diversity becomes a casualty here."  The expert on this subject, Robert Putnam author of Bowling Alone, has retreated from his original contention that diversity is a strength.  He reluctantly admitted that diversity has some serious drawbacks.


Now is the time for the pundits to self-righteously pontificate on the own lack of racism.  The more intense their protests the more suspect should be their motives.  Viewers should remember all the great champions of women’s issues who turned out to be abusers of women.   The recent women’s liberation protests appear to have backfired on the people he thought their attacks of conservatives would be successful.

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