I take folks at face value.
In response to the negative media attention which followed the circulation of a photo of a white nationalist wearing a t-shirt that said "Make the White House White Again" at his rally in Ohio on Friday, Mitt Romney's campaign issued a press release calling such bigoted acts "reprehensible."
Mitt Romney apparently does not like white racists who show up at his rallies and provide photo ops which could hurt his chances at winning the White House.
However, I am left with a dilemma and a puzzle of sorts.
Mitt Romney has been running one of the most racist campaigns in recent American history against the country's first black president. While some folks are obsessed with the silliness of "lynched" chairs, racist t-shirts, and other nonsense, Mitt Romney has been offering up a mix of overt racism and covert "dog whistles" against Barack Obama that collectively draw upon some of the deepest and ugliest stereotypes about black humanity.
And for the most part, Romney has been playing in the muck of white racism for the purpose of electoral gains with little if any consequence. This is the magic trick of the Right and the Republican party in the post-civil rights era: they complain about overt racism as a means of distracting the public from the party's deep investment in a strategy of mobilizing white voters through racist appeals against people of color. Ultimately, the Republican Party is a White Party; they will do anything to get their people to vote...including deep and ugly appeals to white racism, white victimology, and identity politics.
In all, white racists at his rallies are a micro-level issue; Mitt Romney has been slinging white racism and white racial resentment in order to rile up white conservative voters and right-leaning independent on a national stage with many millions of viewers.
Thus, I must ask the following: how does Mitt Romney decide what constitutes "reprehensible" behavior? What is his decision-rule?
We have not played a game in some time. And as you all know, I do loves me a fun game.
Let's crowdsource this puzzle and try to figure out Romney's logic. Here, I offer a few examples which we in turn can place in three categories. They are as follows: reprehensible behavior; stuff that sort of isn't cool; things that are okay and why are you complaining?
My examples are far less than exhaustive. Please, do feel free to include your own, as well as an explanation for your logic as explained from Romney's sociopathic point of view.
Reprehensible Behavior:
Racist t-shirts which suggest that we should "Make the White House White Again";
Questions about Romney's tax returns;
Questions about Bane Capital and outsourcing jobs to China;
Questions about Romney's offshore accounts and tax shelters;
Questions about Romney's position on why he, as a 31 year old man, remained a member of a religion that until 1978 was formally racist and white supremacist against black people.
Stuff That Sort of isn't Cool
Romney's spokespeople saying that Obama does not understand the "special Anglo-American relationship";
Asking about how Romney's healthcare plan in Massachusetts is in anyway different from "Obamacare";
Asking for specifics about Romney's tax cuts for the rich, and how they will cost at least 5 trillion dollars.
Things that are Okay and Why are You Complaining?
Romney's jokes about birth certificates and how Obama is not an American citizen;
Romney's statement to his donors in private that 47 percent of the American people are leeches, parasites, bums, and surplus people that he does not care about;
Romney's statement in the same speech that life would be easier if he were born Hispanic--and he would be leading the polls--because white folks have it so hard in America;
Romney's spokespeople, Newt Gingrich and John Sununu, saying that Obama has a special rhythm and is a lazy negro who is not fit to be President because he likes playing basketball, going on TV, sleeping all day, and just being a rapscallion colored uppity fellow as opposed to doing his job as President;
Romney's lies that Obama stole money from Medicare;
Romney's lie that Obama is a welfare king who steals money from white people to give it to the lazy blacks;
Romney calling Barack Obama a "boy" to his face during the first presidential debate.
22 comments:
'Romney's jokes about birth certificates and how Obama is not an American citizen;'
That one's okay, due to the unforthcomingness of Obama on the issue.
"Romney calling Barack Obama a "boy" to his face during the first presidential debate."
Gee I'd like to see that. Got a link?
The violins just don't stop with this guy!
Wow what a victim the Black Bourgeoisie have made of the first Black President of the United States! Perhaps if he had not spent the last three and a half years kowtowing and further entrenching the Oligarchy and the Plutocratic class,( not to mention the Military Industrial Complex) a racist campaign would not be able to gain traction. Now at the last minute Obama tries to be a populist? Dude Obama's campaign is flat because of him. That Harvard and Columbia educated man who was handed every political opportunity by the Chicago Machine is not a victim. In other words, Devaga, as he told the Congressional Black Caucus "Stop complaining, stop grumbling, stop crying!"
@nomad. i hope you are kidding. and i also hope you understand the racist roots of birtherism. is dr. daystrum messing with your transistors again?
you ain't paying close enough attention nomad. romney's sons doubled down on this line after the debate. romney said to obama's face--
"Number two, I will not reduce the share paid by high-income individuals. I — I know that you and your running mate keep saying that, and I know it's a popular things to say with a lot of people, but it's just not the case. Look, I got five boys. I'm used to people saying something that's not always true, but just keep on repeating it and ultimately hoping I'll believe it — (scattered laughter) — but that — that is not the case, all right? I will not reduce the taxes paid by high-income Americans."
@invisible. is there ever any joy? you can play a game me thinks.
Yes, I'm not kidding.
And yes, I didn't watch the de-B(S)-ates, but if I had, that one would have went right over my head.
romney said to obama's face--
"Number two, I will not reduce the share paid by high-income individuals. I — I know that you and your running mate keep saying that, and I know it's a popular things to say with a lot of people, but it's just not the case. Look, I got five boys. I'm used to people saying something that's not always true, but just keep on repeating it and ultimately hoping I'll believe it — (scattered laughter) — but that — that is not the case, all right? I will not reduce the taxes paid by high-income Americans."
negroe emotionalism is a helluva drug....,
'Romney's jokes about birth certificates and how Obama is not an American citizen;'
That's what makes it funny, cause it's refers to birtherism which, reprehensibly, is rooted in racism. But, come on. Lot's of humor is rooted in something reprehensible. I'm sure you can think of some. So it's a joke, but like all good jokes, it alludes to something related that casts the statement in an ironic light. In this case, Obama's secretive background.
It's as if I were to say to the Invisible Man, "Where you been hiding?" And, of course, he hasn't really been hiding. And I 'know' that. Just as Romney 'knows' Obama was not born in Kenya. It's just that he's invisible. Like parts of Obama's past.
Really hard to decide which of the idiocies I just read here is more ridiculous. So in order of occurrence: 1) CDV, you're usually incisive, but how you get that Romney called Obama a "boy" from that is stretching credulity. If someone used a similarly VERY oblique paragraph to claim that Obama made disparaging remarks about his Mormon polygamous ancestors (like using the word "many" in a sentence, for example, is NOT generally a reference to "polygamy" even if "wife" appears later in the sentence), you'd be screaming, and so would most sane people. Please: don't waste our and your time with that weak shyte, 'kay?
2) Nomad: what exactly do you think comprises being "mysterious" about one's past? Was there a potty break Obama hasn't discussed to your satisfaction?
Never mind: I really can't care any less about what you have in mind.
3) Invisible: just relentless one-dimensional b.s. That it's left-wing (kinda) b.s. doesn't improve the smell.
Y'all have a nice day. I look forward to a better column (though it was mostly on-point except for the "boy" nonsense) tomorrow. The comments, however, are unlikely to improve.
The current state of affairs as it relates the Democrats and Republicans is a sad, long running saga of steering lemming type voters at a quickened pace towards the cliff’s edge. This country is in its decadent stage. While the Libertarian and the Green Party members have been openly and thoroughly accosted and gagged in broad daylight.
Halfrican President Obama’s campaign has basically flat-lined because he has turned his back on the people almost as soon as he was handed the keys to the White House. Obama ran for the presidency as a progressive Democrat and once he was in office, he became and operated in a centrist manner. Instead of looking out for the people as he promised, he shook hands with Gangsta Bankstas, Oil barons and Wall Street technocrats and financially bailed them out even when it wasn’t necessary to do so.
One of his biggest donors four years ago was Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, UBS and Morgan Stanley. Now, Goldman Sachs, this same company that was bailed out with the people’s money is now backing the epitome of a racist, Mitty Romney’s campaign. This is the Mickey Mouse style of politics and the arrangement of strange bed fellows that I alluded to a few posts ago on WARN.
On the other hand, Racist Romney’s campaign has blatantly nodded to and therefore dog-whistled to the lowest riff-raff, jingoism, fringe type of zombie voters that this country has ever produced in an attempt to get put the WHITE back in the WHITE HOUSE. I wouldn’t at all be surprised if racist Mitt Romney wins the presidency through default merely because of his Whiteness and rigged machinations at the polls.
In summary, we as a country are slowly slumbering towards the Balkanization of this oligarch controlled empire. Indeed, this is our country’s only destiny. Dolce et decorum….... How sweet it is for so-called leaders to lead unknowing sheeples towards their own financial and political grave plot?
Goldenberg needs to tap his scolding brakes and better inform himself.
"2) Nomad: what exactly do you think comprises being "mysterious" about one's past? Was there a potty break Obama hasn't discussed to your satisfaction?
Never mind: I really can't care any less about what you have in mind."
Now see? That's what I'm talkin bout. That's funny. In a reprehensible kind of way. Since I said Obama was secretive MPG suggests I want to know about his potty training. No. What I want to know about Obie isn't the issue. So it's a moot point whether you could care less about it. To deconstruct the essence of the joke, the b-certificate became an issue for Obama and Romney made an ironic reference to it. Don't be so politically limited in your sense of humor, MPG.
"I look forward to a better column (though it was mostly on-point except for the "boy" nonsense) tomorrow. The comments, however, are unlikely to improve."
There is one way you can improve the comments yourself. I'll give you 3 guesses.
@cnu. not emotionalism. direct intellect and an understanding of the type of foe we are dealing with. romney knows exactly what he said and is doing--attack legitimacy, racialize, and call obama a black man-child. that has been a meme on the right for years. romney is simply doing his thing.
@nomad. he called him a boy. if a man strolled up to you, a rival for your alpha position, and said by transitivity you remind me of my teenage boys who are liars, and as such i know how to deal with black grown ass men like you who are like boys who lie, i think the implication is pretty clear. hell, we just had a republican call obama a spearchucker yesterday on national tv, and a leaked tape of more birtherism mess with priebus in the audience quiet as a church mouse.
@mpg. weak game. you are new here, so i will give you a pass. trust, there is a deep game afoot that you need to catch up on regarding romney's campaign and the type of racial cues and air raid sirens that are being deployed. he has prepared the battlefield very well. what he does to obama tonight is check and almost mate.
dude is going to put on the everyman glamor tonight and blind the sheeple and low info white voters in the viewing public. they will be begging to give romney their money after this so he and his cabal can magically trickle the wealth down to them. romney is sociopathic; obama ain't ready to be in the steel cage with hannibal lecter.
Perhaps the question we need to ask Senor Mittens is "Show us the birth certificate!"
Chauncey I can play the game, every morning on the green line, three card monte, but unlike Barack Obama my game is purely local, but riddle me this Batman, you go on and on about Bane Capital and outsourcing jobs to China?
But what about Jeffrey Robert "Jeff" Immelt
chairman of the board and chief executive officer of the General Electric?????????
Obama appointed him chairman of The President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board to provide the president advice and counsel to end the economic downturn. Brother Potus said Immelt know what would help the global economy and was one of his top economic advisors.
What he left out was the Immelt fired 34,000 americans and outsourced25,000 jobs to CHINA
Now should we talk about Boeing or do you get my point??????????
Seriously BE for President Obama can you ( strike up the James Brown song) "Please please, please please, pleaaaassse, please please, please," drop the our rage at Romney
@IM. rage? too much energy. if you can't see the polite white racist that he is (in some ways very crude), a man who has utter contempt for black people, a man who was taught during his formative years that we are basically some other type of human being not equal to whites, that is on you. i calls them as i sees them.
as i said repeatedly, we are getting down to the wire and i am not going to pile on obama. just like i wouldn't vote for a 3rd party candidate in a meaningful election.
we all have our personal decision rules.
You start out in 1954 by saying, "Nigger, nigger, nigger." By 1968 you can't say "nigger" — that hurts you. Backfires. So you say stuff like forced busing, states' rights and all that stuff. You're getting so abstract now [that] you're talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you're talking about are totally economic things and a byproduct of them is [that] blacks get hurt worse than whites. – Lee Atwater in an anonymous 1981 Southern Strategy phone interview
@Michael Paul Goldenberg (MPG - Miles Per Gallon more befitting)
In any event, CDV isn’t stretching credulity nor has he rushed to the far-fetched corner cowering in fear of being revealed of retorting mendacity. He simply stated that President Obama was called a boy in a clever manner by Romney invoking the Southern Strategy in quite a subtle fashion. By the way MPG, what did you expect Romney to say in response to Obama before you’d believe that he was in fact calling the POTUS a boy? Is it Romney saying to Obama, “get over here boy and shine my shoes?” I seriously doubt that because then, Romney wouldn’t be in line with the Southern Strategy. Romney would then be advertising his ignorance.
At bottom, the Southern Strategy’s primary objective is to remain abstract and remain on the contours of the subject of race. In summary, but never say, “get over here boy or nigger, nigger, nigger! MPG, go back to the cave you just crawled out of!
Chauncey I feel ya bro. The only problem is at least I know where Romney stands. Obama I'm not so sure man. I mean honestly I feel Obama has played us like pawns and I don't get that he sees it and maybe you don't agree, but it's it's more than no feeling. I don't think he's connected with us maybe in an intellectual way, but not in a substantive way. I might be a fool but I aint no damn fool and some one like him can do a whole lotta more harm on the inside. And franky brother I think during the last three and a half years Black folks have been substantially harmed as pawns and a lot of this is his fault and a lot of it is ours too. Hotep
Chauncey I feel ya bro. The only problem is at least I know where Romney stands. Obama I'm not so sure man. I mean honestly I feel Obama has played us like pawns and I don't get that he sees it and maybe you don't agree, but it's it's more than no feeling. I don't think he's connected with us maybe in an intellectual way, but not in a substantive way. I might be a fool but I aint no damn fool and some one like him can do a whole lotta more harm on the inside. And franky brother I think during the last three and a half years Black folks have been substantially harmed as pawns and a lot of this is his fault and a lot of it is ours too. Hotep
@MPG
What I want to know about Obie isn't the issue.
But since I was asked, I guess I can take the opportunity. I know, nobody couldn't care less, but anyway. Instead of inquiring into Mr. Obama's toilet habits I'd rather know more about this bit of buried resume.
"In his autobiography, Dreams From My Fathers, Barack Obama writes of taking a job at some point after graduating from Columbia University in 1983. -Business International Corporation. ...Business International had provided cover for four CIA employees in various countries between 1955 and 1960.... inasmuch as Business International has a long association with the world of intelligence, covert actions, and attempts to penetrate the radical left — including Students for a Democratic Society (SDS)13 — it’s reasonable to wonder if the inscrutable Mr. Obama is concealing something about his own association with this world.
Adding to the wonder is the fact that his mother, Ann Dunham, had been associated during the 1970s and 80s — as employee, consultant, grantee, or student — with at least five organizations with intimate CIA connections during the Cold War..." (William Blum)
The line about "you may be entitled to your own house and your own plane . . ." was a dog whistle too. As if the White House is the projects, and as if the President is taking something from us by using these things.
Is this sign by an Obama supporter racist?
http://video.msnbc.msn.com/nbc-news/49450089#49450089
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