It would be nice if Rudy Giuliani were an anomaly within the Republican Party, kind of like the crazy uncle the family keeps chained in the basement, feeding him scraps every so often. Patting him on the head when he cleans up his mess in the corner.
But no. Rudy is just another one. Seems like every time you turn around these days there’s another crazy Republican uncle doing and saying the kind of things crazy Republican uncles do. I mean, how do you rationally explain the kind of sewer filth Giuliani spewed last week when he accused President Obama of not loving America, etc., whatever, and then trying to defend himself against charges of racism by saying, essentially, that Obama wasn’t black enough to be the victim of racism…?
Yeah, well. Ahem.
Rudy’s racism and twisted patriotism (Obama isn’t the same kind of American as we white folk) has been standard fare with the Republicans ever since the President took office in 2008. It’s what let us all know that we are about as close to a post-racial America as Giuliani is to sainthood. I mean, there are so many examples to choose from, such as that now famous outburst from South Carolina’s Republican Rep. Joe Wilson who shouted out at Obama as he addressed Congress, “You lie!” He didn’t have to add the ‘n’ word after that outburst, because anyone with ears to hear could hear the rest of the sentence without it ever being said out loud. I think Miami Herald columnist Leonard Pitts perhaps said it best in a piece where he challenged conservative commentator George Will’s ridiculous assertion that racism had nothing to do with the attacks being leveled against the President:
“You say race has played no role in the treatment of President Obama? Fine. What would it look like if it did?
“I mean, we’re talking about a president who was called “uppity” by one GOP lawmaker, “boy” by another and “subhuman” by a GOP activist; who was depicted as a bone-through-the-nose witch doctor by opponents of his health-care reform bill; as a pair of cartoon spook eyes against a black backdrop by an aide to a GOP lawmaker, and as an ape by various opponents; who has been dogged by a “tea party” movement whose earliest and most enthusiastic supporters included the Council of Conservative Citizens, infamous for declaring the children of interracial unions “a slimy brown glop”; who was called a liar by an obscure GOP lawmaker during a speech before a joint session of Congress; who has had to contend with a years-long campaign of people pretending there is some mystery about where he was born.”
And that’s not even including the likes of Ted Nugent, who has virtually come out and threatened to kill the President if only he had the chance (he told Obama to “suck my machine gun”), and that’s one of the nicer things he has said.
So the only thing that makes Giuliani’s verbal pollution somewhat curious is that it doesn’t seem to be in response to anything in particular except that he doesn’t like Obama. It’s not attached to any Obama policy that he’s fighting against, nor is it an early shot across the bow to try and cripple the President before he runs again in 2016 because, well, he can’t. No, this was said at a private fundraiser in Manhattan for Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who some assume may be running for President in 2016. So then why wasn’t Giuliani taking aim at Hillary Clinton? Doesn’t she pose more of a threat to Walker than Obama? Well of course she does, but Hillary Clinton is a white woman and that’s just not as much fun as racism. Just doesn’t have that same sizzle.
This is just hate for the sheer, thrilling fun of it.
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