Frank Rich of the NYT Should Look Left for Racists
May 4, 2008 Political
Frank Rich of the New York Times has a piece out today asking why Obama’s pastor has received so much scrutiny when McCain’s has not. Rich is referring to John Hagee, an absolute nut job, who has endorsed John McCain. According to Rich, Obama’s pastor, with whom he had a 20 year relationship, is no different than a man who endorsed McCain and with whom McCain had no other relationship. Hagee is not and was not McCain’s pastor.
Rich addresses this difference by stating there is no difference between Obama sitting there in Wright’s church and John McCain actively (Rich’s assertion) seeking Hagee’s endorsement because by doing so he is agreeing with the lunacy that comes out of Hagee’s mouth (just as Obama did by being in Wright’s church).
The entire story boils down to Rich’s claim that America is a racist country and that there is double standard because Clinton and Obama are scrutinized for every perceived racist remark while the racism of the Republicans is ignored. Rich “proves’ his point by indicating that there are no blacks among all the Senators and Representatives in the Congress who happen to be Republicans. Rich tells us that gays (Foley) have a better chance of getting elected in the GOP than blacks.
I have gone through this before but I will do it again for the benefit of Frank Rich whose Obama tinted glasses have obscured his thinking. First of all, the Democrats are not being scrutinized any more on subjects of race. The Democrats have never been taken to task for their racism until this election cycle that just happens to have a black man in it. Republicans are always the subject of allegations of racism. Anytime a Republican makes a remark cries of racism abound. This is standard operating procedure. The claims do not have to be true, just some half baked idea fostered by race baiters who blow it out of proportion while, I might add, the public ignores the racist remarks of those doing the crying.
Democrats have never been taken to task for their racism. They have always been held up as the champions of race relations yet under them blacks have slipped father and farther into poverty. Welfare programs keep blacks subservient to government and under the oppressive thumb of their slave masters in the Democratic party. Democrats are always quite happy to court the black vote, which votes for them at a level of 90% in elections, and then ignore them until the next election. Affirmative action and housing projects are the Democrat’s way of telling blacks they are not capable of making it on their own but not to worry because government is there for them.
This leads me to the idea that the GOP has no elected blacks in Congress. This is a matter of demographics and math. The math is, 90% of blacks support Democratic candidates so we can conclude that 90% of them are Democrat or believe in what Democrats represent. If 90% of the black population is Democratic where does Mr. Rich think the GOP will find black people to run for office? Only 10% remain and out of them how many are qualified (Constitutionally) or want to run.
Demographics show that most black Democrats come from urban areas. They come from cities where there are huge numbers of blacks and where the political climate is overwhelmingly Democratic. Blacks who happen to be conservative would never run in these areas because they cannot win. For Rich to claim this is GOP racism is absolutely out of touch with reality. Even blacks who live in conservative areas would not want to run for office and not because of white conservatives. Look at how the Democrats and particularly black Democrats act when a black person runs for office as a Republican. The name calling begins and the names of sell out and Uncle Tom do not come from the right. These names come from blacks in the community who wonder how a black would dare be a Republican.
Look at the Maryland Senate race from 2006 when Michael Steele, a black conservative, ran for the Senate seat being vacated by the retiring Paul Sarbanes and he ran against Joe Cardin, a white Democratic Congressman. Michael Steele was portrayed unfavorably by Democrats. He was shown in a black face photo-shopped picture and referred to as Sambo. He had Oreo cookies thrown at him and one of Cardin’s bloggers wrote terrible things about him and his race was a big part of it. These were all Democrats doing this to a black man. BTW, Steele was the Lieutenant Governor of the state and was the highest-ranking elected Republican black in the country. Republicans will elect them when they can overcome Democratic barriers.
Steele lost the race but he did not lose because whites refused to vote for him or because they did not want him in office, as Rich would have you believe. The heavily Democratic areas of Maryland (and areas with huge black populations) voted for Cardin. As those areas go so goes the state. Steele carried almost every county where the population is strongly Republican and overwhelmingly white (he won 18 subdivisions to Cardin’s 6). This should put to bed Rich’s claims and show that it is Democratic racism that prevents black Republicans from being elected.
The entire Rich story is right out of the leftist play book. The interesting thing is that he makes this an issue of McCain/Obama when the issues right now are all Obama/Clinton. Despite Rich’s attempts to make this about conservatives smearing Obama with his pastor’s words while ignoring McCain, the fact is it is the Democrats who are smearing the man (why should Republicans chime in when they are doing a good job of beating each other up). Republicans are not part of their primary process. All the negative stuff is coming from the left. Instead of asking about McCain’s “pastor” Rich would be more accurate if he asked when they were going to start looking at Clinton’s pastor.
I am sure the Democrats will get to McCain and the people with whom he associates when they finally settle their own contest. Until that time people like Frank Rich should stop muddying the waters with half truths and outright lies sprinkled with innuendo.
Yes Mr. Rich, there is a race problem in this country and it is from the Democrats and from people like you (but I repeat myself). People on the right are called racists and they have been labeled racists but in reality it is those on the left who display racism all the time.
Blacks would do themselves a world of good by changing parties (which would put a lot of black Republicans in Congress). Short of that they need to follow the words of Bill Cosby and stop blaming the white man for all their ills. It would help if white men like Frank Rich would do the same.
Others with interesting posts:
Pooh Flinging NeoCons, Rosemary’s Thoughts, 123beta, Right Truth, Shadowscope, Cao’s Blog, The Amboy Times, , Democrat=Socialist, Diary of the Mad Pigeon, Allie is Wired, Nuke Gingrich, Faultline USA, third world county, Woman Honor Thyself, McCain Blogs, The World According to Carl, Pirate’s Cove, The Pink Flamingo, Wolf Pangloss, , Stageleft, Right Voices, and The Yankee Sailor, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.
Tags: Clinton, frank rich, hagee, McCain, michael steele, NYT, Obama, racism, wright