They call themselves the Northeast Pennsylvania Spirit of 1776. They
obviously think it's hilarious to imagine Barack Obama being beaten up by the nation's Founding slave-owners George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Patrick Henry, James Madison, James Monroe, George Mason and 66 others:
When Barack Obama died, George Washington met him at the Pearly Gates. he slapped him across the face and yelled, "How dare you try to destroy the nation I helped conceive."
Patrick Henry approached, punched him in the nose and shouted, "You wanted to end our liberties but you failed." [...]
As Obama lay bleeding and in pain, an Angel appeared. Obama wept and said, "This i not what you promised me."
The Angel said, "I promised you there would be 72 VIRGINIANS waiting for you in heaven. What did you think I said? ... You really need to listen when somebody is trying to tell you something!!
In case you're unsure of that reference, Igor Volsky
spoke with a member of group who said the "joke" was based on the idea that Obama "may be a Muslim."
It's also an extremely lame rip-off of a bit by comedian Robin Williams who has 71 Virginians greeting Osama bin Laden in heaven.
Treating Barack Obama as "the other," the "not-American," the "foreigner," a guy who just doesn't belong in the White House is not, of course, new. It's been bandied about since well before he won the 2008 election. Also not new are various expressions of violence against the president. One minister has even promoted lynching the president, complete with traveling effigy of Obama strung-up.
The message of the Pennsylvania tea partiers is particularly obnoxious for reinforcing the claim that Obama is a secret "Muslim," their code for "terrorist." The underlying message, well no, it's not underlying at all, is that if beating up Obama is okay for the Founders, then it is okay for modern-day Americans to emulate. It would be comforting to believe that these expressions of hatred emerge merely from ignorance, not malice. Comforting but false. This joke and the attitudes contained in it remind us once again that anybody suggesting we live in "post-racial" times is a tad premature.