Cowardice and Racism

I think we’re witnessing the Great Fear Backlash of 2009. Racism is the bastard stepchild of Fear and Ignorance, and Republicans have known this since they turned white southern Americans into their new base by exploiting both these traits in their politics. And since 9/11, as Bob’s book will tell you in great detail, Fear has been the chief export of Fat White Douchebags like Rush Limbaugh.But now I think we’re seeing what happens to a Party forged in fear when that which they fear the most is suddenly calling the shots. I would argue that Racism is the Republican party’s organizing principle, whether they know it or not. Opposition to welfare, universal health care and other entitlement programs has little to do with fiscal responsibility; we’ve seen how they spend money when the object is to reduce the number of Brown People on the planet, so that argument is out. They simply don’t want their white dollars paying for brown causes. And now they’re absolutely shitting their pants with fear.So let them. Rush Limbaugh will prove to be the last village idiot standing on the highest of Rome’s burning battlements long after even Nero has put down the fiddle and made with the bucket brigading, shouting to no one that everything’s fine, that fire won’t burn you, that smoke is as breathable as air. His fear will eat him from the inside out, as it does all racists. He’s finished, and he knows it.

He earned his rebuke and dismissal from ESPN over the Donovan McNabb comments. A qualified commentator would have recognized the fruits of McNabb’s talent. It’s like Rush went out of his way to create a racial issue out of it.

on that whole McNabb thing, Limbaugh proved himself to be nothing more than a white Al Sharpton (sorry Sharpton fans). Limbaugh is a race-baiter. He’s obsessed with it. He was given the privalege of being an NFL commentator on ESPN and couldn’t even get through one taping without making a racially divisive comment. I recall watching it live and yelling “WHAT??!!” and being amazed that no one else in the studio took him to task at that very moment (Irvin? Tom Jackson?). It was a remark that made no sense given that when it was made there were already 7 starting QB’s in the league who were African American and some, like Kordell Stewart, certainly weren’t getting any favorable treatment in the sports media despite his skin color. To paraphrase Limbaugh’s comment, he stated that the media had overrated McNabb because he was black, and that the “liberal” sports media (there is one?) just wanted a black quarterback to succeed. As if, prior to that, none had (he conveniently forgot about guys like Doug Williams, Warren Moon, and Randall Cunningham). If McNabb was overrated, it had NOTHING to do with him being black. Lots of quarterbacks are overrated (Eli Manning anyone?), and it has nothing to do with their skin color. But Limbaugh, as a racist always does, has to make it about race. That’s not courageous honesty, it’s simple-minded diviseness, which is of course what Limbaugh specializes in.

Limbaugh knew exactly what he was doing. He was well aware that bringing up McNabb’s race would get him in trouble but in his racist oxycontin filled mind, it just HAD to be said. It was worth getting fired over.It was obviously just about the most disturbing thing to him in the NFL that a black quarterback would have any kind of success, never mind the fact that McNabb has been one of the most scrutinized QBs in football ever since he was drafted 10 years ago.I imagine Rush’s dismay when Doug Williams led the Redskins to a Super Bowl win and when Warren Moon was the most prolific passer of his time. Rush’s whole point is, “black people aren’t smart. How can they lead? They’re physically gifted because we bred them as slaves. That’s the only reason we allowed them in our country in the first place.”