Remember when former President Jimmy Carter said white racism had "bubbled up to the surface" in conservative attacks on President Obama.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Remember when former President Jimmy Carter said white racism had "bubbled up to the surface" in conservative attacks on President Obama.
Remember when a South Carolina Republican -- a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans -- shouted "you lie!" at Obama during a presidential address. Columnist Maureen Dowd said his unspoken message was "you lie, boy!"
Right-wing rage at America's first black president keeps spewing, much of it voiced by the Tea Party movement. And prejudice against Muslims has joined the vitriol. Ultraconservative Rush Limbaugh declared that "Imam Hussein Obama" is an enemy of America. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich warned of "an Islamist cultural-political offensive designed to undermine and destroy our civilization."
Why is so much anger boiling in America?
"The backlash against Obama's blackness" was the title of an Aug. 24 commentary in London's Guardian. "Republicans are riding a wave of white resentment," it added.
"What we are witnessing at the moment is the full, ugly furore of white backlash, aimed directly and indirectly at our first black president," U.S. correspondent Dan Kennedy wrote. Fox News and white Tea Party leaders look for any trifle they can use to rouse "racial, ethnic and religious hatred," he said.
This loud segment of society poisons the air for people who genuinely disagree with the president on policy issues. Such opponents can offer constructive debate, debate President Obama would doubtlessly welcome.
But incredibly, one-fifth of Americans, and one-third of conservative Republicans, mistakenly think Obama is a Muslim -- and 41 percent of Republicans erroneously believe he wasn't born in America, a subconscious way of saying "he isn't one of us; he's foreign, alien."
"Republicans hope to ride the white backlash back to power, and perhaps they will," the Guardian said. "But they may also find that the hatred they have embraced will come back to haunt them this November -- and well beyond."
Could this irrational hostility sway the Nov. 2 election? What a sad, sad, sad prospect.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Remember when former President Jimmy Carter said white racism had "bubbled up to the surface" in conservative attacks on President Obama.
Remember when a South Carolina Republican -- a member of the Sons of Confederate Veterans -- shouted "you lie!" at Obama during a presidential address. Columnist Maureen Dowd said his unspoken message was "you lie, boy!"
Right-wing rage at America's first black president keeps spewing, much of it voiced by the Tea Party movement. And prejudice against Muslims has joined the vitriol. Ultraconservative Rush Limbaugh declared that "Imam Hussein Obama" is an enemy of America. Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich warned of "an Islamist cultural-political offensive designed to undermine and destroy our civilization."
Why is so much anger boiling in America?
"The backlash against Obama's blackness" was the title of an Aug. 24 commentary in London's Guardian. "Republicans are riding a wave of white resentment," it added.
"What we are witnessing at the moment is the full, ugly furore of white backlash, aimed directly and indirectly at our first black president," U.S. correspondent Dan Kennedy wrote. Fox News and white Tea Party leaders look for any trifle they can use to rouse "racial, ethnic and religious hatred," he said.
This loud segment of society poisons the air for people who genuinely disagree with the president on policy issues. Such opponents can offer constructive debate, debate President Obama would doubtlessly welcome.
But incredibly, one-fifth of Americans, and one-third of conservative Republicans, mistakenly think Obama is a Muslim -- and 41 percent of Republicans erroneously believe he wasn't born in America, a subconscious way of saying "he isn't one of us; he's foreign, alien."
"Republicans hope to ride the white backlash back to power, and perhaps they will," the Guardian said. "But they may also find that the hatred they have embraced will come back to haunt them this November -- and well beyond."
Could this irrational hostility sway the Nov. 2 election? What a sad, sad, sad prospect.
