Day 16 and it sounds as if this nightmare may be coming to a close. Damage has been done, but some things have also become clear.
One is that the Tea Party tolerates and promotes racism.
Yesterday Democratic Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz said that a major reason for the government shutdown was dislike of President Obama. In other words, this was never a fight over principles. It was rooted in personal animosity.
She should have gone on and said what she wouldn’t say. That this personal animosity stems from a racism that is endemic to the Tea Party movement. The Confederate flag on display in front of the White House during this week’s Tea Party rally said it all.
Let’s get real and stop trying to make nice with people who are not nice at all. When you question this President’s birthplace, you are a racist. When you reject this President’s self-professed Christian faith, you are a racist. When you tell jokes with racial overtones, you are a racist. When you email race based cartoons to your friends, you are a racist. When you continue to listen to racist talking heads like Rush Limbaugh, you are a racist.
One of the reasons this country made progress toward racial justice was because racist comments, actions, and jokes in public became socially and politically unacceptable. We called people out for their racism and would have laughed had we been accused of “playing the race card” for doing so.
But some people have decided we now live in a post-racial America, and, therefore, racism by a different name is somehow not racism. Well, it is. So when that young white man waved his Confederate flag in front of the White House he showed he was a racist. And the Tea Party members who supported his doing so as an expression of “freedom” were also racists.
President Obama is the President of the United States. He deserves respect for that reason alone. This has nothing to do with his policies or his leadership. It has to do with the office he holds.
I for one am sick of racists who claim to be patriots while questioning the legitimacy of Barack Obama’s presidency. Freedom of speech may protect their right to be openly racist. It also protects our right to name them for what they are.
We should never be hesitate to do so.
