GOP: The Party of Ignorance and Fear

http://www.opednews.com/populum/diarypage.php?did=13953



One simple fact unites the "birther" phenomenon, the Sonia Sotomayor and Henry Louis Gates controversies, and the right-wing crusade against health care reform in America: The one hope Republicans have of derailing the Obama presidency and stopping the progressive agenda is by tapping into the ignorance and fear of under-educated and ill-informed white Americans (aka "low-information voters"). Despite America's great wealth and advanced material development as a nation, abject ignorance remains a way of life for many Americans even today, and the rise of Obama has many of our most ignorant fellow citizens scared out of what few wits they possess. Lest I be accused of racism or elitism for my comments, I will mention that I hail from the very same white, working-class, small-town culture that I criticize here.

Consider the "birthers": From where I sit, it seems apparent that only a fool could buy into the theory that Obama is some sort of "Manchurian candidate" spirited into America from darkest Africa by evil leftists bent on turning the good ole USA into some kind of Islamic socialist republic. Obama has provided his Hawaiian birth certificate (the same "certificate of live birth" anyone gets when ordering a copy of one's birth certificate from one's home state), we have seen Obama's original birth announcements from two Hawaiian newspapers, and the Republican governor of Hawaii has stated unreservedly that Obama was indeed born in her state. None of this satisfies the birthers, however, who insist that no such proof has been produced. There is no rational basis whatsoever for birther claims against Obama, yet birther numbers are growing particularly among southern whites, many if not most of whom now believe or suspect that Obama was not born in the United States. If this isn't ignorance, then I'd like to know what is.

The birther controversy is but the latest incarnation of the racial and cultural prejudices that have followed Obama since he began his presidential campaign. No one demanded birth certificates from George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, or any previous American president, and no one will demand a birth certificate from our next white president. This is happening to our current president, not because of any missing birth certificate, but because he is black and because his name is Barack Hussein Obama. Anyone who says otherwise is either a liar or a fool.

"I'm not racist, but..." is usually just a euphemism for "I'm racist but them damn liberals have made racism something to be frowned upon, and honest, hard-working white Americans can no longer get away with expressing our true feelings."

While others say, perhaps even delude themselves into believing, that we live in a post-racial world.

:hi:

on their emotions. They are teetering on the brink.