Democrats Are Silent Again
I do not understand the silence of the Democrats when it comes to dealing with the issues of this country such as student debt, the attacks by Trump and Republicans on the ACA, the Republican and Trump tax reform plan giving $billions to the 1% of the taxpayers making greater than $500,000 annually, the more recent plan allowing states to invoke job requirements and premiums upon those on Medicaid, etc.
Then there is the latest utterance from the White House, an attack on black and brown immigrants from countries such as Haiti and El Savador.
Trump’s comments do not go unverified by those on both sides of the political spectrum who attended this meeting on immigration between Senators, Representatives, and the President. “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” The comment made by Trump is also being denied by his supporters.
The real “why” to this issue is the silence of the Democrats when it comes to active and verbally expressed racism by a US President. Democrats who wanted and depended upon support by minorities to put a Democrat in office in Alabama. Democrats who are depending on minorities to turn the corner on Republicans and to reverse everything wrong done to date by this president and the Republicans who hide behind him.
Civil Rights icon and US Representative Elijah Cummings called Trump’s comments the words of expressed bigotry. Others such as Dr. G.S. Potter labeled such words as unsettling stating “bigotry” as used to describe the Trump comment as being too “interpersonal and anyone can be a bigot. Racism is structural. It is structural in the context of white supremacy and racism is white.” Trump’s comment are the words of a racist.
It is time to confront Trump for his words and confront Republicans who knowingly cover up for Trump’s racism and divisiveness and hide behind him. When Trump is gone, the same Republicans; McConnell, Ryan, Pence, Cotton, etc. and the Republican agenda will still exist.
The Democratic party has stood silent against the blatant white nationalism coming out of the White House for too long (Dr. GS Potter). They have continually sought bipartisanship with neo-Confederates and Nazis instead of seeking solidarity with people of color as we fight for our lives against them. The Democrats have continued to use us as bargaining chips, rhetorical talking points, and last-minute voting blocs rather than stand up for their largest and most loyal constituent groups against the GOP.
Their refusal to take a stand against Trump’s most recent racist comments cannot go unchallenged.
This needs to be a turning point for Democrats as voters and as a party. If our leaders can’t say the word “racism,” then they can’t fight it. If they can’t fight racism, they are worthless in a national battle against a network of politically shrewd white supremacists. If they are worthless in battle against white supremacists, they are worthless in battle against Trump and the GOP.
And over the past year, the white-led Democratic party has done nothing if not prove that they are worthless.
The Democrats are depending on black and brown voters to hand them Senate seats in 2018, while blatantly refusing to defend us from the GOP and its attacks on our communities. We can’t afford another term of white Democratic leadership. We can’t afford Senators that use us as bargaining chips for the white middle class. We can’t afford to give our votes to people that refuse to say the word “racist” let alone dig in and do the work necessary to stop racism.
This is a moment for all people of color to stand together and demand that the Democrats, in unity, acknowledge that the President is a racist. It is time that they collectively refuse to seek bipartisanship with neo-Confederates and Nazis. It is time that the party as a whole begins actively fighting the GOP and the Trump administration. And if the white leadership in the party refuses to do that, it is time for them to go.
“Democrats Refuse to Call Trump’s Shithole Statement ‘Racist’“, Dr. GS Potter, January 12, 2018
Seriously? Are you not reading newwspapers?
Carol,
There was an article on Daily Kos that described every major Newspaper’s and broadcaster’s avoidance of the use of the term “racist” to describe Trump’s remarks. The list was very long.
Quit telling, no? Calling a spade a spade is apparently “taboo”.
Run,
I agree. .
“I do not understand the silence of the Democrats when it comes to dealing with the issues of this country such as student debt, the attacks by Trump and Republicans on the ACA, the Republican and Trump tax reform plan giving $billions to the 1% of the taxpayers making greater than $500,000 annually, the more recent plan allowing states to invoke job requirements and premiums upon those on Medicaid, etc. ”
What I think you’re actually referring to though the Dem’s lack of a national spokesman… or group of them who speak for Dem’s values.
This is fundamentally due to the lack of Dem’s having a consensus political leader or group of leaders. That is my largest concern… Dems have had a year since the election to create one but haven’t… illustrating perhaps a void of consensus leaders among Dems
The other thing that comes to mind is how does anybody successfully or effectively confront liars and “I can’t recall having ever said that.” . If lying is the accepted means of discourse in a debate, then the rules of discourse for effective demonstration of truth are useless wastes, boiling down to “he said, she said” ad-infinitum.
LT:
My intro was just a prelim to a reference made about immigrants from “shithole countries.” People will not get angry unless our leaders get angry and lead the way. They are not leading and yet they expect minorities to join us in overturning the Republicans and Trump.
Maybe because the comment (if made) wasn’t racist. He was referring to countries of origin, not race.
IF he had said “all these black and brown people……..” I would agree with you. But he was referring to the countries as “shitholes” something very few people would debate. Race is just coincidental, and a major stretch to brand him a racist. Most people get that. The race obsessed, and the Trump haters do not.
Run,
It appears to me we’re in that strange period akin to the period between the Missouri Compromise (1820) and Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854) while politicians assumed optimistically, or because they feared the consequences of not compromising on an issue that was mutually exclusive.
They all knew it was a mutually exclusive issue, but hoped? one or the other side would eventually back down enough to continue remaining a nation divided.
By 1857 SCOTUS ruled that the Missouri Compromise was unconstitutional by declaring no black person could ever be or become a citizen (Dred Scott decision). The lines were then drawn hard in the clay. It only took 3 more years to undo the entire “one nation” charade.
I don’t know where in the span of time and conditions we are in the period between the Missouri compromise and Dred Scott decision, but my guess is that we’re more than half-way, maybe 3/4’s.
Mutually exclusive issues aren’t solved by compromise — ever.
So Sammy,
if the shithole nations referred to are populated nearly 100% by black and brown people, then since nations are nothing but borders surrounding those people, thus inanimate geographic features , then the reference “shithole” isn’t to the borders but solely to the people within those borders, no?
Trump didn’t say “shithole” borders. He said “shithole” nations which are a group of people in this case all happened by Trump’s chosen groupings which are all black and brown people. That is white supremacy and degrading black and brown people as inferior, and that is called “racism”.by any definition.
So defending Trump’s statement as being not that of a racist is to say those defending him are also racists, whether explicitly or implicitly… in the latter case that’s called being in denial..
Sammy,
BTW I value your comments on AB (honestly). They provide clear and explicit understanding of how people rationalize their beliefs as being perfectly good and just. I think that it’s important to know how people rationalize unfounded belief systems.
Longtooth,
See how hard you have to stretch? Haiti, Somalia, the nations, are shitholes. Never said anything about the people, who are just unlucky enough to live there, and undoubtedly try to make the best of their lives like the rest of us.
“BTW I value your comments on AB (honestly). They provide clear and explicit understanding of how people rationalize their beliefs as being perfectly good and just.”
Thank you. Most people would just call it “common sense”
Sammy,
if Trump was referring to “shithole” geographic regions then the largest and most obvious one by far isn’t even populated by people: Antarctica
Another is perhaps Northern Siberia, also very sparcly populated by people. Yet another is the Sahara Desert equally barely populated by people.
In fact all the “shithole” regions on the globe are nearly unpopulated by people simply because they can’t support larger human populations. So any reference to “nation” is a reference to the people inhabiting it.
And as a matter of fact, central Africa is able to support millions of people… not to mention having agricultural land and many very valuable natural resources so is very far from a “shithole” region. .
Longtooth,
Congratulations. You have made the worst argument that Trump is a racist over this that I have seen.
I live in Illinois. My Senator, Dick Durbin, has certainly not been reticent about criticizing Trump’s statement nor have other Illinois Democrats from a wide variety of federal and state offices.
Jack:
Precisely the point.
I know who Durbin is and I cornered him at Showdown in Chicago years ago as he came to speak on TBTF in front of a bunch of people who were paying the price because TBTF were purposely blocking consumer protections. Yes, he criticized banks too for their actions; however, he told a story about Nettie McGee and never called them out for what they were. Here again, we have Durbin and “some” others criticizing Trump for racist and derogatory remarks. Including Elijah Cummings, not one Democrat has called out Trump as a racist. Why is that?
“Democratic leaders must balance pressure from progressives with the needs of vulnerable red state Democrats vital to their hopes of recapturing the Senate and who risk being branded by GOP foes as friends of “amnesty.
Then there are Democrats who scent a chance to stand firm on immigration to woo 2020 primary voters, who will pick who will duel an apparently weakened President for the White House.”
President Trump used ‘hate-filled, vile and racist’ language in Immigration Meeting – Chicago Tribune
Not once in the Chicago Tribune article, did Durbin label Trump for what he is . . . a racist just like his father was, “Old Man Trump.” Remember Woody’s song?
I suppose that Old Man Trump knows just how much racial hate
He stirred up in that bloodpot of human hearts
When he drawed that color line
Here at his Beach Haven family project
Beach Haven ain’t my home!
No, I just can’t pay this rent!
My money’s down the drain,
And my soul is badly bent!
Beach Haven is Trump’s Tower
Where no black folks come to roam,
No, no, Old Man Trump!
Old Beach Haven ain’t my home!
Jack, where is one of the DEM presidential candidates on national TV with a bunch of other DEM senators backing them up in mass calling out Trump as a racist? Or at least calling out the President on DACA on National TV. Not going to happen as it is too difficult to do so and this is not another DEM. When do Democrats finally get some courage? What Dr. G.S. Potter is complaining about is precisely this, no one pays attention to minorities, till they need them to turn an election, and afterwards it is minority who? Why should minorities turn out for Democrats when Democrats are always willing to sacrifice them for the white middle class?
Why should Dems seek “bipartisanship with neo-Confederates and Nazis instead of seeking solidarity with people of color as we fight for our lives against them.” The same people of color who Dems expect to vote for Dems with little consideration.
Dr. G S. Potter is correct in the statement made.
Run said,
“When Trump is gone, the same Republicans; McConnell, Ryan, Pence, Cotton, etc. and the Republican agenda will still exist.”
That is precisely the problem.
And just for laughs
the Democrats problem is they have to try to get elected in a country in which just about half the population would agree with Sammy.
Their dilemma is how to play to the racists they take for granted without losing all of the racists who would normally vote fort them on economic issues, if the Democrats could be counted on to actually do something about economic issues. Actually they will say whatever they think they need to say to get elected… and get the spoils.
On the other hand, Dr Potter is throwing away a victory. We didn’t need the Democrats to “lead” on the shithole issue. But by complaining that they did not lead, Potter throws away the advantage gained by Trump displaying his vulgarity (if not racism), by trying to force us (me and sammy) to view it as a racial issue.
As of course it is, or may be. Trump is almost certainly a racist, but half the people are kind of tired of hearing about it.
And while we are all in major hysterics about Trump’s use of the word “shithole,” it is entirely forgotten that the discussion was about immigration policy, which we are not discussing, and was the result of attempts to restore DACA, which are not continuing because it is so much more fun to blast Trump for being a racist than it is to actually help the people whom us anti-racist Democrats are supposedly trying to protect.
Brer Rabbit, you know. “Please don’t throw me in the briar patch.”
“What you mean “we,” white man?”
Well, having observed Trump fairly closely for a couple of years he seems the guy who operates on the first level. If he meant that America needs fewer immigrants who are black and brown, that is what he would have probably said. Similar with the NFL dispute; others came in and helpfully added that we should think about race instead of behavior during the national anthem.
Bert:
No way you are coming on here with multiple sign ons.
Coberly,
To Run’s comment: “When Trump is gone, the same Republicans; McConnell, Ryan, Pence, Cotton, etc. and the Republican agenda will still exist.”
You responded:
“That is precisely the problem.”
Actually I’d like to point out that it’s the nature of a dominant two party system in a democracy, Moreover it’s been that way since day one… and even the more-so beginning with the onset of the Civil War and aftermath.
The Trumps, McConnells, Ryans etc. aren’t the problem at all So then voters that put them in office and the money from their proponents that keep them there must then be considered the culprits.
But if “those people” are to be considered the problem, then isn’t it their opposition to the alternative candidates that is actually the problem?
And then we are forced to ask whence their opposition and how is it formed? What are their personal objectives, desires, biases, and where did they come from?
My own answer to that is where the actual problem lies:
– “Those people” are white and believe they are superior to all the other colors.. deserving more employment and better paying jobs than the other colors.
– Deserving more privileges because they think they “earned them” and are thus entitled more than any other people’s colors.
– “Those people” were taught and for some reason believe Jeffersonian democracy is what the nation should be and that “we” have messed it up for them…. e.g. To “those people” “it’s our fault”.
– “Those people” believe strongly in “individualism”… that right of the individual to do as they please and having the individual right to repress and deny those of any other shade because they aren’t the “chosen” white people.. chosen by “providence” to be superior and more deserving than any other shade of skin.
– “Those people” were taught and believe that their individual rights would be restored if the Federal gov’t didn’t have the powers it has.. so “States Rights” are just an extension of their “individual rights”.
– “Those people” believe the Civil Rights law of 1964 and Voting Rights law of 1965 took away their own “individual rights” or suppressed them denying them their white race’s “rightful due”.
-“Those people” believe that the U.S. has become weak in demonstrating the U.S. divine right to it’s “manifest” destiny” .. though they think of it as the U.S. being an island unto itself and using it’s military and industrial and natural resources derived power to subjugate other nations to the U.S.s own interests — notably to do as it pleases.
– A very large plurality of “those people” don’t believe in science when science concludes anything that is counter to their own personal interests, or which may lead to changes that are counter to their own “individual rights” and personal interests.
Those are the reasons they voted for the Trump’s, McConnell’s, Ryan’s and any other representatives that say they have those same beliefs.
So the “problem” actually is why or how they obtain and retain these beliefs and why they think these beliefs are “best” for the nation as a whole — more succinctly said they are worshipping at the alter of the superiority of the white individualist… e.g. themselves.
When we “others” figure out how to change “those peoples” beliefs to a more cooperative system of rights and privileges, and find or obtain the means to manifest the changes to alter their beliefs, we can solve the problem.
But if you ask Sammy (or his like) “those others” consider the “problem to be “us”.
Which is why I say our objectives (“those others” and “us”) are mutually exclusive and cannot and will not be resolved by political means.
The inherent and mutually exclusive differences have already lead to one blood feud just 72 years after attempting to compromise these mutually exclusive issues.
For the next 100 years we ignored the mutually exclusive differences and let each side conduct it’s own affairs unhindered by the other.
Then one side gained enough of an upper hand and mandated Civil and Voting Rights with the power to enforce them. This simply resulted in reinstituting the mutually exclusive issues in the practical sense again.
So we’re on the same path we were on before the first blood-feud occurred. It took 72 years to result in the blood feud to “resolve” the mutually exclusive conditions— but it didn’t actually resolve them (because it was even more difficult to resolve them than it was to fight the blood-feud).. which is why we ignored them for another 100 years.
From 1965 + 72 years = year 2037. That’s probably as good an estimate as any for the onset of the next blood-feud to begin in effort to resolve the same mutually exclusive conditions one more time.
It’s also roughly coincident with the estimated point in time when the “superior” whites are on the verge of losing their population majority.
“If at first you don’t succeed, try, and try again.” Isn’t that what we’re taught from age 2?
Perhaps Democrat politicians, unlike participants on this blog, have figured out that screaming “racist!” at the drop of a hat has caused
the term to lose its effectiveness, and even backfires.
Gosh Sammy
and here i thought i was a participant on this blog. and though it caused me to shudder i said the same thing you did.
my friends on the Left think the only way to make “racial progress” is to scream “Racist!” at every opportunity. It does lose its effectiveness.
Personally, I’d like to see the Democrats actually DO something about the evils in this country affecting both whites and blacks. There would never be any need to say “racist.” And once the racist whites, and the racist blacks, noticed that by working together both their situations got better, racism itself would begin to disappear.
Of course it would reappear once conditions got bad again. Always does.
and a personal note: Sammy, while I agree that screaming “racist” does not help, I have no faith in your good faith.
Coberly and Sammy,
Why do you think calling a rasist a rasist doesn’t help? and in particular doesn’t help what?
LT
because it does nothing to solve the real problem.
because it encourages the people who are not pernicious racists to dismiss you as a pointy headed liberal and seek comfort among their more pernicious neighbors.
because it is largely a political noise designed to get votes (on either side) without addressing the real problems
because it allows people who have learned to say “racist” at every opportunity to not bother to think about the real problems.. it is in fact exactly the same kind of “thinking” that racists indulge in when they blame “blacks” or “liberals.”
1. Because you define “what Democrats say” as “what I hear Democrats say”.
2. You do 1 because you do not understand how the media works.
Are you ill?
Tracking through the link is a website run by a manic white women who hates black and brown elected officials for some reason, possibly because she is mentally ill.
“and a personal note: Sammy, while I agree that screaming “racist” does not help, I have no faith in your good faith.”
coberly,
You are a full on passive aggressive doctrinaire P.C. liberal. If you ever fully agreed with one of my comments I would have to go back reexamine and retract what I had written.
Coberly
From your response to my question to y9u: ” Why do you think calling a rasist a rasist doesn’t help? and in particular doesn’t help what?”
What you listed are the precise reasons the US ignored racism in our nation from after the Civil war with Jim Crow south until the civil rights and voting rights acts in 1964 & 1965.
You clearly think that this works …over another hundred years, perhaps.. but probably not since wh’re still as racist a nation as we have ever been.
But you never did describe ‘the problem” Ahll you said was not calling people racists who are racists makes for better relations between racists and those that oppose them. I’m sure it does… it lets racists off the hook,, but it doesn’t keep the racism by racists shoved squarely and repeatedly in their face.
If racists don’t like being called out for what they are why is that? Are they embarrassed by being racists? Do they think its a pejorative term being applied to them? If they think it’s a pejorative term then they don’t like being called a racist.so clearly they either don’t think they’re racists or they know they’re racists but don’t like being publically called out for what they are but won’t publically admit.
Please tell me how a racist isn’t pernicious.. a racists is harmful no matter how you want to cut it…. if they vote for reps and senators who support racist policies they are very, very harmful.
A racist who’s not pernicious is an oxymoron.
And why prey tell do you think that calling a racist a racist “…. allows people who have learned to say “racist” at every opportunity to not bother to think about the real problems.”
What makes you think this? The “real problem” is in fact “racism” and racists practice it…. so racists ARE the “real problem” causing and permitting, and maintaining racism..
Or do you think racism is NOT the real problem? If so then wtf do you think the real problem with racism is? BE specific in your considered response. And don’t give me the reasons why it persists as the “real problem”.. like “becoming better informed”, which is an example of a potential solution to the problem (which hasn’t worked anyway by the means so far pursued) — and they’re not pursed at all by racists in any event who are the “real problem”.
You make no sense Coberly. You’re using double talk to excuse raacists.
e
Longtooth
there is no point continuing this. you draw conclusions from what i said that bear no resemblance to what i was saying. Any attempt on my part to correct your inferences will just call forth more misunderstanding.
But I will say, in case anyone who cares is listening, I do not “excuse” racists. I merely point out that shouting “racist” at them does not solve the problem.
and, in case everybody missed it and has turned on the ballgame.
When you get rid of Trump, you will have Pence, Ryan…and all the other Republicans who know how to talk nice while they are raping your mother, your daughter, your grandmother and your dog.
If your only tool is a hammer then everything looks like a nail.
Have you ever been to Senegal? How about the Democratic Republic of Congo?
You’re assuming that places are shitholes because of the color of people’s skin. Who’s the racist?
Sorry, maybe I should point out white shitholes. Albania, Moldova, ever been to Bulgaria?
Of course denigrating countries because of their wealth is completely immoral. But I think we can all agree that we know the President is an immoral, inarticulate ignoramus. However there are shithole countries but that has nothing to do with the skin color of those country’s inhabitants.
Sorry LJ:
He said what he said: “Why are we having all these people from shithole countries come here?” He is not talking about vegetables.
Run
Look, I don’t like Trump. I think he is very dangerous for the country. I am convinced he is a racist. But he need not have been thinking of those countries in racist terms. Their poverty and mismanaged is enough to earn them the epithet, however crude. This doesn’t mean that denying immigrants from those countries is either wise or decent. The hardest working and most entrepreneurial people I know in my little town are first generation immigrants from Mexico
But Trump would be just as dangerous… more dangerous… whether he is a racist or not. Paul Ryan is more dangerous, because he talks nice. Look at what the Republicans are doing to the country while we all scream about his racism.
Calling a racist a racist does not solve the problem, not even the effects of racism, and it certainly does nothing to counter the effects of the current Republican program to turn America into something like 18th century France.
Politicians like to get the people shouting at each other. It distracts their minds from what the politicians are doing to them.
According to a 2013 Pew study 96% of Senegalese believe homosexuality should not be accepted by society. Senegal law forbids homosexuality. UNICEF says 26% of Senegalese women have undergone genital mutilation. Public sanitation is virtually non-existent outside of Dakar. Westerners are instructed not to even touch the water.
None of this has anything to do with race.
non sequitur and do not clutter up my post please.
Now is the time to have people knocking on doors to get people out to vote. Daily that idiot in the White House is destroying this country he’s a stupid idiot whom has nothing but hatred in his heart for this country & its people. Trump is daily destroying our reputation no other person is going to be able to erase the damage done. Why are reporters reporting the TRUTH but people are ignoring them it’s time we listen to reporter & make a move at the election booth. Ignore everything coming from Fox News they should be taken off the air they report nothing but lies to please a crazy old fool who was given the election he didn’t win anything. People it’s time we fight taking our country back from that lunatic allowed in the White House & those spineless republicans who do absolutely nothing & are getting paid for it this is how republicans are making America Great again by destroying it.
Frank:
Welcome to Angry Bear. First time comments always go to moderation to weed out the spammers and the advertising.
Original post was in January. This is July.
But it does illustrate a point I keep trying and failing to make:
Currently the American public is justly outraged at Trump for taking children away from their mothers at the border.
Instead of demanding that the policy stop instantly, and the children be returned instantly, and not returned to jails (with their mothers)… and backing up the demand with cutting Trumps funding
we find ourselves talking about “racism” and abortion… all important issues… but not the most pressing at the moment.
The Democrats are NOT providing effective leadership, and the Republicans are hiding behind the noise while continuing to destroy the country.
We need to stop the Republicans from destroying the country… turning it into something like Mussolini’s Italy… but we have no leaders, and the people (us) run around in hysterical circles mooing loudly at our old designated boogeymen while the babies are suffering every minute and will be damaged forever.
If we focused on this outrage we would win, and it would make us stronger for the next battle.