Gross Racism And Big Money Is Destroying America

By James Donahue

They don’t call it racism and they don’t use the terminology long linked to the regretful years when blacks were openly segregated and degraded by the white power structure as an “inferior” people, but the same wicked mindset clearly prevails among a certain element of America.

We have been seeing it crop up all over the nation since President Barack Obama won his office. The outcrop of radical television and radio right wing hate pontificators such as Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, Sean Hannity and Bill O’Reilly, all spewing fierce propaganda designed to undermine the Obama Administration has been a form of racism that is usually, although not always disguised.

The rise of groups like the Teabaggers . . . citizen’s groups of people expressing anger over everything from our sick economy, health care issues, to a lack of jobs and questioning whether Mr. Obama is a real American born citizen . . . sometimes takes on the appearance of the Klu Klux Klan but without the hoods. The general illiteracy of these groups frequently is seen in the many misspelled words printed on the signs they carry.

Most disturbing has been the unwillingness of elected Republican members of the House and Senate to cooperate in passing badly needed legislation sought by our new president designed to salvage all of the damage created during the eight years that George W. Bush and his cronies held the reins of power.

This attitude was openly displayed by the pack of Republican Senators who “sat on their hands,” refusing to stand and applaud with the other members of the House and Senate during key points in the President’s first-year State of the Union address on Jan. 27.

Even though Mr. Obama used every means to call on these elected representatives of the people to do what was right and help him create new jobs, develop green technology to meet the demands of the future, rebuild the nation’s crumbling infrastructure, assist Americans in sending children to colleges, give tax benefits only to companies that stay in the United States and provide jobs in the United States, expand unemployment benefits for people still unable to find work, and draft a workable health insurance bill, these sour-faced Senators sat stone silent, refused to clap, and made it clear they would continue to fight Mr. Obama every step of the way.

MSNBC Commentator Rachael Maddow obtained video footage of this strange response to nearly every one of these points during her January 28 show. She and her guest speakers noted that continued refusal to vote for programs that polls show most Americans want might mean political disaster for the future of the Republican Party.

Maddow said she believed the Republicans have misread the mindset of the voters of Massachusetts when they picked Republican Scott Brown to succeed the position held by the late Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy. She said Brown never identified himself with the Republicans, but declared himself an independent promising change. Polls taken among Massachusetts voters show that they want a better health reform package than the one drafted by the Senate, they are angry about the inability of the Obama Administration to generate jobs and get the nation back on track.

In a sense, the fault lies with the Republican members of the Senate, who have skillfully used such political trickery as the threat of filibuster to prevent a Democratic majority from moving forward with meaningful legislation. Bills must be approved by both the House and Senate before they get to the President’s desk for signing. It is only then that they become law.

So why would elected officials in such high office as that of the U. S. Senate behave so badly during the first year of Mr. Obama’s term? And why would they sit like robots during a presidential State of the Union address? And why would they counter the president’s address with a pack of mistruths from the mouth of an unknown like newly seated Virginia governor Bob McDonnell?

There are two reasons that we can determine. The first is because they were well paid by big business interests for this performance. The second is because they cannot stand the fact that a Negro has been elected to the office of President. Using McDonnell to speak on behalf of the Republicans was like a slap in the face to our president. They were, in effect, saying that whatever Mr. Obama had to say didn’t matter.

That five members of the U. S. Supreme Court appear to share this racist attitude, and have used their high office to set the stage for big business interests to manipulate all future elections with unlimited cash donations, suggests that the democratic system is in serious trouble.

If we can’t fix this serious imbalance we appear to be racing toward a government controlled by international corporate interests. And if American voters are beguiled this year by the clever advertising gimmicks that big money can create, they will surely be persuaded to choose the wrong people to fill key vacancies in both the House and Senate.

The Republicans know this. They know that they can continue to be the “party of NO” and will still have the financial support to escape the wrath of an angry electorate after two years of blocking the Obama dream for a better America. They are gambling that voters can be persuaded to blame Mr. Obama for not fixing the crisis the nation is now in.

What is sad about all of this is that they are probably right.