But immediately after assuming office, we expeditiously learned how so many so-called patriotic, flag waving Americans had not progressed one iota. In fact, having an African-American leader of the free world (their term) and a black family in the White House has caused many on the right to flat out lose their minds.
The show doesn't begin until the fat man -- Rush Limbaugh -- sings: "I hope he fails"
On February 13, 2009, Limbaugh told his listeners about the stimulus plan: "I hope it prolongs the failure. I hope it prolongs the recession. Because people are going to have to figure out here that this is not how economies recover. Government is not the central planner." Limbaugh made it clear that he meant much more than wishing for Obama's policies not to pass. Limbaugh said: "Of course I want Obama to fail. And after this stimulus bill package passes, I want it to fail."
Hoping for failure and praying that the Bush Recession would continue to devastate the American economy has been the primary economic policy advocated by Limbaugh and the Republicans for the past 40 months. Limbaugh's so ashamed of his beliefs, though, that accuses everyone of intentionally lying for merely stating what Limbaugh quite clearly said in hoping for. read entire article
Additionally, we have learned that on the night of Obama's inauguration -- again, while many thought Great Depression II was imminent -- the entire leadership of the GOP secretly met, not to find bipartisan legislation to bring America out of the Bush created economic chaos, they met in order to devise a plan on how to destroy the Obama presidency.
As President Barack Obama was celebrating his inauguration at various balls, top Republican lawmakers and strategists were conjuring up ways to submarine his presidency at a private dinner in Washington.
The event -- which provides a telling revelation for how quickly the post-election climate soured -- serves as the prologue of Robert Draper's much-discussed and heavily-reported new book, "Do Not Ask What Good We Do: Inside the U.S. House of Representatives."
According to Draper, the guest list that night (which was just over 15 people in total) included Republican Reps. Eric Cantor (Va.), Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), Paul Ryan (Wis.), Pete Sessions (Texas), Jeb Hensarling (Texas), Pete Hoekstra (Mich.) and Dan Lungren (Calif.), along with Republican Sens. Jim DeMint (S.C.), Jon Kyl (Ariz.), Tom Coburn (Okla.), John Ensign (Nev.) and Bob Corker (Tenn.). The non-lawmakers present included Newt Gingrich, several years removed from his presidential campaign, and Frank Luntz, the long-time Republican wordsmith. Notably absent were Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) -- who, Draper writes, had an acrimonious relationship with Luntz. source
The far right -- now the mainstream GOP -- have broken many presidential protocols: Yelled out You lie! on the congressional floor during a presidential address; circulated racist e-mails among each other in regards to the Obamas; unceremoniously wagged fingers in his face; question his birth certificate; denied that he had the cognitive abilities to attend an Ivy League school; used racially charged terms like shucking and jiving or food stamp president; accused him of being a radical Muslim who wants to bring sharia law to America -- and the list goes on and on.
As Etan Thomas writes in the Huffington Post:
Ann Coulter had the audacity to tweet after Monday's foreign policy debate that she approved of "Romney's decision to be kind and gentle to the retard." And Sarah Palin used a racially demeaning phrase, "shuck and jive," to describe the administration's handling of the terrorist attack in Libya earlier this month that exhibited nothing but disrespect toward the president. Despite the fact President Obama graduated magna cum laude from Harvard Law School, Rush Limbaugh has called him an affirmative action candidate. Limbaugh even has repeatedly played a song on his radio show called "Barack the Magic Negro."
Is there an underlying reason why it is so difficult for these right-wing extremists to respect the position of the president of the United States?
Are these examples of far-right fanaticism that do not represent or speak for the entire party?
Is there something else that is keeping them for being able to give the president of the United States the respect that the position itself demands? The president should not have to prove anything to anyone. Yet, he has handled every unmerited insult with nothing but grace and class. He has risen above every act of insolence, and proved them all wrong, but he shouldn't have to. As CBS' Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer said, about Trump last year: "There is an ugly strain of racism that's running though this whole thing." read entire article
But just when we lose all hope for the GOP brand a bright spot of reason emerges -- not Mitt Romney, he lacks the stones to stand up to the crazies in his party. Republican Lawrence Wilkerson, former Colin Powel aide states: My party is full of racists.
Colin Powell's former chief of staff condemned the Republican Party on Friday night, telling MSNBC's Ed Schultz, "My party is full of racists."
Retired Army Col. Lawrence Wilkerson made the comment in response to Mitt Romney campaign surrogate John Sununu's suggestion on Thursday that Powell's endorsement of President Barack Obama's re-election was motivated by race. Wilkerson, who served as Powell's chief of staff when the general was secretary of state during the first George W. Bush term, told Schultz that he respected Sununu "as a Republican, as a member of my party," but did not "have any respect for the integrity of the position that [Sununu] seemed to codify."
My party, unfortunately, is the bastion of those people -- not all of them, but most of them -- who are still basing their positions on race. Let me just be candid: My party is full of racists, and the real reason a considerable portion of my party wants President Obama out of the White House has nothing to do with the content of his character, nothing to do with his competence as commander-in-chief and president, and everything to do with the color of his skin, and that's despicable. source
Let the church say: Amen!
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