The Scourge Persists

Taking his readers on a stroll down Memory Lane, making note of past history and incidents that tend to support his belief that the recent furor, disbelief and denial of racism, caused by former President Jimmy Carter's statements regarding racism, in relation to current President Barack Obama, seems worthy of a quote John McEnroe might say, "You can't be serious" , Bob Herbert of the New York Times has written, in part :

* But the fact that a black man is now in the White House has so unsettled much of white America that the lid is coming off the racism that had been simmering at dangerously high temperatures all along.

Eric Boehlert, a senior fellow with Media Matters, said, “If someone had told me in February that there would be mainstream allegations that Obama was a racist and a fascist and a communist and a Nazi, I wouldn’t have believed it.”

Republicans have been openly feeding off of race hatred since the days of Dick Nixon. Today’s conservative activists are carrying that banner proudly. What does anybody think is going on when, as Anderson Cooper pointed out on CNN, one of the leaders of the so-called tea party movement, Mark Williams, refers to the president of the United States as an Indonesian Muslim turned welfare thug, and a racist in chief.

After all these years of race-baiting and stirring the pot of hatred for political gain, it’s too much to ask the leaders of the Republican Party to step forward and denounce this spreading stain of reprehensible conduct. Republicans are trying to ride that dependable steed of bigotry back to power. But it’s time for other Americans, of whatever persuasion, to take a stand, to say we’re better than this. They should do it because it’s right. But also because we’ve seen so many times what can happen when this garbage gets out of control.

Click here to read Mr. Herbert's article.

* Please note I am not highlighting due to technical difficulties.

Also at NowPublic:

The Favor Jimmy Carter Did Us All