Political Animal‘s Steve Benen (5/12/09) notes a recent Rush Limbaugh broadcast (5/11/09) that makes the racist subtext of the right’s critique of Barack Obama virtually explicit:
The [economic] deterioration reflects lower tax revenues and higher costs for bank failures, unemployment benefits and food stamps. But in the Oval Office of the White House none of this is a problem. This is the objective. The objective is unemployment. The objective is more food stamp benefits. The objective is more unemployment benefits. The objective is an expanding welfare state. And the objective is to take the nation’s wealth and return to it to the nation’s, quote, “rightful owners.” Think reparations. Think forced reparations here if you want to understand what actually is going on.
So Limbaugh thinks Obama is intentionally creating unemployment in order to boost food stamps, unemployment and welfare as a form of “forced reparations”; he’s wrecking the economy, in other words, in order to benefit black people. If Limbaugh is the voice of opposition to Obama, no wonder that opposition is so concentrated in the states of the old Confederacy.
he was looking remarably like General Lee when he said it, so it MUST be racist!
This is the agenda of a president who’s never uttered the words “poor people” or honestly spoken about race since taking office, to my knowledge … and certainly hasn’t done a goddamn thing about poverty or racism?
Those are among the reasons for *my* “opposition to Obama”. You folks seem to spend an awful lot of time defending this bastard from other bastards like Limbaugh … how about posting more from legitimate critics of his administration?
And being from Miss’ssippi, and having lived elsewhere, I can assure you that hatred toward him because of his skin color is nationwide in scope. Racism of all types is a national, not just regional, disease.
I’m sure you’re aware of that, but that last comment seemed to negate that knowledge.
rush “And the objective is to take the nation’s wealth and return to it to the nation’s, quote, “rightful owners.”
wow, obama’s giving everything back to the indians??? great news…
fair writes: “no wonder that opposition is so concentrated in the states of the old Confederacy.”
doug writes: “I can assure you that hatred toward him because of his skin color is nationwide in scope.”
daily kos tracking obama’s approval:
NORTHEAST approve 89 disapprove 8 no opinion 3
SOUTH approve 41 disapprove 51 no opinion 8
MIDWEST approve 76 disapprove 20 no opinion 4
WEST approve 75 disapprove 21 no opinion 4
That rightful owners statement is puzzling, perhaps it was a sarcastic remark? In total the remarks of Limbaugh posted here are nothing more a massaged version of his standard boiler plate fear mongering. While hatred is a strong word I do Believe Obama’s skin color, now that he is in office, will play a role in his approval ratings nationwide