George Graham

Class (Race?) Warfare by Those With No Class

Listening to Rachel Maddow and other TV hosts repeat the ugly slurs and outright expressions of race hatred in Ron Paul’s newsletters, I thought the Republicans had sunk about as low as they could go. I was wrong.

Today comes news that a Republican congressman said the First Lady has a “big butt.”

I would call that a new low. It’s hard to believe – even coming from a Republican politician.

The lawmaker, Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin (photo above, left), was overheard complaining on the phone in the Delta Lounge at Reagan National Airport outside Washington about Mrs. Obama’s healthy-food initiative.

He has apologized, of course, now that the insult has been made public. But I think an apology is inadequate in this case.

This trashy congressman should be ostracized by all decent Americans and abandoned by voters.

This kind of trash talk is not unusual in American politics today. And it always seems to come from Republicans.

The internet reeks of trash directed at America’s first black president and his family. One cartoon that raised eyebrows recently shows President Obama as a skunk, with the explanation that he is “black and white, and almost everything he does stinks.”

This kind of thing goes on all the time. You will recall that a Republican lawmaker yelled out “You lie!” during a speech by the president. And I am sure you have seen pictures of those “Obama” monkey dolls offered for sale on the internet.

You often hear conservative politicians bragging that they are not “politically correct.” And they certainly are not. Indeed, they are downright crude. They continuously flaunt their disrespect for women and circulate racist and obscene emails and postcards.

Obviously, the 2012 general elections will offer American voters a choice not only between starkly contrasting policies but also between civilized and uncivilized behavior.

Do Americans want their children to grow up like Congressman Sensenbrenner? Or like the unfailingly polite president and his irreproachable wife (photo above, right)?

For more on the Ron Paul newsletters, click here.

For the Sensenbrenner story, click here.

 

About the author

gwgraeme

I am a Jamaican-born writer who has lived and worked in Canada and the United States. I live in Lakeland, Florida with my wife, Sandra, our three cats and two dogs. I like to play golf and enjoy our garden, even though it's a lot of work. Since retiring from newspaper reporting I've written a few books. I also write a monthly column for Jamaicans.com