It’s unequivocally clear what the Republican Party’s strategy is to wrest President Obama and his family from the White House: a deliberate, premeditated attempt to appeal to the darkest impulses of the human spirit by arousing the racially charged emotions and prejudices of their constituents.
The plan, as exhibited by longtime GOP flamethrower New Gingrich and Rick Santorum this past week, is to take back the White House by any means — even if it means wading in the cesspool of dangerous demagoguery, libelous character assassinations of the president and rabid race-bating to extremists.
GOP candidate Newt Gingrich told a town hall meeting at a senior center in Plymouth, N.H., that if the NAACP invites him to its annual convention this year, he’d go there and talk about “why the African-American community should demand paychecks and not be satisfied with food stamps. He has also frequently denounced Obama as “the best food-stamp president in American history.”
Gingrich had the unmitigating gall to act surprised at the onslaught of criticism for his reckless statements and believes that he said nothing wrong.
Gingrich’s diatribe continues the pattern of rampant racial pandering that includes rival Republican candidate Rick Santorum. The former Pennsylvania senator said that he did not want to “make black people’s lives better by giving them somebody else’s money. I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn the money.”
True, food stamp participation and costs have risen under Obama, from 28.2 million participants at a cost of $37.6 billion in 2008 to 44.7 million participants at a cost of $75.3 billion last year, according to federal data of what is officially known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. But that increased followed the steep economic downturn that began before Obama even took office.
Furthermore, as accurately pointed out by National Urban League President Marc H. Morial, 70 percent of people on food stamps are Caucasians. It’s always been that way. Yet, the face of welfare on the news is that of an obese black woman with multiple kids receiving handouts. This is propaganda and misinformation at its very best — or worst.
This is the ilk of people who erroneously charge the Revs. Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton with cynically using race as currency to shake down corporate America for their own individual gratification.
Whatever happened to the joy at the prospects of a “post-racial society” after Obama became the first black president in 2008?
Well, I’ll tell you what happened to that utopian society. From the grotesque caricatures of the first family, to the constant references to the Obamas (including their children) as gorillas and monkeys, to the perverted remarks about first lady Michelle Obama’s posterior, to the deafening silence when zealots call for Obama’s murder, the conservatives and Republicans in this country have let everyone know unquestionably what they think about that post-racial society.
For now, expect the GOP candidates to continue exploit racial animus and distrust as a way to energize their base and get them to the polls in November.
–terry shropshire
