Are you for real #FoxNews? #CharlestonShooting is an attack on faith like 911 was an attack on skyscraper architects pic.twitter.com/RrjaYK74u6
— Andon’s Dadâ„¢ (@BrewStudNo1) June 18, 2015
Why Conservatives Still Won’t Admit That Charleston Was A Racist Crime
On Wednesday night, South Carolina’s governor Nikki Haley trotted out a boilerplate statement, calling the shooting a “senseless tragedy.†One could excuse this choice of words as a rushed assumption issued in real time, but as more and more details about Dylann Roof surfaced, conservatives refused to face the music. One by one, politicians and pundits acted like this terrorist act was one of life’s great unsolvable mysteries.
“We don’t know the motivation of the person who did it,” Rudy Guiliani said yesterday. “Maybe he hates Christian churches. Maybe he hates black churches or he’s gonna go find another one. Who knows.” Donald Trump, in a tweet yesterday, said the crime was “incomprehensible.â€
Last night, a Wall Street Journal columnist wrote: “What causes young men such as Dylann Roof to erupt in homicidal rage, whatever their motivation, is a problem that defies explanation beyond the reality that evil still stalks humanity. It is no small solace that in committing such an act today, he stands alone.”
At this point, Roof’s bigotry has become clear in myriad ways. Yet as late as this afternoon, when cornered by a reporter and asked if the shooting was racially motivated, presidential candidateJeb Bush said “I don’t know.†This means Bush is either incapable of basic logic, or he has willfully decided to blind and deafen himself to one of the nation’s biggest problems.
The “why” is simple, really. If you’ve been campaigning on racist dogwhistles for umpteen years and are trying to appeal to a voter base of bigots, acknowledging racism is political suicide. Live by the dogwhistle, die by the dogwhistle.
The whole GOP-hopeful clown parade can’t scrape together amongst them a single vertebra. Maybe they should be referred to as the “worm parade”. JFK had the courage to address race a half-century ago even though he KNEW it was going to hurt his party. And, sure enough, the invertebrate called Nixon jumped right in, soon as LBJ left the White House.
These people either can’t address race, lest their base leave them, or won’t because they believe as their base does.
What Fox did here is very calculated. By saying this was an attack on Christians, they can tap into the victimology of the right wing, while appearing to the gullible to as sympathetic to the victims.
But when has the right EVER acknowledged blacks as Christians?
I say they’re offering us a wedge issue, and why not take it? Point out that this was a physical attack on black Christians by a racist terrorist, aided and abetted by gun culture? Guns Versus God!
Oh right, that’s the wrong kind of Christian, the wrong kind of terrorist, and the wrong collaborators, for them to mention.
The racist killer:
‘I did it ’cause I hate me some N*ggers an’ I wanted to start a race war!’
MSM & GOP politicians:
“Now hold on son! We don’t wanna rush to judgement!
Let’s sit a spell, ‘ñ think this over…
The GOP and their propaganda arm FAUX news will not call this an act of racist terror, they can’t S.C. has the third in the country primary. People like Dylann Roof are their base, they just can’t offend the base, end of story.
Tom_b: Your “worm parade” is so very apt. They & their media, bred by the galoot Fishtaterchips that followed on after LBJ, with the exception of Carter and Clinton. It’s really as if Reagan became Prez Forever: think of the carryovers between one Republican administration & the next, furthermore ye olde nasty congressmen still toddling around, the begetting of their nasty meddlin gerrymandered views unto ye young congresspersons… My whole life has been peppered with these goons, & I was born in the McCarthy era.
What I have learned: Race is a fairy tale, and racists are people who believe in fairy tales. Bigots are people who speak or act on that belief. However Roof became a bigot, his bigotry is down to the worms. Yea, we libtards now believe in Hell, and it is full of worms.