Charlie Rangel gave an interview in which he said that the Tea Party was composed of the same "crackers" who opposed civil rights decades ago. Now I have seen a lot of garbage spew out into the media by all sorts of political crackpots, but this is truly crazy stuff. I don't know how else to say it: "Rangel can just go to hell." (You should have seen it before I toned it down.) Let's look at the real facts:
1. Rangel is someone who needs to put attention on something other than his own record. After all, this is a man who just "forgot" to pay taxes on his income from a villa he owned in the Dominican Republic and who also happened to "forget" to include that same property on his congressional statements. Rangel's survival in Congress after being exposed is the result of his representing a one-party district in New York City for four decades.
2. The Tea Party is a national movement. Rangel can oppose their call for smaller government, reduced waste and fraud in the federal government and repeal of Obamacare. That is his right as an American. The Tea Party, however, is not racist (except in the speeches of race baiting frauds like Rangel.) Sure, the Tea Party opposes president Obama's so called program (although giving Obama credit for proposing a coherent program is being way too kind to Obama.) Opposition to Obama does not make one a white racist any more than Rangel's opposition to Mitt Romney in 2012 made him a black racist. The Tea Party does not oppose Obama because he is black; they oppose Obama because his programs suck.
3. Rangel knows that every time someone like him calls a conservative group racist, that there are thousands of folks who come closer to believing that nonsense. He knows full well that statements like the one today create racial divisions in America. We have spent fifty years as a country trying to bridge the divided between the races; we have been trying to create a non-racial reality for the USA. Rangel, however, is doing his best to make sure that racial tensions persist by leveling false charges of racism. It is disgusting.
This use of phony charges of racism has not gone unnoticed by the American people. Just today, a new poll from Quinnipiac shows that every single group in the country has a lower opinion of Obama's handling of racial issues than it had two years ago. For example, among Independents, Obama's handling of race is now negative by a margin of more than 2 to 1. The first "post-racial" president has become the least successful at handling race issues in more than half a century.
The race baiters keep saying that we need to have a national conversation about race. They are wrong. What we need is an HONEST conversation about race. But that will not happen in the near future. There are just too many Sharptons, Jacksons, Rangels and others who profit from racial tensions to allow for honesty in that conversation. Simply put, the Tea Party is not racist, but Rangel, Sharpton and the others surely are. Americans need to get over the fear of saying this out loud. It is not racist or insensitive to call these folks out as the purveyors of racial tensions that they truly are. Their voices need to be drowned out. They need to be ignored. NOW!
1. Rangel is someone who needs to put attention on something other than his own record. After all, this is a man who just "forgot" to pay taxes on his income from a villa he owned in the Dominican Republic and who also happened to "forget" to include that same property on his congressional statements. Rangel's survival in Congress after being exposed is the result of his representing a one-party district in New York City for four decades.
2. The Tea Party is a national movement. Rangel can oppose their call for smaller government, reduced waste and fraud in the federal government and repeal of Obamacare. That is his right as an American. The Tea Party, however, is not racist (except in the speeches of race baiting frauds like Rangel.) Sure, the Tea Party opposes president Obama's so called program (although giving Obama credit for proposing a coherent program is being way too kind to Obama.) Opposition to Obama does not make one a white racist any more than Rangel's opposition to Mitt Romney in 2012 made him a black racist. The Tea Party does not oppose Obama because he is black; they oppose Obama because his programs suck.
3. Rangel knows that every time someone like him calls a conservative group racist, that there are thousands of folks who come closer to believing that nonsense. He knows full well that statements like the one today create racial divisions in America. We have spent fifty years as a country trying to bridge the divided between the races; we have been trying to create a non-racial reality for the USA. Rangel, however, is doing his best to make sure that racial tensions persist by leveling false charges of racism. It is disgusting.
This use of phony charges of racism has not gone unnoticed by the American people. Just today, a new poll from Quinnipiac shows that every single group in the country has a lower opinion of Obama's handling of racial issues than it had two years ago. For example, among Independents, Obama's handling of race is now negative by a margin of more than 2 to 1. The first "post-racial" president has become the least successful at handling race issues in more than half a century.
The race baiters keep saying that we need to have a national conversation about race. They are wrong. What we need is an HONEST conversation about race. But that will not happen in the near future. There are just too many Sharptons, Jacksons, Rangels and others who profit from racial tensions to allow for honesty in that conversation. Simply put, the Tea Party is not racist, but Rangel, Sharpton and the others surely are. Americans need to get over the fear of saying this out loud. It is not racist or insensitive to call these folks out as the purveyors of racial tensions that they truly are. Their voices need to be drowned out. They need to be ignored. NOW!
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