Wednesday, August 11, 2010
News Georgia Republicans embrace the racist
Posted by Andisheh Nouraee on Wed, Aug 11, 2010 at 11:25 AM
Nathan Deal is a birther.
By using his position as an elected representative to publicly insinuate President Barack Obama isn't American despite ample proof to the contrary, he has declared himself a paranoid, right-wing racist who cannot accept that a dark-skinned man with a non-European name is legitimately American.
Yesterday Georgia Republicans decided they want Deal to lead our state government for the next four years.
So between now and the election, I hope state Republicans and Democrats have spirited arguments about economic recovery plans, tax policies, health care, gun policies, state immigration enforcement, transportation, water and education.
But let's not waste our time debating whether the Georgia Republican Party is an association of proud bigots. That fact was loudly and proudly declared yesterday.
Comments (71)
Showing 1-50 of 71
And guess who just won the runoff...
http://www.11alive.com/news/local/story.as…
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Very well-thought out post. I can tell you are highly intelligent and tolerant of others.
If your not even going to make an attempt at being a journalist why not hang it up Andisheh.
You can't just throw out the race card without even attempting to back it up. At best your article could have been titled "Georgia Republicans embrace the birther" but you can't call someone a racist just because someone doesn't believe Obama was born in America. That's not racism.
>>you can't call someone a racist just because someone doesn't believe Obama was born in America. That's not racism.
I can. I did. And it is.
You did, but that doesn't make it so.
lets borrow a definition from our friend Wikipedia -
"Racism is the belief that the genetic factors which constitute race are a primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race"
At no point does disagreeing with someone on an issue make them a racist, UNLESS they say that the sole reason for disagreeing is because the other persons genetic makeup doesn't allow them to articulate a valid argument. Can you show that Deal's dis-belief in Obama's legitimacy was based on him not believing that Obama's race hindered him from making that argument? Not that Deal just called him a liar, that doesn't make it racism. Even if at the end of calling Obama a liar he threw in a slur based on race, that would have been bigotry not racism.
A vote margin of a couple thousand is hardly "loudly and proudly." But good job following the Democrat talking points by declaring anyone who doesn't agree with you as a racist. You are a poor excuse for a journalist.
AH -- why do you think that Deal and his other extremists right wing friends are labeling Obama a Kenyan? BECAUSE OF HIS RACE. It doesn't take an idiot to connect the dots... or does it?
That doesn't make them racists. It makes them misguided, wrong, ignorant, etc....
Is the reason they are labeling him a Kenyan because they have a belief that a black man can not reason out where he is from because he is a black man???? No they are calling him a liar not a fool who can't figure out where he is from, there is a difference.
Make arguments based on logic and reason, otherwise your doomed to loose the debate.
Wow AH. I guess you got him on a technicality. Now it does not count. Good work. You have corrected 100 years of bad behavior with your ability to use a dictionary. To use a common Republican reference, I guess Hitler did nothing wrong because all though people were calling him a racist he was in fact a xenophobe
Actually that is a good example, Hitler was a racist.
During the Berlin Olympics he thought that the black athletes had an unfair advantage based solely on their race. He went so far as to suggest that Jesse Owens must have had cloven hooves to run as fast as he did. These were all beliefs based on racial or genetic differences, not a disagreements of facts.
Hitlers belief was based on race, therefore he was a racist. Deals belief is based on a disagreement of facts, that does not make him a racist.
Sad to see the comments here decline to ajc level. The simple fact is that anyone interested in reality would have accepted Obama's citizenship from the beginning. The only reason to even contemplate an alternative is fear/hatred of black people. The widely disseminated evidence of his Hawaiian birth certificate (http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/bo…) should have put to rest the doubts of anyone who was merely confused. Anyone left believing or saying that Obama is Kenyan is either a "paranoid, right-wing racist who cannot accept that a dark-skinned man with a non-European name is legitimately American" or just a racist liar who thinks that calling Obama Kenyan is an effective way to continuously refer to Obama's blackness without the social stigma of just calling him nigger, and that Obama is a scary black man with no right to have power over white people. We know this is true because there are no alternative explanations.
The fact is that Obama was born in the U.S. This whole 'birther' thing is just dog whistle language for the racist tea partiers - who the GOP and Nathan Deal openly courts.
So it looks like the problem is that some folks get hurt feelings when they get called on what their true motivations are. Too bad - quit crying.
Fear and hatred of black people, scary or otherwise, does not make one a racist. It make you a bigot, there is a difference.
You make the impact of the word racism absolutely meaningless when you use it incorrectly over and over like many people do.
glad Cl and the commentee's are living proof - "that we all just can't get along" per the editorial suggestion: instead let's name call and berate how "we are better so f-off" menality! God -I wish I was rich like Brad & Angelina so I could buy an Italian Estate and leave this s@#$ hole of a city behind...
I am just happy we elected a president who believes in Liberation Theology, Social Justice, and my favorite - Collective Salvation! This is Great! Thanks to Journolist and Democrats and the Left for constantly throwing out the Race Card so we would not find out who Barack Obama is. Thanks to the Loaf as well for their part too! You can always count on the Loaf to throw out a good Race Card or two!
obama is clearly an american citizen, born and raised, as the evidence shows.
but tome, it seems to be poor journalistic practice to label deal a racist because he has called for obama to prove his citizenship even after the question was laid to rest.
merely throwing out an incendeiary term doesn't make it so, andi. try backing up your accusations with facts, if you want to win anyone over to your viewpoint.
i think most CL readers expect more from our news sources. should we start looking elsewhere?
I'm not "merely throwing out" an incendiary term, WesleyWhatWhat. I'm saying birtherism is racism and openly saying Nathan Deal and others like him are making an overtly racist appeal when insinuate Obama isn't a citizen.
Other than racism, what other possible reason could there be to doubt Obama's birth and citizenship? I know you're not a birther - but I'm just asking you to name a single, plausible reason other than racism to doubt Obama's citizenship and birth.
listening to too much talk radio? an irrational grasping at straws since there was no other way obama/democrats/liberals/progressives (if u can call obama that) were going to lose to mccain/republicans/conservatives in 2008 and by claiming obama wasn't a citizen, they gave themselves an out with "the left may may have won but they cheated since their candidate wasn't legit"?
to be honest, i don't know.
but i know a few otherwise intelligent (and non-racist, if their past behavior is any indication) people who were misinformed by fox news and the drudge report and the like who wanted to know why obama didn't produce a copy of his birth certificate for public inspection by the media during the 2008 campaign.
doesn't make them racist.
as a matter of fact, if i were obama i would have done so. that would have left "birthers" without a leg to stand on and then the rational ones could have joined the rest of society in moving forward, while the racists in the bunch would have to scream about something else.
WesleyWW - you've just repeated one of the false birther talking points.
Obama did make his birth certificate available during the 2008 campaign.
http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/bo…
Birthers just say it's a fake and a forgery.
So Wes, it's incendiary for a CL writer to call Deal a racist but not incendiary for that congressman to promote a conspiracy theory that the President is a foreigner, when the public space is already tinder from the Beck-Limbaugh-Hannity misinformation machine? Strange ideas you have about what counts as arson.
Andisheh - "Other than racism, what other possible reason could there be to doubt Obama's birth and citizenship?"
I don't know how about that dusty old worthless document named the United States Constitution...ever hear of that?
Article II, Section 1, Clause 5 of the Constitution sets the principal qualifications one must meet to be eligible to the office of president. A president must:
be a natural born citizen of the United States;[17]
be at least thirty-five years old;
have been a permanent resident in the United States for at least fourteen years.
Come on Andisheh - I am a conservative and I am most certaintly not a Racist or a Bigot.
There is a third option one can be on the side of those who believe Obama not to a citizen. You can be just a flat out retard. Bigot, Racist, or Retard. Those are the options and usually its all three.
"citizen" -
eh? your point (if there was one) seems like a stretch to me. my point is that deal (though not likely to get my vote any time soon) hasn't displayed any racist behavior that i am familiar with and therefore anyone publicly calling him a racist raises lots of flags.
"andi" -
if it's good enough for factcheck.org, it's good enough for me. but i didn't need convincing in the first place.
i stand my original opinion - obama should have offered to show rush/drudge/beck/etc. the birth certificate in person. maybe under the condition that they then publicly acknowledge that obama's candidacy was just as legit as mccain's, who was born in panama. what would it have harmed? it certainly would have made the birther question a moot point.
uh oh. does the fact that i just publicly stated that obama should have made his birth certificate available for the media to verify makes me a racist as well?
and therefore my opinion should be discounted?
a convenient strategy, familiar to anyone who has ever read 1984 and catch-22.
I take everyone here at their word - no one is racist or a bigot or whatever other term you deem technically correct, AH.
I think the bigger point here is the recklessness that Deal showed aligning with birthers who - 1) refuse to acknowledge actual evidence that Obama is American and 2) never questioned a President's place of birth until a black man with a funny name was elected.
But at least Pete, by saying "I am a conservative," is acknowledging that this movement is born from political ideology and calculation, not conviction of fact or quest for the truth. And we know with certainty that both parties over the years are perfectly happy tapping into racist sentiment to garner votes.
There's a reason Deal was a Democrat until the GOP's Southern strategy finally turned Georgia red...
Sadly, the phrase "natural born citizen" has never been given a precise legal definition.
There is evidence that the common understanding of the phrase when the constitution was written meant a citizen born to parents that were both citizens. Since Obama's father was never a US citizen, Obama is not a natural born citizen.
There is also a question of him being a US citizen at all, as how citizenship follows from ones mother was different when Obama was born.
Mr. T -I say I am a conservative, who by the way did not vote for Deal ever, who is not a Racist, Bigot, or Retard.
I can see why Deal did file a complaint with many others and STDog points out more reasons for the questions.
I think Obama is legally ok to be POTUS - but there are many who think his legality is in question.
I think all other POTUS have submitted Birth Certifiates or would gladly do so throughout our nations past.
jorer025, i've been looking for an "(ed har dy j-a-c-k-e-t)" and "(nike jor dan s-h-o-e-s)" but wasn't sure where to find them.
thanks for the heads up.
T,
"2) never questioned a President's place of birth until a black man with a funny name was elected."
Not true. McCain's eligibility was questioned and decided in court.
Going back, Chester A. Arthur's eligibility was questioned when he was on the ballot in the VP position.
We live in scary times, republicans...just...scary
*hides under desk with my tinfoil hat*
Andisheh rocks!
Say it like it is.
All these bigoted, college football loving, racist conservatives can suck it. I'm a white guy and get to spend time with white people while no minorities are watching. I get your white guy chain e-mails about Obama being a monkey, pimp, or other derogatory black stereotype. You think I share your ideas because I'm white, live in GA, and have a good paying professional job.
You're wrong and I make sure to tell all my minority friends and coworkers what you say when they're not around.
"Sadly, the phrase "natural born citizen" has never been given a precise legal definition.
There is evidence that the common understanding of the phrase when the constitution was written meant a citizen born to parents that were both citizens. Since Obama's father was never a US citizen, Obama is not a natural born citizen.
There is also a question of him being a US citizen at all, as how citizenship follows from ones mother was different when Obama was born."
@STDog: You're a moron. It doesn't matter what common understanding of the phrase "natural born citizen" was when the constitution was originally written. It's being constantly amended, and the 14th amendment was ratified in 1868, at which point all people born in the US were automatically citizens. The status of your mother and father doesn't matter, and unless you think that Obama is some 142 year old super-human nothing has changed since he was born.
@smitty:
Exactly. All these people claiming that teabagging isn't an inherently racist movement must forget that when they forward their shockingly horrible emails to all of their contacts many of us non-teabaggers also receive them.
I used to wonder how teabaggers could claim to not be racist while making it so apparent that they are. I've responded to quite a few of these racist email chains (having fun with "reply all" and going down the whole chain and adding everyone who ever got it) and the responses I get are always some form of "it's not racist because I'm telling the truth and black people really are lazy/stupid/inferior." So we have our answer: they don't think it's racist because they start with the premise that black people (substitute Hispanics, Muslims, etc as the case requires) are inferior and that there isn't anything racist about merely stating a "fact".
I see the shills are busy monitoring the intertubes for truthful opinions.
But I must get something straight...two years later: in a country where "brown, foreign-looking people" can't step on a goddamned airplane without interference, we're supposed to believe that the Presidency is somehow free from scruitiny? What a pack of chicken kickers,
" he has declared himself a paranoid, right-wing racist who cannot accept that a dark-skinned man with a non-European name is legitimately American."
Did he actually say he was a racist or is it just the birther stupidity that declares him.
"damien.boykin.mx9acc37"
according to some people, anyone is racist who holds views other than their own.
don't question the lack of logic in that line of reasoning or u might become racist as well.
Andishe tells it like it is. I'm not an Obama fan, but the fact that this birther BS is still around is a joke. I see this kind of persecution as similar to the days of McCarthyism. And Andi didn't even mention the spectre of ethics violations that Deal faced as a Congressman, but that's OK in the eyes of this warped conservative fanaticism that supports the likes of Deal and Gingrich. Washington was not going to and did not forgive Deal, but the GA Republicans will. YeeHa! I'm a Republican and not proud of it today.
Jason,
I guess that's the difference in you and me.
I actually care what the writer intended when he wrote it.
I care what the people understood it to mean when they agreed to it.
None of the amendments have change the requirement from "natural born citizen" to just citizen. The 14th Amd. just makes one a citizen, not a "natural born citizen."
(And there is question as to what the phrase "and subject to the jurisdiction thereof" means
I'm not claiming Obama is or isn't a citizen or a "natural born citizen," only that there are valid questions left unanswered at this point. No court is willing to take up the issue either, so it's not going to be answered anytime soon. Just look how long it has taken to get a decision on what the 2nd Amd. protects and whether it applies to the states or not(through the 14th Amd.).
As for the status of ones parents, I suggest you actually look int the case law and statutes concerning citizenship.
They have changed many times since the 14th Amd. was ratified.
If Obama was not actually born in the US, then he may not be a citizen at all since at that time (1952-1986) the law required the citizen parent have lived in the U.S. at least 10 years prior to the birth, and "a minimum of 5 of these 10 years in the United States were after the citizen parent's 14th birthday."
As to whether Obama was born in the U.S. it would be simple enough to put to rest, but Obama refuses to do so.
It's not a matter of being required, but by refusing to go beyond the minimum, he causes continued speculation.
Often people do more than is required (like when entertaining with police officers) in an effort to prevent misunderstandings.
I don't think that makes everyone who supports Deal a racist, but it certainly makes them partisans who fail to hold someone accountable for "teabagger fantasies" about Obama's citizenship.
That said, the Tea Party's insistence that "Barack Obama is not and CAN NOT be American" is the outward expression, of an underlying concept that has been in America for years. And that underlying concept is the "All-American Ideal" to some is centered around whiteness, not at all differen from the Nazi concept of Herrenvolk. The idea that "America is the greatest country ever!" and "American-ness" going in hand with "whiteness" leads to a virulent and yes I hate to tell you- racist - aversion to seeing anything other than a white male leading this country, especially when its the total inverse of a white male, a black male.
That said, I wouldn't expect any of the people who'd vote for Deal to be happy if I were coming to dinner to date their daughters.
STDog:Wait, so do you think Obama was born in Hawaii or not?
You said "there is question as to what the phrase "and subject to the jurisdiction thereof"..
There is no question about what that means, the court decided that issue long, long, long ago. The only people in the USA that are not subject to the jurisdiction thereof are foreign diplomats (who have diplomatic immunity and are not subject to jurisdiction of the USA) and soldiers of an opposing army who are engaged in a war here.
Thats like saying "there is a question as to whether the earth is really round." Yes, there is that question because I just asked it. But science determined years ago that the earth is, in fact, round. Just as the courts decided years ago that people born here to immigrants are, in fact, subject to the jurisdiction of the USA.
Pete - "I think all other POTUS have submitted Birth Certifiates or would gladly do so throughout our nations past"
You think? Would gladly do so? Am I supposed to take you seriously when you say ridiculous shit like that? What you think might have happened is irrelevant here. Give me an example of when it HAS happened.
STD - Show me one elected official that questioned John McCain's eligibility. There's a very big difference between some crackpot filing a lawsuit and an elected member of congress questioning the President's already proven citizenship. Deal is playing cynical politics and giving a clear wink and nod to a bunch of bigoted idiots in order to secure a few more votes.
Trotting out Chester Arthur? Really? That's like mentioning Aaron Burr as an example of it being okay if Biden had offed Palin during last year's campaign.
The saddest part of this is you birther defenders don't even try hard. No conviction.
Face it, you can't fix stupid. Ignorance is curable but the argument is moot when the mind is closed off and sealed tight. So Republicans and Tea Baggers (which, I find ironic that a straight white male wants to be called a tea bagger.... That is PRICELESS!!) will just spin it anyway to suit there own needs and I, like any educated person should do, ignore it like a tantruming child.
@STDog: Sorry, Glenn Beck University doesn't actually prepare you to speak to people in the real world. I love when someone tells me to look at "case law and statutes" without citing any and obviously unable to do so. As the above poster said, there aren't actually any open questions about the phrase "and subject to jurisdiction therof" and there haven't been since 1924. In United States v. Wong Kim Ark in 1898 the courts made clear that the child of foreign parents is a citizen if they are born here, and without it defined in statute, what could be a more clear definition of "natural born" that someone born as a citizen?
"As to whether Obama was born in the U.S. it would be simple enough to put to rest, but Obama refuses to do so.
It's not a matter of being required, but by refusing to go beyond the minimum, he causes continued speculation."
You yet again have no idea what you're talking about. He posted it on his website (http://fightthesmears.com/articles/5/birth…) and independent media confirmed saw it themselves and confirmed it (http://www.factcheck.org/elections-2008/bo…), including posting the certificate number that was originally blacked out. In that link you'll also see a newspaper clipping from Honolulu Advertiser on Aug. 13, 1961 announcing his birth that week in Hawaii. As I said, you're a moron. Next time stick to the kiddie pool where you're safe.
Wish I'd gotten in on this earlier. I really don't know where the fuck to start now. Guess I'll just cosign Mr. T, Jason, et. all, while agreeing completely with the contents of the article...too lazy and intoxicated to do it any other way.
@STD: your opening salvo ("I guess that's the difference in you and me. I actually care what the writer intended when he wrote it. I care what the people understood it to mean when they agreed to it.") deserves a response.
First of all, though a bill or amendment may have a listed author, they are actually written through compromise so no single person's intent is actually very important. There was disagreement at the time about how expansive the Citizenship Clause should be, with ideas ranging from what you envision to the broad idea that it has generally been interpreted as. There was no unified intent among all involved, but they settled on very specific words. The named author of the clause, Jacob M. Howard, actually argued for your interpretation, so it's not as though nobody anticipated that the clause could be interpreted more broadly but it still ended up with fairly unrestrictive wording.
More generally though, you're argument is kind of disturbing. Conservatives like to castigate liberal judges for being activist. It's usually completely BS and and term they like to use for any ruling they don't like, but in its most pure form it is an argument against broad interpretation of the 9th amendment, giving people rights not specifically enumerated in the Constitution. You're arguing for the opposite kind of activism: using imagined intent to take away specifically enumerated rights. It's a pretty disgusting way to look at people, our country, and the Constitution.
Birther = racist? That's absurd. To lefties, everyone on the right is racist. When you probe , you realize they use the term as a catch-all, usually to deflect a superior argument. That said it is very sad that Karen Handel won't be the Guvna and we're going to get the troll, Deal. However, I will hold my nose and vote for him because a vote for the Dems is a vote for mob rule, economic suicide, and ever-increasing government control. My liberal friends ask me how in the world can I be voting Republican? Easy - the Republicans are idiots. The Democrats are dangerous idiots. Easy choice.
I just wonder why the Birthers and other OMG-he's-not-MY-President racists don't understand one simple fact. If the combined powers of the Clinton and Republican machines couldn't come up with anything on this non-issue across 2007 and 2008, why do these idiots, morons, idiotic morons and moronic idiots not understand that there's no "There" there?
Anyone notice that the ONLY people who talk about birthers these days are on the Left? The unholy trio of Beck/Hannity/Rush never talks about this non-issue. It's now being used by Obama & Co as a distraction to marginalize anyone who dares to disagree with their policy decisions. If you disagree with me --> you must be a birther --> ergo you and your ideas are crazy.
It's good politics but poor leadership.
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