Thursday, July 7, 2011

What they really think

Mike Huckabee, darling of the evangelical right, went on a cruise to Alaska with a bunch of supporters. And for the people who support him… well, I can't comment better than just letting you read this quote:
Maggie Benedict and Jinx Drda from suburban St Louis were also greatly disappointed to hear Huckabee had bowed out of the presidential race. They’ve always voted but it wasn’t until Obama’s victory that they became more active in politics.

“It’s the first time I’ve felt the president wasn’t a true American,” Maggie says. “And that he wants to become a dictator. We didn’t like seeing him get elected because of his race.”
The mind, it boggles.

6 comments:

Counterlight said...

Saddened certainly, but not surprised. Never underestimate the power of resentment and fear in politics.

Brother David said...

“...We didn’t like seeing him get elected because of his race.”

I hope that folks are not misunderstanding this woman. I do not hear her being racist, in that she did not want a black president. I hear her saying that his race is what got him elected. Two very different things.

Leonard said...

Such a dreary/spent crowd, no doubt about it, I´d rather be trapped listening to +Rowan Williams (explain stuff--any) than spend one minute in and amongst a studio audience of whitefolk (who have apparently had recent electroschock treatments and/or are walk-ins from outer-Peachykeenland) or those
held captive by southernfried bigots on a cruise. (of course they might be from Northern Idaho)

JCF said...

I agree w/ Dahveed's take on the quote...

...but I also think that stating the belief that Obama got elected BECAUSE of his race, really is just a subtler form of racism.

***

But instead of These Average (Huckabee) Cruise-Goers, how about the beliefs of a Congressman?

Invocation at the Cobb County July 4 celebration:

“Father, there are many who want to destroy us from outside this nation. Folks like al-Qaeda and the radical Islamists. But there are folks that want to destroy us from inside, the progressives and the socialists, who want to make this nation a nation that’s no longer under you, under God, but a nation that’s ruled by man.”

Paul Broun, R-GA

IT said...

To say he was elected because he's black, is disturbing in and of itself (and also racist). As JCF points out, just more subtle.

Brother David said...

As one of a different or more truthfully of mixed race and having experienced various forms of racism in the years that I lived in your country, I am not perceiving this in the way you are. And I think that Statesonian, white liberals/progressives are very gun shy when it comes to racism. In my experience some of you see it lurking behind every tree and around every corner when those of us who know it first hand do not.