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Conservatives > Republican Politicians > U.S. Congress > Republicans in Congress > Republican Representatives > Joe Wilson > Forum > Thread

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Displaying all 3 Forum Posts for the Thread:

Joe Wilson's "You Lie!" comment: racially spurred?

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2009-12-31 06:42 PM

Pulkit
Coppell, TX
Posts: 31

Source: http://newsone.com/nation/opinion-the-most-racially-charged-stories-of-2009/

Joe Wilson's comment was incredibly disrespectful, but others are saying it goes further. Some say that is was no coincidence that the first time something like this happened was directed towards the nation's first Black President. I am not sure if I am willing to make such a leap, but it started making me think about the racial prejudices and conceptions our elected officals have. Do you believe that Obama would have had any easier time passing, say health care reform, if he were White? I personally think that in this arena at least, Congress has played pretty nice. Whatever people may think behind closed doors is one thing, but at least publicly relations seem to be fine. What do you guys think?

2010-01-05 03:42 PM

Schmidt
Colorado Springs, CO
Posts: 854

There are certainly racial elements in the opposition to Obama, particularly when it comes to some of our elected representatives from the South where racial prejudice is more ingrained. However, with regards to the health care debate, I believe it is more of a liberal versus conservative battleground issue. Republicans have opposed heath care reform for decades, and no matter what Democrat was in office, the opposition would have been just as viscious.

Nevertheless, prominent figures like Jimmy Carter have called Wilson's outburst rascist:. Speaking to NBC's Brian Williams, Carter said:

"I think an overwhelming portion of the intensely demonstrated animosity toward President Barack Obama is based on the fact that he is a black man,"

Carter specifically said that Wilson's comment was "dastardly" and part of an "inherent feeling" held by many Americans -- particularly Southerners -- that African-Americans "are not qualified to lead this great country."

"It's an abominable circumstances and grieves me and concerns me very deeply," Carter said.

Republicans will use any tactic to stop heath care reform, and that includes demonizing Obama at every opportunity. As Jim Demint said: "If we’re able to stop Obama on this it will be his Waterloo. It will break him."

2010-02-09 04:27 PM

JasonK
Portland, TX
Posts: 711

I think there may be some racism that is contributing to this manufactured overwhelming negativity towards Obama from the right. You definitely see it a lot in the protests, and I think a lot of Republican politicians get caught up in and pander to this movement.

A lot of it I think also comes to the fact that many Republicans feel that Bush did not deserve the criticism he got. For some reason, they are able to overlook the embarrassingly high amount of failures, lies & scandals and feel like the left orchestrated a smear campaign. As if all the wars, torture, scandals, lies, corruption, cover-ups, abuses of power, debt, severe recession did not happen.

So the right wants to turn eight years of anger at Bush's failures towards Obama whose track record is pristine compared to Bush's. The problem is most of the attacks on Obama are manufactured or petty. There are no real scandals or abuses of power. It's almost comical some of the things the right attack him on such as cheering Chicago losing the Olympics or bowing in Japan. So when you have nothing, that is when you resort to Muslim references, birther conspiracies & racial attacks as we have seen.

Or in Joe Wilson's case go out of the way to call Obama a liar when all the fact check websites and credible pundits note he is telling the truth and that Wilson was in fact the liar. It's one thing if Joe was right and merely being disrespectful. But HE was the one LYING! I mean, how can you explain such idiocy? I think it is a fair question and point to ask if racism has some part to play when there are no other rational reasons for such behavior.

Displaying all 3 Forum Posts for the Thread:

Joe Wilson's "You Lie!" comment: racially spurred?

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