This is certainly not to say that everyone who opposes health care reform is racist. There are honest people out there who for other reasons could oppose the reform efforts, but there is an anger and a rhetoric of hate towards the President that exceeds any normal response that the heath care debate should illicit.
Contrary to what they keep yelling about, there have been no major tax increases, and none planned for the middle class, our debt has increased but that is basically the result of the Bush years and the financial disaster. All the things that the Tea Party are yelling about have no grounding in reality. This disconnect, combined with an attempt to portray Obama as not-American (birther movement), the current angry mob is emitting a weirdness that is hard to pinpoint or understand. I agree with President Carter that this opposition movement is displaying a deeply held, yet perhaps unconscious racial distrust of the president. What else would lead a white man from South Carolina to feel he has the right to yell down the sitting president of the United States who is African American? This racial weirdness plus the rhetoric of right-wing radio, has led to a 400% increase on the threats on the President's life. Let's tone the rhetoric down people.
Here is Jimmy Carter calling it as he sees it.
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Well far right, since we both deplore racism, it seems to me we can agree to condemn it. For example, I have a number of Muslim friends who are highly critical of prejudiced statements by fellow Muslims. They could just insist that not all Muslims are prejudiced. But I think they demonstrate their own lack of prejudice more clearly by criticizing prejudice even when, or especially when, it appears in their own community.
I await the blog post
“Jimmy Carter changes his mind and realises how silly he has been.....its not racism after all!”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OV5ZN6Ishw8&feature=player_embedded#
Just because old Jimmy seems to be losing it and forgot what he said -
selective amnesia is great! Click on the link in the post to see what He said and then compare it to what he now says above!!
well done Jimmy for being big enough to retract your comments now that you realise how silly you had been - takes a big man to do that!
Now next blog post Paul
"IOC is racist because they didn't give The Leader his way and give him his Olympics!"
The logic of rejecting Carter's point seems to be, "Since you can't say most critics of Obama are racist, you have to say that none of them are."
No the logic of rejecting Carter's point is this "he is wrong"
It's one thing to oppose "guilt by association," as in "your neighbor is a racist, so you must be one too." It's another thing to defend the individuals who really are racist. Many of the statements made at these rallies, some of which Paul quotes, are racist hate-mongering. If you defend these statements, you are defending racism.
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