- Democratic Congresssman Charles Rangel likened those of us that opposed the passage of Obama Care to the racists that were against the civil rights movement in the 1960s.
- Democratic Congresswoman Sheila Lee Jackson publicly stated that all Tea Party supporters used to wear Ku Klux Klan sheets, obviously implying that they are racist.
- Ex-Congressman Alan Grayson also likened Tea Party supporters to racists.
- Obama adminstration czar, Van Jones, stated publicly and on tape that Republicans were a__h___s.
The second problem I have is that the President has allowed this kind of talk to go on from members of his own party. It alienates Americans, making it more difficult for him to pass his legislative priorities. No matter how good these priorities might be, human beings are only human, calling them racists and a__h___s is not going to help get their support.
The second reason for confusion relative to Obama's silence is that one of his main selling points in the 2008 Presidential election was the now shattered perception that he could unite the country. His silence reveals his lack of leadership and his inability to live up to that hollow campaign promise. It is a campaign promise he will not be able to claim again in 2012, if he runs, given his silence on the matter his first two years in office.
Back to Howard Dean. At this Washington breakfast he stepped over my line as far as insulting Americans who 1) are concerned about the direction of this country and 2) should be able to discuss their concerns without being called racists. Some of his quotes include the following:
1) Tea Party movement "is the last gasp of the generation that has trouble with diversity."
2) "The demographic changes we have all known were going to happen have happened and all of a sudden it is here for them and they don't know what to do. Every morning when they see the President, they are reminded that things are totally different than they were when they were born."
3) When talking to college audiences Dean states that "you have all had friends of different races, different religions, and different sexual orientations, and you all date each other, that is not how I grew up. That is not how the Tea Party grew up. The Tea Party is almost entirely over 55 and white."
Let's take these ridiculous statements one at a time:
1) I do not think this is the last gasp of a generation that has trouble with diversity. It is the last gasp of a generation that wants to restore American freedoms and keep America viable, politically, financially, and liberty-wise. It has witnessed a Democratic Congress that has spent more than $4 TRILLION than it collected in taxes in just four years, endangering the financial stability of the nation. It has witnessed the continued failure of government functions with regard to hurricane and oil spill disasters, terrorists and near terrorist attacks on the country, failing public schools, leaky borders, high unemployment, a failed war on drugs, failed economic stimulus programs, escalating health care costs, wasteful corporate bailouts, the freedom robbing Patriot Act, and all the while they themselves being called racists for daring to have an informed and different opinion.
This is a generation, the majority of which, welcomed in and supported the civil rights movement and gains of the 1960s, that welcomed and supported the women's rights movement of the 1970s, and who will have no problem accepting the eventual total civil rights of the gay and lesbian community. To say that everyone in this generation, his generation, has a problem with diversity is idiotic.
2) Every morning I am not reminded "that things are totally different than when they were born." What I see is a politician, and that is what the President is right now in my mind, just a politician and not a leader, that has not been able to accomplish much of anything in his first two years despite a historic advantage in the House of Representatives and the Senate in those two years. I do not see anything else, just failure from a political perspective.
When President Obama was elected, his approval ratings were higher than 70% and he controlled Congress, he could have done anything he wanted. Now, he has lost that political advantage and his approval ratings are in the 40% range. I guess in Howard Dean's world that difference in approval ratings of 30%, 70% vs. 40%, means millions of more Americans now wake up and are suddenly reminded of how things have changed from a race perspective. In his reality, 30% of America became racists in two years.
3) First of all on this point, the Tea Party may skew white and older but it is not overwhelmingly white and old according to respected polls that have been done. In fact, those polls indicate that Tea Party supporters actually skew to higher education levels than the average American, implying, under Dean's logic, that better educated people are racists. Anyway, how dare Dean make the correlation that because someone is older and white they are racists. Despicable.
Second, he implies that because the Tea Party supporters were not exposed to to "different races, different religions, and different sexual orientations" that they must now be prejudiced and racists because of that. How does that statement make any sense? In Dean's warped view of the world and the Americans that inhabit it, people like myself who grew up with mostly white Christian friends and knew very little about the gay lifestyle must today be somehow inferior to today's college students when it comes to respecting and appreciating diversity. And that because of this "faulty" upbringing I support the Tea Party principles? I have to think that this borders on libel.
Again, I usually ignore ranters like Howard Dean, their views of the world and the denigration of Americans who have differing opinions do nothing to address and resolve the issues facing this country. But his latest comments are way over the top. They remind me of some wise words from Elie Wiesel: "No human race is superior; no religious faith is inferior. All collective judgements are wrong. Only racists make them." Given that Howard Dean seems to make a lot of collective judgements about people from my generation simply because they have a difference of opinion on issues based on facts and not based on race, what does that make him in Mr. Wiesel's eyes?
I am not a collective judgement, Mr. Dean, I am an American and I expect to be treated fairly and individually, not collectively, for my opinion. That is called diversity and great American leaders of the past respected the power of diversity and the individual.
These types of remarks will make the President's agenda even more difficult to pass and the uniting of the country behind some solid leadership next to impossible. It is human nature to lash out when being insulted and when it happens in a systematic manner by numerous members of the President's party, his political future and legacy will be tainted by the slurs and insults of his political supporters and the silence from himself.
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