Nixonian Hate Talk
by digby
When I was a kid, this kind of talk was common, everyday speech for many, many people. The fact that so many people are appalled today is a very big sign of progress.
But anyone who thinks that this kind of thinking has died out are kidding themselves. It is, after all, exactly how the recent Republican Tea Party candidate for New York state felt comfortable communicating with dozens of email correspondents. Here's an example of the every day stuff he was sending around to his pals:
The explanations now are different and it's morphed into a new aggrieved sense of oppression. Unlike Nixon who thought that black would have to "evolve" more before they could be considered equal to whites, Paladino thinks they're overly sensitive and tribal and refuse to do what's best for their kids. White people's inability to challenge their power due to political incorrectness is "one of our society's tragedies." This is how he explained himself when called out for his racism:
Jim, i apologize to you everyone if that is offensive, to me it's just humor. i'm not a racist and have never related obama's color to my political distaste for him. i just feel he is a very liberal lightweight who will be unable to make the decisions that the challenges of the future will demand. i also feel that bush is an ass and will go down as the worst president in history.
i'm not sensitive to ethnic humor, dago spic, polack, whatever we hear humor every day. i think the oversensitivity to black/white is wrong and in itself demeaning. political correctness as people choose to define it is demeaning... one of our society's tragedies is our reluctance to call out black leaders because of political correctness. i publicly stated that our school superintendent was selected because he was black. it was a fact and it was wrong for black leaders to put a weak totally dysfunctional person into a job that required the best person to help our inner city kids that dooms them from 1st grade to a shattered life. that's exactly what's wrong with the political correctness bullshit. Is it right or wrong that 96% of black voters for for the black guy rather than the most competent guy black or white?
respect for each other means we can laugh together no matter what the topic or issue. we can dump on each other or be self-deprecating but we should always be honest and real. I'm uninhibited and probably a little out of the box but mean no harm to anyone except the bad guys. truth, justice, apple pie, motherhood, the wheels on the bus go round and round
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You can call this guy a crackpot all you want. But he got the nomination of the Republican Party to be the Governor of the state. He lost but I think Nixon might have lost if his language and expressions were public knowledge. people didn't particularly want their leaders to be crude racist scumbags even back then. But the idea that these people have disappeared is just wrong. They are still around and they are still in politics and some of them are in high office. Like Nixon before them, they are just keeping their mouths shut in public.
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