whack a mole,
whack a tea party racist
The GOP keep trying to deny the racists among them, but like a game of whack-a-mole, they keep popping up, and not just popping up, but popping up in positions of trust and authority.
cross-posted from MNPP:
Like the whack-a-mole game, the various state GOP and county GOP leadership keep denying them, even firing them, figuratively pounding them down below the surface. But like the rodent in the game, they simply reappear over and over again somewhere else. That's because they don't go away, and it's because they represent a very real segment of the racist right among the GOP.
Last week, it was an executive of the North Carolina GOP who was ultimately fired for racism - although HE still doesn't think he IS a racist. But then, when does a racist think there is anything wrong with their views?
Then we have another example from the not-so-great-state of Texas, via FiredogLake. Using his father as a campaign surrogate certainly does not sound like repudiating racism in the tea party to me.:
Ted Cruz’s Father Tells Obama To “Go Back To Kenya”Rafael Cruz at North Texas Tea Party Sept. 12, 2012
Rafael Cruz, the father of Senator Ted Cruz, is a political activist in his own right. One of his favorite targets seems to be President Barack Obama whom he says should go “back to Kenya.”(19:20) Which seems to be a mix of both birtherism and general racism. But Rafael Cruz’s fringe political views go further than believing the president was born in another country, they also include the belief that his son – and all true Christians – are anointed by God to take the country back.
In April, Rafael Cruz, the father of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas), spoke to the tea party of Hood County, which is southwest of Fort Worth, and made a bold declaration: The United States is a “Christian nation.” The septuagenarian businessman turned evangelical pastor did not choose to use the more inclusive formulation “Judeo-Christian nation.” Insisting that the Declaration of Independence and the US Constitution “were signed on the knees of the framers” and were a “divine revelation from God,” he went on to say, “yet our president has the gall to tell us that this is not a Christian nation…The United States of America was formed to honor the word of God.” Seven months earlier, Rafael Cruz, speaking to the North Texas Tea Party on behalf of his son, who was then running for Senate, called President Barack Obama an “outright Marxist” who “seeks to destroy all concept of God,” and he urged the crowd to send Obama “back to Kenya.”
Ted Cruz utilizes his father for his campaigns both in citing his immigration story for bona fides with immigrant groups and bringing him along on campaign trips to Iowa. Rafael Cruz has even served as a campaign surrogate.
And Rafael Cruz is no amateur off on a rant. He is a pastor who directs a Christian group called Purifying Fire Ministries and a professor of Bible and Theology studies. His speech is a reflection of his studied and considered beliefs, not a spur of the moment gaffe. Nor is it the first time he has expressed those views.
He insisted that the advancement of Christianity (his fundamentalist version of it) depends on political battle, noting the need not just for a “spiritual savior” but a “political savior.” (The idea of states’ rights, he said, was based in the bible.) Obama, Cruz proclaimed, believes “government is your god.” When Cruz was a keynote speaker at a tax day rally hosted by Texas tea partiers in April, he told the crowd that conservative Christians need to take over “every school board in this nation.” At a Texas tea party rally in September 2012, he claimed that Obama has “a clear agenda…to destroy American exceptionalism”—and “to achieve a “worldwide redistribution of wealth” and “make us subject to the United Nations.”
Now we have another example, from the MN GOP.
this was posted on the MN GOPfacebook page for Chisago Cty.
This led to a series of updates over at the City Pages:
the first update:
The offensive post has now been deleted, but no apology has yet been posted in its place. So upset folks have taken to putting Chisago GOPers on blast in the comment thread for the most recent undeleted post remaining on the page.Then we went to update 2, as the MN DFL weighed in - something I can't recall the MN DFL or any other state democratic party having to do regarding such overt and insensitive racism from the left:
Check out this epic burn one commenter left in that thread (and note the irony involved in Chisago GOPers characterizing Democrats as "racist"):
:::: UPDATE II ::::Then we go to update 3, with the MN GOP trying to pretend they don't really have any racist members. Nice denial attempt, but not terribly convincing, given some of the racism from the right in MN and nationally over the years. What this comes down to is, keep volunteering for the MN GOP if you are racist, keep giving money to the MN GOP, Keep attending the MN GOP caucuses, keep supporting the MN tea party branch of the MN GOP if you are racist, but don't get caught saying or writing what you really think when it might embarrass us with the less extreme right demographics of Minnesota. It's ok to think it, to believe it, just don't get caught being racist by the media. :::: UPDATE III ::::
The DFL has released a statement about the Chisago County Facebook post. Here it is in its entirety:
STATEMENT FROM DFL CHAIRMAN KEN MARTIN ABOUT RACIST POST ON GOP FACEBOOK PAGE
"While the Minnesota Republican Party is shamelessly trying to brand themselves as a Party that welcomes people from 'all ethnicities,' the Chisago County Republicans posted a racially offensive picture on Facebook. I find the reference to slavery disgusting and reprehensible. How can a Party work so hard to sell themselves as multi-cultural and welcoming to others when their leadership approves and publicizes racist photos to make a point?
"The Republican Party is the same old Party they have always been. Actions speak louder than words and today's actions prove that they have a long way to go to really reach out and include people from under-represented communities.
"The Republican Party can never claim to be welcoming and inviting to people from other cultures, when they use hurtful images from such a dark and difficult time in our nation's history. To say this is extremely offensive, is putting it lightly. I challenge the Republican Party to move from their old ways, and to hold their leadership accountable for such a disgusting display of racist and bigoted behavior. "
The Chisago County MNGOP has now issued its own statement in response to the gaffe. In it, the Chisago County Republican Executive Committee apologies for the post but says they aren't yet sure how it made it onto their official Facebook page in the first place.Sorry GOP / Tea Party nationally, and MN GOP locally, but your politics and policies, your legislation, ESPECIALLY attempts to pass voter suppressing legislation, all identify you as racists. Actions speak louder than words, but the words are bad enough and the actions are WORSE. The MN GOP needs to apologize for their efforts at voter suppression of minorities every bit as much as their occasional stray honest party activist from the tea party.
Here's the whole thing:
Otherwise this is just same ol' same ol' let's-pretend-we-care-about-everyone insincere whack-a-mole.