Welfare = Race Baiting: Not a Conspiracy Theory

In my previous post I was pretty tough on the old GOP - tough but fair. I introduced the term chalkboardism for their propensity to desperately throw around untrue notions and conspiracy theories ala Glenn Beck in attempts to vanquish their Democratic foes. It made me wonder what someone in Tank Tea Bag would consider a left-wing conspiracy theory. Just being honest, they would consider anything they didn't want to believe a conspiracy theory because they create their own truths, but I did think of one issue in particular - the use of welfare as racial code.

As I mentioned in the previous post, the Romney campaign has ceased on a lie that Barack Obama has dropped the welfare requirement. Critics like me say that using welfare in cases like this is used to incite a certain segment of white America. Republicans deny this of course. They think they have their tracks covered. They challenge "how can it be about race when no one says anything about race." Oooo. Very tricky. Very tricky indeed. 

Well, it would be tricky except some racists just can't keep their mouths shut. Again, I refer to a previous AOTL post. In it I chronicle some Tea Party shenanigans including a Tea Party gathering in Arkansas at which the host opened with this joke (audio only). Did you click on the link and listen? Well if you didn't, here it is: 

"A black kid asks his mom, 'Mama, What's a democracy?'
"'Well son, that be when white folks work every day so us po' folks can get all our benefits.'
"'But mama, don't the white folk get mad about that?'
"'They sho' do, son. The sho' do. And that's called racism.'"

In all fairness, while the "comedienne" who delivered the joke resigned from her Tea Party group, there were plenty of people in the crowd who were comfortable with the joke as evidenced by the applause. And if you think that these attendees were the only people in America who instinctively correlate welfare with blacks, then the burden of proof is on you. It doesn't take calculus to figure out that there are people like that all over America, most of whom give white people on welfare a pass as evidenced by the fact that the joke was specifically about a BLACK family on welfare. Maybe AOTL should offer a bounty for a recording of any Tea Party group that kicks off with a joke about WHITE people on welfare. I'm guessing they don't think those are as funny. 

Those people in the room who clapped and laughed at that joke and the people like them are the lynchpin (pun intended) of the narrow coalition Romney needs to turn out and vote for him.You would have to be a real brand new type of dumbass to think that Mitt Romney and his campaign are not aware that these people with the racial raw nerve exist. Aside from blacks on welfare, these same people probably get just as ireful at the thought of private equity firms coming in and busting up their factories for scrap metal, but Obama beat Romney to the punch with that commercial bent. 

Mama's Fancy Boy

Be prepared for the latest Republican rose-colored lens scam. I've heard it twice today in response to Obama's aggressive Bain attacks. Two prominent Republican women acknowledge the money Obama has spent to air the attack ads in swing states. Then they claim that the ads have had no effect because Obama and Romney are stuck in a statistical dead-heat nationwide. But here's the truth they are leaving out; when you look at recent polls in those states where Obama is running the ads, Obama is ahead. What's more is twice as many people in those states think Bain is a reason to oppose Romney than a reason to support him. 

I agree more with James Carville than I do with his very wrong wife Mary Matalin that Romney will have to throw Bain on the crap heap as a result of it gaining so many negative connotations. As Illinois Senator Dick Durbin said earlier today, Romney is running from Bain like a scalded cat. Romney has already abandoned his governorship as proof of experience after having fellow Republicans trash his record during the primaries. What else is there? His award for Best Patrician Underbite in prep school? His being named Mama's Fancy Boy during an outing when she and he wore matching khaki? I can't wait.

Is is November yet?

Oh Mitt, They're Getting to Know Ye?

Though the headlines are reporting a "tight race" nationally between Romney and Obama, those headlines are chasing the wrong ball. The real test is the numbers that show Obama with an eight point lead in the wishy-washy states. This clenches Romney's buttcheeks because this is where the Obama campaign is concentrating on their portrayal of Romney as the Bain Outsourcer in a series of ads that Team Romney are finding damaging. The only thing one can conclude is that as close as the headlines say the race is, Obama is in control of the message. 


Mystified Republicans have been quaking while Romney gets the ball spiked in his face again and again. They are wondering why Romney isn't fighting back. Well, finally, this week, Romney, Tagg that is, offered an excuse as to his father's paralysis:


"You'll see us hit back pretty hard. We're biding our time." and "We're catching up in cash on hand. If we're going to get outspent in June or October, I'd rather it be June."


I'm curious if Politico reported his words correctly though. How could they hear him so clearly from underneath the huge white flag he was trying to hoist above his head. To me, Taggmey was signing defeat. The message was muddled with indications of poorly advised political decision-making and complete unlikelihoods. 


Biding our time? I can appreciate Tagg for trying to make it sound like Pops is in control, but essentially what he is saying is Pops is in control of getting his ass kicked. Conventional wisdom and common sense is on the side of Obama. In politics, you define your opponent before your opponent has a chance to define themselves and you. Romney's difficulty is that he starts out from a position of unlikability making it only easier for people's dislike of him to only grow. Not only that, as the non-incumbent, he has more work to do to introduce himself to the American people. Not only that, people like Obama more than they like Romney. 


If Romney bides his time while Obama hammers him on his business experience, he is allowing more negative ideas of him to cement in the minds of voters. When someone hits you with a vital blow in politics you have to hit back hard and fast. That's politics 101. You don't bide your time. The only reason you would bide your time is if you just don't have a defense. That's what Tagg was signaling. 


The Romney campaign is saying: We've got a plan. What's our plan? Our plan is this that we are about to say now that this sentence is finished. Get ready because here comes our plan which is... drumroll please! What no drum? Well we need a drum to announce the plan, but it has to be the right drum, because this is going to be some plan!


Is it November yet?

Florida Republican Primary Requires Creative Voter Harassment

With very few black voters participating in Tuesday’s Republican primary in Florida, state officials turned to people of Cuban descent and tanned Whites to apply illegal scrutiny. Those who fit the profile were put through a gauntlet of tests and questions before being turned away from the polls.

“I show up to vote and they ask me for my castration papers” explains Chester Klimt, a 68 year old retiree with the complexion of George Clooney. “I asked them ‘what the hell are you talking about? I’m a Republican. I voted for Goldwater in ’64! You can’t treat me like this.’ That’s when they tasered me.”

Klimt may be one of the lucky ones. According to witnesses, Doris Moreno, a third-generation Cuban-American was given a literacy test. Though none of the witnesses saw the test themselves, several quoted Moreno as complaining “but this is Chinese.” Moreno was then removed from the line. When asked where she was being taken, she was told “back to Cuba” according to reports.

Florida officials led by Governor Rick Scott stand firmly by their practices. “Floridians deserve honest elections” said Scott. “We may not be perfect, but at least we do something.”

As for the Republican voters physically capable of seeking justice, their complaints are all filed against the Obama Administration. 

Certifiable Neo-Republicans Part II

The psychological "uniqueness" of the right is playing out in the audiences of Republican debates this season. While it has been rightly made into a news item I don't think many people are surprised by what they see because this is the type of emotion most people equate with the right. They just don't talk about it much. They also don't talk about how this mindset effects their policy stances.

it is settled that Republicans are not champions of carbon reductions. They mostly dispute the science that relates carbon emissions with global warming, if they believe that warming is happening at all. Many Republicans are paid to deny warming by companies that don't want to be told what to do, but what about the rank and file conservative warming deniers? Why would they ardently follow suit on the line that science is wrong when they aren't being paid?

We know Republicans dislike gay soldiers. They want uninsured people to die, and they cheer vengeance killing by the state. It is not a stretch to accept that they just don't like pro-environmental agendas or environmentalists who have always found more sympathy and alliance from the left. When scientists present a solid case for impending environmental disaster, conservative psychology demands denial because as they see it, admitting that the science on warming is correct is to allow liberals/Democrats/progressives/whatever to control an agenda. So they join the campaign to discredit warming as a moneymaking hoax just to keep anyone they don't want to agree with from any type of control.

Meanwhile, people concerned with warming are not looking for control. They are looking for a way to sustain the planet. They seek ways to implement policies to alleviate the situations of unprecedented conflagrations, extreme weather, and fatigued polar bears. Politics is about solutions. Control issues are about psychology. When psychology is disguised as politics it doesn't work and the result is disastrous.

It has gotten so that even the craziest Republicans like Ann Coulter are trying to draft people like Chris Christie to run for president. He is not pathologically against the environment nor does he hate all people who are different from him, but he does get really in-your-face bitchy which tests well among Republicans. Whether or not bitchiness is enough to get the Republican nod is most likely what Christie is weighing these days. He is well aware that what the base of his party really wants to see is him setting a polar bear on fire.