That's What She Said

How did you spend your Martin Luther King Jr holiday? If you spent it watching the South Carolina debates then you are probably wondering if MLK is rolling around in his grave right now (as the old people would say).

I am sure that by now you have heard about the exchange between Newt Gingrich (Mr. I Am Going To Advise Blacks to Demand Checks Instead of Stamps) and Juan Williams. Mr. Williams was merely asking Newt about his position of implying that it is mainly blacks that are on food stamps (which of course is not the case, it is in fact mostly white people) and if he could see how it was belittling to minorities and the poor.

Newt’s response of course was “No”. He was in his element here. He was in South Carolina, the deep south where the confederate flag still flies high and proud over the capitol. He was here to give the crowd what they wanted, red meat and boy did he deliver! They loved it, ate it up. Woo Hoo that’s right tell them! Blacks are lazy and don’t like to work.

Now granted I am sure a lot of them are probably on food stamps themselves or know someone like them who are but of course THIS is different. THEY need food stamps whereas black people are getting them because they are lazy. Can’t you see the difference? Newt Gingrich is their hero, only he has the guts to point out this fact (of course it really isn’t a fact but no matter).

I am really, really getting tired of this. The one comforting thing for me though is that I think that most of America is getting tired of it as well. While they are counting on scaring white people into being afraid of black people in order to drum up votes (a tactic that they have gone to over and over again because in their eyes it works) I am counting on Americans to not fall for this bag of tricks. It’s not like we haven’t all seen this movie before.

I predict that in 2012 they will be surprised once again as they were in 2008. I never thought in my lifetime I would see a black President of The United States. My opinion is that they thinking that gobs of money courtesy of the Citizens United ruling, scare tactics, and restricting access to voting to a mostly democratic base will undoubtedly secure them a victory. I, for one, am thinking that they are wrong.

Check out this great article that details the exchange between Newt and Juan here http://campaignstops.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/01/17/newt-gingrich-and-the-art-of-racial-politics/

How I feel about the way my New Year is starting. :)