South Carolina/ Debate?

Last night’s South Carolina debate was symptomatic of the racism that runs like a series of veins and arteries through the right wing electoral heart of America.
Is it rampant, conscious racism? Rampant, yes, mainly when there are Republican events going on like last night with an audience composed mainly of two groups—tea party conservatives and Evangelical Christians. They were ninety-eight percent white, dressed to the gills and obviously not hurting financially. The unemployed had no emissaries there. Blacks and Hispanics were markedly under- represented.
Is the racism conscious? In other words, was that audience aware that it was racist?
I think, for the most part, no.
So, how do I know that they were racist?
By their behavior, specifically when Newt Gingrich accused President Obama of providing more food stamps than any other President in history. He received supportive shouts and a standing ovation and when Juan Williams suggested that Newt’s remarks displayed racial insensitivity, he (Williams) was booed loudly. Then, there was the condescending look and slimy intonation of Williams’s first name— J-u-a-n-n-n, which elicited reams of support from that audience, like he was a slimy wetback or something.
The racist, Newt Gingrich, had found his audience. They ate up the way he pontificated and smiled complacently to himself from his elite position as the chosen White Race Chieftain—educating and prodding the “ignorant” Negros and poor Whites of America how to be real men and find janitorial jobs. The contempt for the poor and dispossessed that Newt and the ignorant people in that audience displayed was perfectly disgusting.
I say “ignorant” because Newt and his audience are patently unaware that they have even a smidgen of racism in their bones. But they are loaded with it in their bone marrow, which makes the whole thing even more insidious. The righteous facade of Gingrich, Santorum, Perry, the tea party folk and the Christian right is so convincing that it makes them downright dangerous should they achieve control of “our” government in the coming election.
The sons of bitches even smell good, which makes them really scary.
J.F.
12/17/12