[lbo-talk] Are Conservatives Racist?

Joanne Landy joanne.landy at igc.org
Thu Aug 18 18:54:43 PDT 2011


From a conservative website defending conservative Senator Tom Coburn against the charge of racism, is the following transcript of Coburn's remarks in Oklahoma yesterday. http://newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2011/08/18/matthews-falsely-accuses-sen-coburn-making-racist-remark-about-obama ---Joanne

Asked if he thinks Obama's policies show he wants to destroy the country, Coburn said:

"No, I don't... He's a very bright man. But think about his life. And think about what he was exposed to and what he saw in America. He's only relating what his experience in life was...

"His intent isn't to destroy. It's to create dependency because it worked so well for him. I don't say that critically. Look at people for what they are. Don't assume ulterior motives. I don't think he doesn't love our country. I think he does.

"As an African American male, coming through the progress of everything he experienced, he got tremendous benefit through a lot of these programs. So he believes in them. I just don't believe they work overall and in the long run they don't help our country. But he doesn't know that because his life experience is something different. So it's very important not to get mad at the man. And I understand, his philosophy "there's nothing wrong with his philosophy other than it's goofy and wrong [laughter] -- but that doesn't make him a bad person."

At 07:48 AM 8/18/2011 -0400, you wrote:
>The question is what role race places in the complex medley that motivates
>the Tea Party. The fact that mainstream liberalism focuses on race is more
>telling.
>
>The WISER report doesn't tell me anything. "Blacks would be just as well off
>as Whites if they tried harder" is the type of statement that Seth deals
>with in his "Liberals and Racism" piece, which he already linked ot:
>http://jacobinmag.com/summer-2011/liberals-and-racism/
>
>To me it reflects a certain brand of capitalist ideology prevalent all
>across the U.S. ideological spectrum. The greatest proponent is that great
>"racist" admonisher of young black men, Barack Obama.
>
>On Thu, Aug 18, 2011 at 7:19 AM, Barry Finger
><barryfinger at earthlink.net>wrote:
>
> > Material in supporting the contention of Tea Party racism are not all that
> > difficult to find. Here are links to such research that predate the Notre
> > Dame study.
> >
> >
> > http://depts.washington.edu/uwiser/racepolitics.html
> >
> > http://mobile.salon.com/news/feature/2010/05/03/race_and_the_tea_party
> >
> > Barry
> > Sent from my iPhone
> >
> > On Aug 17, 2011, at 11:56 PM, SA <s11131978 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > On 8/17/2011 11:48 PM, Joanne Landy wrote:
> > >
> > >> Bhaskar, what do you make of the piece by David Campbell and Robert
> > Putnam in today's New York Times, "Crashing the Tea Party,"
> > http://nyti.ms/pFHk5r which argues that Tea Partiers "are overwhelmingly
> > white, but even compared to other white Republicans, they had a low regard
> > for immigrants and blacks long before Barack Obama was president, and they
> > still do."
> > >
> > > I read that piece with interest but was hoping for some actual data. They
> > offered no data, and none can be found on their websites. You might consult
> > a piece in the current Jacobin:
> > http://jacobinmag.com/summer-2011/liberals-and-racism/
> > >
> > > SA
> > >
> > > ___________________________________
> > > http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
> >
> >
> > ___________________________________
> > http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk
> >
>___________________________________
>http://mailman.lbo-talk.org/mailman/listinfo/lbo-talk



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list