Democratic Leaders Erupt - Publicly Attack GOP Racism

Democratic Leaders Erupt - Publicly Attack GOP Racism Apr 17, 2014 17:21:10 GMT

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Post by ShivaTD on Apr 17, 2014 17:21:10 GMT

So now it's out there. After five years of studied reticence (unless they were talking privately to one another or their supporters), Democratic leaders in Washington finally went public last week with what they really think is motivating Republican opposition to Barack Obama. As Steve Israel, one of the top Democrats in Congress, told CNN's Candy Crowley, the Republican base, "to a significant extent," is "animated by racism."

It's the way American voters, and a lot of younger voters in particular, may view a return to the polarizing racial debate that existed before Obama was ever elected.

As far as I can tell, though, this eruption on race actually wasn't born in the kind of strategy session where consultants lay out which issues will move which voters. What seems to have happened was something rarer: Washington Democrats, unable to suppress their frustration for a minute longer, simply blurted out what they have always believed to be true but had been reluctant to say. One catharsis emboldened the next.

As a unifying explanation for the abject dysfunction of our political system, latent racism seems unsatisfying, at least by itself. Is there a lingering prejudice lurking among some older, rural, white conservatives in the country? It would be ignorant of history to argue otherwise. Is this "birther" business, for instance, a reflection of racism? Without a doubt.

Embracing the rallying cry in the Daily Beast this week, Michael Tomasky, a sharp and reasoned political observer on the left, pointed out that not a single Republican had shown the courage to stand up and declare racial bigotry intolerable in his party.

news.yahoo.com/democrats-hark-back-to-the-politics-of-race-020141291.html;_ylt=AwrTWVXHClBTCzkAzprQtDMD

There is much more to this story and I've only presented a part of the picture but the facts are clear that studies have shown extensive racial prejudice in the Republican party and among social conservatives. Yes, as the story points out the Democrats failed to condemn the radical attacks against former President Bush but it was by a very small contigent of liberals and was not based upon racial prejudice.

What I found very interesting is the analysis of those groups that see the racial prejudice of the Republican Party. It provided we with some insight because I was actually a "Republican" in the 1960's and early 1970's during when Republicans often lead the charge against racial discrimination. I've also seen the "racist" Southern Democrats" fundamentally purged from the Democratic Party only to be replaced by "racist" Republicans over the last 50 years. Can this be any more evident than a person like David Duke, a former Grand Wizard of the KKK, becoming a Republican and running for office?

What I do know is that as a card carrying Libertarian I've seen the prejudice of the Republican Party that remains a party dedicated to wealthy WASP males relying on (Evangelical) Angry White Males as the foundation of the Republican ideology especially since President Obama was elected.

This is an exceptional article that presents many things for a person to consider. Obviously the Democrats and many Americans do consider the GOP as having a "racist" agenda and have noticed that the leaders of the Republican Party have refused to address the problem within their party regardless of how extensive it is. That for me is the greater issue. Regardless of the extent of racial prejudice in the Republican Party it's the fact that the Political Leaders of the Republican Party have refused to address it at all.