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| WRITTEN BY THE GOP |
Al Sharpton and Rachel Maddow had an explosively caustic argument with former Newt Gingrich spokesman Rick Tyler about the candidate's approach to race on Tuesday night, in which Tyler himself used some very dicey rhetoric about African Americans.
Both MSNBC hosts had previously excoriated Gingrich for calling POTUS the "Entertainer In Chief" and telling him to "stop singing" during his speech just after his loss in the Florida primary, saying that he was attempting to tap into racial animosity from white conservatives. Maddow took that concern directly to Tyler:
"MSNBC ought to get off this race baiting kick," he said, adding that the teapublican Party has a "proud history" of fighting for civil rights going back to the Civil War.
"I don't get it!" Tyler said. "...The Democrats have failed in the public schools with African Americans. They abort their babies, they've done nothing to lift them out of poverty." He said Gingrich was just trying to show black voters that he wasn't going to "give them a handout, tell them to live in public housing, shut up, collect a check and vote for a Democrat." He also said that he thought Sharpton would agree with him about many of these points.
Rev Al jumped in to make it clear just how little he really concurred:
"Newt Gingrich is the one who brought race up!" he said. "...He's brought race in the campaign by name. You cannot then turn around and act like Rachel or I are bringing up race."
Tyler's words are "Coded" to the very core - the epicenter of race baiting and racism!
The nature of creatures can not be changed with language. The questions asked: "Entertainer in chief, food stamp president," were racially charged phrases. People do not use those sorts of terms blithely. Gingrich and his minions are a tacit, plotting lot who choose their terms to some ends. Debating on television, feeds the energies on both sides. But most intelligent viewers know that Gingrich is appealing to redneck Southern white folks who detest an African American President and African American people.
This battle was lost before it began. The Reverend served progressives well, asserting that the Tyler's of this world be held accountable for the bullshit that they spew. I can not count the times the I have said that "freedom' of speech" guts a human worse than a fifty caliber machine gun. Freedom of speech can be a dangerous two-edged sword, especially when expatiated from the vocal chords of radical white teapublicans!
Former President Bill Clinton warned of a slippery slope from angry anti-government rhetoric to violence like that of the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, saying "the words we use really do matter."
Clinton goes on to say:
"I'm glad they're fighting over health care and everything else. Let them have at it. But I think that all you have to do is read the paper every day to see how many people there are who are deeply, deeply troubled," he said.
There's been nothing more racially divisive from a national teapublican in the past five years - than what Gingrich is doing. Gingrich, the GOP and Tyler, are offensive tubs of industrial-strength rotting vegetation.
Joan Walsh called it the teapublican id unleashed. I'd say that might start to describe it, but it's something more than that. It's as though the last 30 years of barely-veiled hate has bubbled up and is erupting like a volcano filled with the hottest, mephitic disgusting offal we've seen. They're spewing it all over the nation, because they're that frenzied to see our first African-American President fail.
A very special shout-out to Reverend Al for calling it what it is, and standing up for what's right. He was steadfast and resolved with his rapid fire responses.
Closing with a Clinton quote:
"By all means keep fighting, by all means, keep arguing," he said. "But remember, words have consequences as much as actions do, and what we advocate, commensurate with our position and responsibility, we have to take responsibility for.
NFTOS
Editor-In-Chief
Roger West
