Well, it's one of those days that ends with a "y", so we should be able to find a case of a Republican saying something stupid and/or Freudian.
Oh, wait a minute -- newbie Republican Congresswoman Lynn Jenkins (KS-02) has something to say:
"Republicans are struggling right now to find the Great White Hope, and I suggest to any of you who are concerned about that, who are Republican, there are some great young Republican minds in Washington."
Ah, there we go.
Read on . . .
Jenkins made her remarks at a town hall in Hiawatha, KS on Aug 19. Video can be found here -- and my, aren't those Republican town halls serene? I mean, really, you could enjoy a fine book in there. Take a nap. Write poetry.
But I digress . . .
In fairness, Jenkins has now apologized for her word choice and said she didn't mean to be offensive. Also in fairness, the history of that particular phrase makes it about the poorest word choice ever.
On December 16, 1908, Jack "Galveston Giant" Johnson brutally pummeled Tommy Burns to become boxing's first black World Heavyweight Champion.
Not surprisingly, there was a racial backlash. Johnson's defensive style was called cowardly (even though a previous white boxer that used the same style was called "clever"). He was often depicted as an ape. And whites everywhere -- even liberal ones -- put out the call for a "Great White Hope" that would return the title to the white race, where it "belonged".
Any of that sound familiar?
The drama culminated in the Fight of the Century, July 4, 1910, when the undefeated James Jeffries came out of retirement to try his hand. What drove the man who hadn't fought in six years to get back in shape and take on the champ?
"I am going into this fight for the sole purpose of proving that a white man is better than a Negro".
Except not so much -- Johnson knocked Jeffries down twice, and Jeffries' team called the fight to avoid an embarrassing knockout. The Great White Hope was dashed.
Blacks celebrated. There were spontaneous parades. Many had won big betting on Johnson. Poet William Waring Cuney was even inspired to capture the feeling in his poem "My Lord, What a Morning." Johnson even finally got a little (begrudging) respect from whites -- but some whites were more humiliated than ever. In many cities, the celebrations drew angry reprisal. There were riots. About 23 blacks and 2 whites died in violence across the country.
Does Lynn Jenkins know all this? Well, it's fact and history, and she's a Republican, so probably not. But it doesn't take a genius to understand the racial element of the anger that's sweeping through much of the right, nor to understand that a phrase like "The Great White Hope" -- whatever its genesis -- would be a stupid thing to say about coming back against the first black President.
If there's any comfort here, it's that remarks like Jenkins' are now just "gotcha" comedy, and quickly apologized for.
Compare that to Jeffries' direct statement on the record -- or the "kill the n*****" chants from the crowd at the Fight of the Century. Long as the road is, we've come a fair way upon it.
Are there at least some that still hold those sentiments in their hearts? Of course. We've seen the evidence -- the same kind of overt racism that assaulted Johnson when he won the title. But now it's marginalized, a dirty secret of the far rightwing that even mainstream Republicans distance themselves from.
Now that's hope.