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November 24, 2010
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The GOP Propaganda Machine
Obama-hating rhetoric is non-stop
J ohn W right
In the witty 1966
classic cult film King
of Hearts, a British
soldier shows up in a
French village run by
lunatics after they'd
escaped from the lo
cal insane asylum as the German
Army retreated. Given the number
of electoral victories by crazies in
the mid-term elections, President
Barack Obama might learn more from
watching this movie than listening
to all the talking heads in Washing
ton.
Obama has responded to what he
calls an electoral "shellacking" with
a firm offer to find common ground
with the GOP. But is that even fea
sible with a party whose leadership
is so hell-bent on destroying his
presidency, and whose rising stars
increasingly appear divorced from
reality?
"No is not the answer. It has to be
yes," Senate Majority Leader Harry
Reid said about the Republicans'
two-year-old "Party of No" strat
egy. "Not our yes, but a combined
yes, something we work out, a con
by
fore the election, McConnell had
laid out the true Republican agenda:
"The singFe most important thing
Megyn Kelly said that "the vast
majority of Americans don't want"
sensus yes. The time for poli
Obama's agenda, such as health
tics is over."
we want to achieve is for President care. Does Kelly even watch her
There was tactical genius Obama to be a one-term president." own network? Earlier, Fox showed
behind the Republican victory,
Of course, the government didn't 48 percent of voters told pollsters
rooted in outright lies, distor take over the banks, insurance com that opposition to health care legis
tion, and the co-option of wide panies, and car com panies. It lation influenced them to vote pro-
spread, irrational, and racist propped up teetering industries, with Republican, while the rest said they
hatred for O bam a. R ig h t
wingers swayed rational voters by
Now that they have conquered the House of
system atically m isrepresenting
Obama's policies (death panels, Representatives, will Republican leaders be able
government takeover) and reduc - or even try — to control the kooks who
ing every th in g into sim plistic
disrupted town hall meetings and hurled racial
bumper sticker slogans like "End
Obamacare" and "Stop Socialism." epithets at black members o f Congress, and those
John Boehner (R-Ohio), the law who call Obama a terrorist or a thug?
maker to become the next House
Speaker, and Senate Republican minimal interference in day-to-day either favored the new health care
Leader Mitch McConnell of Ken operations. It's now making a profit law or wish it had gone further,
tucky played to their base by re for all us taxpayers as those loans
All evening long, Fox commenta-
peating canards intended to weaken are repaid in full. The financial in- tors hailed what they called the "re-
Obama even as they offered syrupy dustry must deal with new regula- pudiation of the Obama agenda."
homage to cooperation.
tions to protect consumers. The Monica Crowley labeled the vote
"The American people were con government didn't take over any "wholesale rejection" of Obama's
cerned about the government take private financial institutions.
presidency even though his most
over of health care," Boehner said at
The post-election rhetoric shows recent popularity ratings are barely
his
p o st-e le c tio n
p ress how the Republicans and predis- below 50 percent.
conference. "The American people posed media outlets such as Fox
The Obama-hating rhetoric is
watched the government running News continue to fine-tune the pro- non-stop: he's "the Antichrist," "a
banks, insurance companies, car paganda machine. As the votes Muslim," a "socialist," a "fascist," a
companies," McConnell said. Be were counted election night, Fox's "communist," "anti-American," and
even "racist."
This mendacity has leeched into
the national debate. Respected poll
sters have found that across the
nation, 57 percent of Republicans
believe Obama is a Muslim, 58 per
cent doubt whether Obama was bom
in the United States, and 63 percent
call him a "socialist." Only 32 per
cent oppose his impeachment.
The R ep u b lican s' new found
House majority will grant power and
influence to those who gush the most
egregious lies against Obama, includ
ing Michele "prom queen" Bachmann
and Joe "You Lie!" Wilson.
Now that they have conquered
the House of Representatives, will
Republican leaders be able - or even
try — to control the kooks who dis
rupted town hall m eetings and
hurled racial epithets at black mem
bers of Congress, and those who
call Obama a terrorist or a thug?
Until Republican leaders repudiate
those crazies, they can and should
be tied together. And they'll make it
that much harder to find common
ground with Obama.
John Wright is the author o f The
Obama Haters: Behind the Right-
Wing Campaign o f Lies, Innuendo
and Racism.
■MM
Justice was Imperfect, of Course
The power of
progressive,
democratic change
by L ee A.
D aniels
The bell of justice long
delayed is tolling again.
It tolls for Jimmie Lee
Jackson, a 26-year-old
black Alabamian, an “or
dinary man” whose desire
to gain the full measure of his American
citizenship led first to tragedy and then to
black Americans’ triumph.
Jackson was shot in 1965 by an Alabama
state trooper amidst the chaos caused by the
police attacking peaceful demonstrators dur
ing a civil rights protest in Marion, Ala. He was
taken to a hospital and lingered for several
days before succumbing to his wounds. News
Jlortlanh ©bseruer
reports at the time stated that before he died
Jackson identified the trooper who shot him.
His death in February 1965 broke the back
of the segregationist resistance to the civil
rights movement in Alabama. It led to the first
attempt of civil rights activists to march from
nearby Selma to the state capitol at Mont
gomery to demand full voting rights. The
resulting police brutality against the nonvio
lent marchers at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in
Selma on March 7 provoked the national
outrage and outpouring of political energy
that resulted that summer in Congressional
enactment of the Voting Rights Act.
The man Jackson identified, Jam es
Bonard Fowler, now 77, pleaded guilty last
week to m isdem eanor m anslaughter for
shooting Jackson in exchange for a prison
sentence o f six m onths. M em bers o f
Jackson’s fam ily, including his daughter,
were in the courtroom in the Perry County
courthouse in M arion for the plea.
Established 1970
USPS 959-680
4 7 4 7 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd., Portland, OR 97211
Fowler’s admission came on the day jury been redeemed — by the passage of the
selection was to begin for his trial for Voting Rights Act, which gave black Ameri
Jackson ’ s murder. Fowler insisted that Jack- cans in Alabama and the rest of the South the
son had tried to take his pistol and that he had power of the ballot.
acted in self-defense. But news accounts at
That power has long showed its value in
the time of the incident reported that eyewit bringing about progressive, dem ocratic
nesses Jackson had been trying to shield his change throughout the country. It showed
mother from being beajen in the police riot itself again last week in the Marion court
when he was shot.
room.
The plea agreement drew criticism from
Forty-five years after James Bonard Fowler
some, but Perry County prosecutor, Michael played his state-sanctioned role in trying to
Jackson (no relation to Jimmie Lee Jackson) deny black Alabamians their rights - includ
defended it by saying that “Time was start ing the right to serve on juries - he entered
ing to run out. We wanted to make sure his guilty plea to the lesser charge. He did so
justice was done before [Fowler] died.”
rather than face murder charges being pre
The justice was imperfect, of course. It sented to a jury chosen from the citizenry of
was bound to be. Jimmie Lee Jackson was predominantly-black Perry County by that
gunned down 45 years ago, at the very begin county’s elected district attorney, who is
ning of his adult life; James Bonard Fowler also African-American.
has lived - a free m an— nearly a half-century
Lee A. Daniels is Director o f Communica
longer. But one can say in a broader sense tions fo r the NAACP Legal Defense and
that Jimmie Lee Jackson’s death had long Educational Fund.
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