What's wrong with this video and why is it that conservative groups, with statistics by Rasmussen, the hired consultant for the former administration, put such ads together? This kind of ad is nothing new for conservatives. Think of George H. Bush's Willie Horton ad or Bob Corker's "call me" ad against Harold Ford, Jr.
Not that progressives are perfect by any means, but overall I don't think that they use race so divisively in political ads as conservatives. (If there are such ads by progessives, please let me know.) I had not even heard that Americans were attacking President Obama's stance for health care reform in racist terms, except for the teabaggers with their overtly racist signs.
If Rasmussen is to be believed, perhaps that 12% was taken at "tea party" events, where such sentiments are likely. (However, there is probably a case to be made for the underclass, usually minorities to a large degree, that is disproportionately without health care insurance.) President Jimmy Carter is unjustly maligned in this video. I think he was responding to the blatant racism on display at these "tea party" events from rallies to town halls.
11 comments:
It's very irresponsible and immoral to throw that "racist" term around so freely just to incite dissent. I was uncomfortable watching that video.
Kelly, my beloved Irish friend, I wholeheartedly agree with you. What is really disgusting is that we are talking about health care reform here which really has no race, although as I have said in the post minorities are undoubtedly disproportionately affected by the lack of health care insurance. The same is true for unemployment. For me, this ad is simply meant to "incite" (great word for this case) old bigoted ideologies born out of a culture deeply rooted in the lack of basic human rights and dignity. This is a fact which makes the video even more shameful. We have made great strides forward. May we continue onward.
Speaking of Racism, what is wrong with Harry Reid?
Why did he connect filibustering the health plan with slavery?
I realize filibustering was a technique used to keep civil rights legistation from moving through congress, but bringing it up won't make it any easiser to put through the health plan.
Does Harry reied have any idea what is going on around him? Does he know anything about how people react to this kind of stuff? This completely baffles me - How can he be so clueless? How did someone so clueless ever get elected? He sounds like an aging college professor who is protected from being fired by tenure.
I don't know where to put this, so I'll put it here
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/12/sarah-palin-barack-obama-poll-gap-narrows.html
Zorro - Did that happen today? I have not been online as much today. I'll check it out. Many senators need to go fishing. Not only are some senators like lazy tenured professors, but the Senate itself seems like an old boys club. Reid stood up for Baucus which I did not appreciate for nominating his girlfriend as an attorney general. You don't have to break the law to be unethical. Maybe I'll have more to say on Reid.
I don't deserve her - Neither would the 49% of the people who would have voted against her -
Neither would the rest of the people in the world who'd be also affected -
Progessives seem to be reluctant to point out how much better off we are with Obama than we would have been if McCain had won. There is way to much critism of Obama from his base, and this weakens him. For example, when was the last time Arianna Huffington had anything good to say about Obama?
"I don't deserve her - Neither would the 49% of the people who would have voted against her -
Neither would the rest of the people in the world who'd be also affected -"
Yes, Zorro, I would have to agree with you here.
"Progessives seem to be reluctant to point out how much better off we are with Obama than we would have been if McCain had won."
President Obama spoke out about this directly the other day when he spoke about the new jobs initiative but it wasn't relevant to McCain but to the previous administration.
Arianna is a wonderful smart woman. I respect her. She has her opinion and has the right to voice it. I think she sees her criticism as loyal opposition. I can respect that.
Too bad Jimmie C still gets such a bad rap. If the Reagan admin hadn't quashed the Carter environmental initiatives, we wouldn't be in the pickle we're in now.
Good point, John. Carter is such an ethical man.
Speaking of Jimmie C, I've been getting some wild emails over the years about the grave conspiratorial threat of the Trilateral Commission, of which Carter has been a member (not to mention Brzezinski and the Clintons). Of course none of these folks are without flaws (who is?) but I don't see them plotting world domination.
John - I really don't know much about the Trilateral Commission, except it purports to be an organization that seeks to align nation states through economic power. There doesn't seem to be nothing new about this, right? Was Greenspan a founding member? Is Cheney still a member? Because I don't know much about this organization so I really can't say much. But I do respect Carter and Brzezinski. I also appreciated the moderate voice of George H. Bush, his Willie Horton ad aside. By the way, it looks like he was a member too. Present and past members are from various political parties so it seems. Are the wild conspiracy emails from the left or right? Both? The John Birch Society doesn't seem to think to highly of the Trilateral Commission. I agree with you about the imperfections of us all. Of this there is no doubt. This post deals directly with the divisive race ads that the right is fond of producing. I still haven't found a comprabable ad by the left, not that they too are without issues. In fact, I wrote an op-ed for the Detroit Free Press some years ago about the left taking the African American vote for granted.
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