The GOP disrespect of Obama: Racism or just politics?

[Stinky The Clown]

I've seen it said that the GOP's disrespect of Obama is based on his race.

I don't agree with that. To be sure, there is some racism in opposition to Obama, but I don't think it is institutional in the repubican party. I think it is individual and I think it is widespread.

I think the institutional disrespect for him is based on his political timidity.

For example: Joe "You Lie!" Wilson was probably racially motivated.

The brewing schedule fight over his speech and the GOP debate is almost certainly pure politics.





None of us can know what is in people's hearts and none of us can say much on this subject with any certainty. How do you see this?

[LynneSin]

1. Can I vote all of the above?

Just saying

[joeybee12]

8. Exactly...nt

[in_cog_ni_to]

2. BOTH! They are SEETHING that a Black man had the audacity to run and WIN the Presidential Election.

They HATE that he is is the WH and have decided to make his term as miserable as they possibly can.

[Name removed]

3. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[MannyGoldstein]

4. Agreed - they do it because it works.

If it didn't work, they'd stop.

That's how bullies work.

[mike_c]

5. for the GOP, it's a distinction without a difference....

Politics and racism are inseparable for some of those bottom feeders.

[FiveGoodMen]

6. The puke VOTERS hate him on racist grounds

The politicians are different...

Puke pols get everything they want from Obama.

AND they get to blame him when things go badly.

They couldn't be happier.

[Jmaxfie1]

7. not racism

I've seen just as much O basing on the left. I think its policies.

[NOLALady]

9. Racist Politics.

[DeSwiss]

10. Racism.

And they've waited since Nixon's "Southern Strategy" to be allowed to use it and get away with it. The best part?, it'll be the downfall of the Repuke Party.

- Because those racist bastards they took on are nothing but a deadly disease......

K&R

[mulsh]

11. I believe it is pure unadulterated racism at its most base level.

I think these sad little men and women have been passed by by current events and contemporary society.

I certainly do not believe the "scheduling fight" is anything more than a racist drunk and his minions putting the black boy in his place. Being from different political parties may give them some ocover but its the same tired race bating smell I've seen most of my life.

The handful of career politicians I've known over the years in both parties have never impressed me with intelligence or any other ability aside from being able to follow someone's directions.

But who knows perhaps I'm just prejudiced coming from Oakland, CA 'n' shit.

[Bucky]

12. I think it might be emotionally validating if it was just racism. But they do it to all Dem leaders

if it was only race, you wouldn't have wild enthusiastic crowds for Herman Cain. Undoubtedly many are explicitly or subconciously motivated by race. But I think for most of them, they're just socially programmed to flip out over any president with a D behind his name.

[Raine]

13. Politics as usual

:shrug: they always pull that crap though I'm sure his race propels them.

[madinmaryland]

14. Racism. Look at the makeup of the teabaggers which control the GOP, and you

will see the racist wing of the GOP.

Though not all repubicants are not racists, they are being defined as racists by the racist wing of the republicants.

[11 Bravo]

15. I'll take "BOTH" for a thousand, Alex.

[Quantess]

16. If they were only to look at his actions,

They would be mildly satisfied at how very liberal he is not.

[TwilightGardener]

17. Both. Racism is often used in politics.

[pintobean]

18. I wonder if all the people saying it's racism

are willing to hold DUers to the same standard.

I really don't like seeing the charge without any evidence.

[TwilightGardener]

19. Not sure what you're referring to.

[pintobean]

23. There's plenty of

disrespect for Obama here on DU. Is that also racism? I don't think so and I don't think we should have a double standard. Disrespect does not equal racism.

[TwilightGardener]

24. True, disrespect does not equal racism. But you have to look at who's doing it, and why.

DUers often criticize whomever is in power--it's a constituency's privilege to do so. Voters who criticize and show disrespect do not have a duty (by custom) to treat the President or any elected official with respect and civility. Elected officials ARE expected to be respectful to each other--and to maintain the same level of courtesy and consideration no matter who holds the office of President. Republicans have tried at every turn to reduce this man to his skin color and little else--not necessarily because THEY are individually racist, but because any negative impact on Obama serves them well, no matter how it's achieved.

[pintobean]

28. I don't think Clinton or Bush got more

respect than Obama. Prior to Clinton, yes.

[TwilightGardener]

32. I think they did get more respect, sorry. Clinton was hounded, but

they did at least acknowledge that he was President and was a citizen of the United States who didn't hate the United States.

[pintobean]

39. Don't be sorry for what you think.

We disagree. It's not a big deal. I will note that the OP did not make the distinction between elected officials and rank and file GOPers. That's what I replied to. I assumed he meant both.

[TwilightGardener]

45. I believe there's more actual racist feelings among the rank and file.

Less so among elected officials, for whom race is simply a tool. I have seen this personally, even among family members. There seems to be difficulty in suppressing the urge to "go there" when criticizing him. It's hard to tell whether race is their primary motive for opposing him, or if it's just one more thing they don't like and it's an easy jab to make.

[Stinky The Clown]

47. "Going there" when one criticizes him . . . . .

. . . . may well be a defining distinction.

I'm pretty outspoken in my criticism of him. I've never had the need to "go there" to be as disrespectful and critical as I want to be. On the other hand, I have encountered people who can't resist some level of racial accent on their criticism of him.

I get to construction sites a fair amount. I often see graffiti with a racial edge to it aimed at him. Just yesterday I saw such graffiti against him and against unions. In both cases, the message was racially charged.

[pintobean]

54. I hear it

From union construction workers who claimed they voted for him. The whole issue is confusing for a lot of people. My racist neighbor (a very old man) voted for him. I also know racist conservatives. In my experience, most people are not racist, so I'm inclined to give everyone the benefit of the doubt until they prove otherwise.

[Coyote_Bandit]

20. +1,000,000

Thank you.

[in_cog_ni_to]

31. You cannot be serious. Teabaggers/Rethugs = RACISTS. Racism is what gave us the Teabag Party in the

first place. Remember Arizona? The Confederate flags they were flying? Please. The Rethug/Teabaggers are nothing but a bunch of racists. This is nothing but racism and they are making damn sure the man suffers for stepping foot in the WH. How dare he.


<snip>
This is the party of the Southern strategy — the party that ran, like panting dogs, after the votes of segregationist whites who were repelled by the very idea of giving equal treatment to blacks. Ronald Reagan, George H.W. (Willie Horton) Bush, George W. (Compassionate Conservative) Bush — they all ran with that lousy pack.<snip>


<snip>
“You start out in 1954 by saying, ‘Nigger, nigger, nigger,’ ” said Atwater. “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 you’re talking about cutting taxes, and all these things you’re talking about are totally economic things, and a byproduct of them is blacks get hurt worse than whites.”<snip>



http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/25/opinion/25herbert.html

[alsame]

21. Both. I believe the GOP would also have been disrespectful to

President Gore, Kerry or Hillary Clinton.

However, I think the inherent racism in the Republican party allows them to go beyond the pale ("you lie") because they know it will probably help them with their base voters if they show personal disrespect to a black man.

[frazzled]

22. Given that their politics is to play to their base ...

and that their base is clamoring (often on a racist basis) to disrespect this president, see him as illegitimate, even though there was not a scintilla of doubt about his landslide election ... I think we can safely say that they are playing racial politics. That he's a Democrat is only icing on the cake.

They probably wouldn't be able to get away with this unprecedented act of disrespect if the president were not black. It just adds that little touch of "boy" to the whole scenario.

[madrchsod]

25. racism.....their biggest fear is a black president

the biggest difference between now and the past is there`s no civility or cooperation with the republicans.

[Renaissance Man]

26. It's part politics, but those politics are in large part primarily fueled by racism ...

President Obama's election was a prime opportunity for the far right wing of the Republican Party to mainstream its Southern Strategy and bring the racist discourse to the forefront (with an all too willing corporate media).

The other day, I spoke with a friend of mine that graduated from college with me, and she works for a state agency (in a southern state). She told me how just last week, she was returning from lunch and overheard two of her white co-workers speaking as loosely as they could and overheard one of them state, "Yeah, and we need to put the main n**ger in his place -- you know, the one in the White House."

Yes, in 2011, that happened.

I think that sometimes we often forget that Republicans rarely, if ever, are required to visit these Southern states outside of primary season to secure these votes, because these folks often identify primarily with the Republican platform because its "anti-tax" message means that they'll keep "their" tax money away from who they feel are undeserving ...

... and that includes African-Americans.

Many of these people are lower middle class/working class to middle class (at best) and actually benefit from the current president's policies (not to mention government programs). The Tea Party is just the percentage of Congressmen and women that represent this faction of racist idiots in our body politic.

... and Joe Wilson could scream "you lie" as much as he wants. He's a Congressman from South Carolina. There will be no retribution that he'll have to pay from the people he represents. They'd probably cheer him on.

The witch doctor photos, the watermelon patches on the front lawn, the photoshopping of Michelle Obama as an ape, the clamoring about President Obama's birth certificate...

... nah.. it's not racism. It's just because President Obama is a Democrat. *sarcasm*

[Major Hogwash]

27. "Prove you were born in the United States, Obama!!!"

Do you think that was "politics as usual"?

[TwilightGardener]

29. It's just 'cause he's a Democrat, you know. Don't you remember how many times

Bill Clinton's and Jimmy Carter's birth circumstances were doubted? Oh wait...

[Major Hogwash]

42. It's all coming back to me now. Yeah, like I was in a fog and just woke up in time to see

Sarah Palin yelling "Obama pals around with terrorists."

Yeah, that's just politics since they were the ones who touted 9/11 every chance they had.
Like Biden said about Guiliani, "All his speeches are a noun, a verb, and "9/11" in every sentence."

[Solomon]

30. Good. i hope you all feel better now that

you've all declared that "It's not racism".

Why people continually feel the need to find a hook to explain that something is not racist is beyond me.

Usually when you see this, the need to explain away racism, the behavior being absolved, is obviously racist.

[in_cog_ni_to]

34. I couldn't agree more! n/t

[Stinky The Clown]

50. No pun intended, but the OP was pretty far from a black and white conclusion.

I really think shit lke this scheduling dust up is far more about politics than about race. I really think shitbags like Joe Wilson are racially motivated.

As has been said upthread by several people, a lot of the overt racism is from the civilians, the rank and file hard core repubican voters. They make it okay for the elected politicans to act in racist ways. The politicians may or may not really care about race. They're just trying to stay in office by playing to the basest base voters.

The OP also said no one can know what's in a person's heart. That includes you with respect to me.

[Rex]

33. Both, depends on which faction it comes from imo.

[WhiteTara]

35. I completely think it is racial. No doubt in my mind.

He will be boy to them forever. Racism is institutional and runs very deep.

[Glimmer of Hope]

36. Sometimes I think his age is also an issue.

[Freddie Stubbs]

37. Racism. Republicans always treated President Clinton with the utmost respect

[WillowTree]

41. LMAO!!

[Stinky The Clown]

51. "Scumbag"

Google "Dan Burton" and "scumbag" and "open session of congress" . . . it was on all the colortini channels.

[jmowreader]

38. It's mostly because he's a Democrat. That he's black is just a bonus.

According to the GOP, every Democrat in the world wants to raise Republicans' taxes, kill their babies even after they've been born, take their guns away, dictate every aspect of their personal lives, force them into Socialized Medicine schemes, and bomb their churches. None of those things happen to be true, but that's how they approach us.

The problem here isn't just that he's a tax-raising, baby-eating, gun-grabbing, church-bombing Democrat but he's also a black guy who wants to drain out their bank accounts and give the money to Cadillac-driving welfare queens who pop out one baby after another so they can get more free welfare money without having to work for it.

So...let's put this down as 50 percent "he's a Democrat Socialist Politician" and 50 percent "he's a (fill in your favorite racial slur)."

Someone upthread pointed out they would have done the same shit to Presidents Gore, Kerry and Hillary Clinton--they certainly did it to President Bill Clinton. They managed to make the "gun grabber" label stick to John Kerry, who is a bird hunter.

[WillowTree]

40. It's political game-playing, just like it was political game playing when the WH chose the date.

Gamesmanship. Not everything is about race.

[CTyankee]

43. RACISM for sure!

I'm so mad...

[madamesilverspurs]

44. Politics of disrespect, politics on steroids,

strutting, swaggering, posturing, rude and not above hitching a ride on any convenient vehicle - including racism. Tea Party embraced white supremacists, then made the beast with two backs with the GOP. Republicans cannot honestly claim that their disrespect is in any way "clean".

[loyalsister]

46. Racism plays a huge role

It's not the disrespect or the usual partisan hate that is racist. It is the expression.
Accused of not being a citizen
"you lie" at the SOTU address
A FB page essentially praying for Obama's demise

And even from the left... Anthony Weiner let the press know that he called Obama and lied to him. The thing about that is that Weiner is not racist but did feel comfortable with an approach that shows an extreme level of disrespect for the president. Obama publicly gave him the benefit of the doubt after the first round of photos. Putting Obama in that position indicates a devaluation of him as president.

Despite having taken office under totally suspicious circumstances, Bush was treated with respect by Democrats and republicans. Clinton was hounded and constantly investigated, but he was respected in terms of being understood as legitimate and capable.

Aside from the usual partisanship, there is an undercurrent of racism that is expressed in a devaluation of the historical respect granted the person in his role as president. Clinton and Bush were both respected as fulfilling the role of president.

[unblock]

48. Racism, but not so much because Obama is black.

Racism because he's a democrat and they've long been racist in their maligning the democratic party.
Usually, they've gone after the non-blacks in the party with some coded message based on policies that give or appear to give blacks, well, pretty much anything.

Having a democratic leader that's ACTUALLY black only complicates their attacks. They walk a finer line in order to throw red meat to their racist base without crossing the line.

[lunasun]

49. Would like to be a fly on the wall when GOP meets but I think what I would hear

would have a lot of racist talk mixed in for sure . Absolutely no respect for him at all and pissed to hell about where he is at ( the WH) because of what he is...............sad and sick

[Firebrand Gary]

52. Both

[rury]

53. IT'S RACISM PURE AND SIMPLE

[JoeyT]

55. When someone is both racist and an asshole in general,

it's difficult to say which trait is driving what behavior.

Either way it's pure pettiness.