At a town hall meeting Ryan held after
his recent racist rant, Alfonso Gardner (pictured),
called him on his statement, and Ryan backed away from it somewhat by saying he was including all races in his demeaning comment. To his great credit, Gardner did not accept Ryan's response.
He said that what Ryan thought and what he meant when he said the words was that black men were lazy. If he hadn't meant it that way, he wouldn't have said it.
"I wish media-types would hold people like Ryan accountable for their statements as [Gardner] did."
- Anonymous reader
Now a week after Paul Ryan reached back to 1835 and the justification for slavery to find a reason to justify the assault on people of color and others, the story will not go away.
You will remember that about a week ago former Republican Vice Presidential candidate and anti-democratic Ayn Rand devotee Paul Ryan said that poverty is the result of an inner city culture that has encouraged generations of men to refuse to work. This is right-wing Republican code for poverty is caused by lazy Black men.
Somewhat surprisingly, Republican National Chairman Reince Priebus defended the remark. When I first heard about the remark, I thought Ryan was caught in what he thought was a safe room with true believers and was caught in his racism. When Priebus defended the statement, I was surprised.
Ryan's statement was more blatantly and openly racist than the Republicans have been using in recent years. His racist message directly countered what Priebus had promised the new non-racist big tent Republican Party would become.
And the Ryan statement signals a return to a strategy the radical right-wing Republican Party cannot bring itself to abandon. Ditch the new, non-racist, tolerant, non-bigoted Republican Party and message.
The Republicans are counting on a low turnout 2014 election that will turn on which party can most effectively move their base. It is no secret that Republicans use hate and anger to mobilize their base. They will try to suppress the Democratic base and swing voters with a message of disgust and hopelessness in political action. We should also expect the right-wing Republicans to use the state governments they control to both legislatively and administratively do all they can to depress Democratic turnout.
We must stamp the Republican leadership with what it is: racist, misogynistic, homophobic, anti-worker foes of the American people. Their return to the use of lies used to justify every evil thing done to African-Americans in this country since slavery began in this hemisphere four centuries ago has again shown America who they really are.